Crowns for Kings and Queens of Coffee Bars

IT’S a good thing Sam Penix likes his hat.

The brown trilby Mr. Penix wears when pulling shots at Everyman Espresso, the tiny coffee bar he owns, is more than just an expression of personal style. He sees it as a necessity.

Line 6A of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Food Service Establishment Inspection Worksheet says, “Effective hair restraint not worn in an area where food is prepared” is a “critical offense,” a five-point violation, the same as having evidence of live rats or cooking partly frozen chicken.

The health department says the rule applies to anyone who extensively handles food. But Mr. Penix said Everyman was cited in 2009 for having a worker “making espresso without a proper hair restraint” and other coffee bars say they’ve had similar citations. Cooks wear hats; waiters don’t. Neither do bartenders. Baristas say they’re being singled out for enforcement, something the department denies.

But whether or not the crackdown is real, every barista in town seems to be putting on a hat because of the regulations. Rather than protesting, they are making fashion statements.

While a baseball cap would let Nicole Slaven, the owner of Dora, fulfill any legal requirements, she puts on a “mood altering” forest green cloche that she says makes her feel more “polite and refined.”

Adam Schleimer, of Joe, wears a dark blue kepi, a Civil War hat that suits his 19th-century beard; Trevor Dunaway, who works in a Van Leeuwen Artisanal Ice Cream coffee truck, covers his mohawk with a wool newsboy.

At Stumptown Coffee Roasters at the Ace Hotel, where the natty staff has elevated the industry’s sartorial standards, headgear is a look-book of classic haberdashery: porkpies and pageboys, bowlers and berets.

Many of Stumptown’s hats were gifts from Stetson. A sales representative who stops in for coffee supplies the coffee bar with a cache of fedoras and Milans.

Sometimes, the hat fits the setting. Neal Olson and Peter Castelein, who operate Kickstand, a coffee bar that can be pedaled around town, wear cycling caps.

Other times, it’s pure spectacle, like the woodland-creature-size fake fur hat Andie Rishoi wears at Joe.

Regulation, though, can explain only part of the New York barista look. Nothing in the Food Service Establishment Inspection Worksheet applies to tattoos.

From: New York Times