Joe Maxx Coffee Co. Denver

Joe Max Coffee Company right here on Federal Street in downtown Youngstown is downtown's first independent coffee shop. It's been here for two years. Mike Avey is the owner and Mike why Joe Max Coffee? Well I wanted to go into the coffee business and start a chain of coffee stores and I was looking for what I consider to be an underserved neighborhood or community and there was nothing downtown here for people to have coffee, light food, salads and that and great coffee so it was a perfect fit. Basically looked at all the available property downtown, thought that this was the best location for me to go into and about two years ago right about this time we actually started the building process to this a couple months to get the place built out and we opened up right before Thanksgiving it'll be two years this Thanksgiving. And where did the name come from? Well I didn't want the coffee shop to be myself so I basically came up with the name Joe Max Coffee in the backstory that Joe was a war two pilot then after the war he wanted to keep flying so he bought a surplus plane from the Army Air Corps, was flying coffee by the Sea of His Pants from Central America through Cuba to the United States. This is a made up story? This is completely made up. Then as he came over the coast this is back in the 50s the plane lost power he bellied it down, crashed the plane, ruined the plane, didn't have money to buy a new one so he went into town, got pots and cups, came back and started brewing the coffee. Now in the morning you sell pastries with your coffee and you have a really grist lunch business. How did you determine what kind of foods would work in such a small space? Well we when we came downtown the first thing I did was I literally had lunch in almost every place that was available for downtown and decided that I wanted to have a very healthy alternative lunch but that was still fun enough and fast enough that people would want to eat it and we basically came up with a line of salads and wrap sandwiches and croissant sandwiches that featured grilled chicken, a lot of vegetables, we have a great produce provider, we use all green leaf lettuce and romaine so we have great lettuce as a base to our salads and our wraps and that great meats and cheeses and that we also during the fall winter and spring we feature two to four soups a day and in the downtown business crowd has really flocked. Chris North is the barista here at Joe Max and you are award-winning. I am the 13th highest rated in 2011 by the regional standards. In the nation or the state of Ohio. In Ohio. Now how do you get that distinction? I used to work at a specialty coffee shop out in Kitton actually and while I was there actually we started a competition team and went to the regional competition New York City in 2011 and I got ranked 13. And what did they judge you on? You create your own specialty espresso blend, you make just using your own roasted copies, you create your own specialty drink and you have to be able to pour two eight ounce cappuccinos using one pitcher with latte cart. Storage. Okay. What is the optim I just want to keep it in like a 60 to 70 degree dry room in a small maybe like a vacu You want to keep it stored in whole bean form otherwise as soon as you open the package you start losing freshness and when you grind it you lose freshness almost immediately. So it is best to grind before each time you make it. Absolutely. So if you were to grind Right. Give me one of your best coffee drinks. Okay. What's it called? The Colacci Latte. Okay. It's using a mix of different nut and honey flavors with a little vanilla and some cinnamon and topped with whipped cream, honey and roasted nuts and it's one of our. . . And what kind of coffee base do you use? Espresso. Alright well let's get started on that. Alright.