Chalk it up to impertinent youthful exuberance. After all, it was exciting to see his father’s business grow into Salt Lake City’s most important center for fine food products from Italy and the southern European Diaspora as well as a major community nexus for education and information about food as it was intended to be in its most flavorful and honest form. Furthermore, it was fun to work with friends from school and the neighborhood – especially Troy Petersen, his best friend who has been with the main store since its most significant formative years.

Who doesn’t love an empire?

However, both young men also learned along the way the unique experience that is Caputo’s in Salt Lake City could not be replicated outside the community. A dedicated corps of family and friends has poured culinary heart and soul into making the business the best store as it possibly could be. And, as noted previously here in this blog, the family never would consider resting on its laurels. As one of just a handful of ‘outstanding retailer’ award winners last year from the North American Specialty Food Trade Association, the store’s owners and employees embrace completely the notion of continuous improvement.

While the new Caputo’s store in Salt Lake City’s 15th and 15th neighborhood is the culmination of dreams for two men who have been best friends since their childhood days, it also imparts an excellent lesson for any family business that might ever be tempted to spread its success as far and wide as possible.

Petersen exemplifies the best traits of Caputo’s solid employee lineup. “Growing up with them, I learned things 10 times faster than what was going on in school,” he explains. “It was easy to see the passion that went into the business.”

When the store put in a cheese cave in 2008, he became the affineur, mastering a scientifically tricky learning curve to get the most out of well more than 200 exquisitely fresh varieties of cheese in continuously calibrated ideal temperature and humidity conditions. It was a far cry from the store’s early days when Spanish manchego was the most exotic of the 18 to 20 cheeses carried.

However, the younger Caputo, now with his own young family, fully understood that his friend, married as well with two small children, rightly had expectations of carving out his own niche and creating his own legacy. Petersen went on to work with Creminelli Fine Meats and Sausage (whose products are carried at Caputo’s) guiding stores on how to display, discuss, and sell charcuterie products. Incidentally, the Altanta-based Portfolio Center Press has published a book ‘Meat, Salt, Time’ by Tony Seichrist examining the daily life of salami artisan Cristiano Creminelli.

In the meanwhile, Tony Caputo noticed a vacancy in the 15th and 15th neighborhood – home already to several locally owned excellent restaurants and a first-rate bookstore. “My dad always said that the best spot in the state to open a smaller store would be right here,” Caputo explains.

For Petersen, it was the outlet to becoming a partner and an investor. There, he could extend the already rich symbiotic relationship he had cultivated with the family and his colleagues at the downtown location. “For me, it is a labor of love,” he explains. “I always thought this would be the right platform for creating a friendly stomping ground for the neighborhood,” adds Petersen, who lives just three blocks from the store.

And, hardly surprising, the new 1,600-square-foot store, which includes deli service and uses wind energy in line with the sustainability model of its larger counterpart downtown, has been bustling since its soft opening this summer. “Workers renovating the store told me that neighbors were anxiously pressing them about when the store would be ready,” Peterson says. Likewise, Petersen and his staff worked on an intensive four-week training regimen so that employees would be ready to answer any conceivable customer question.

For some neighbors, whose busy schedules do not allow them to go downtown as often as they might like, the new location has been their first interaction with Caputo’s well-storied line of cheese, chocolate, charcuterie, olive oil, vinegars, and honey. “We’ve even had some customers who brought visitors directly from the airport here to the new store,” Petersen adds. Soon, the new store also will offer classes like those featured downtown and an expanded sandwich menu. Wine and beer also will be offered once a liquor license becomes available, rarely a timely process in Utah these days.

Taking product volume into consideration, the new store also boosts the strategic potential of the Caputo’s capacity to extend and diversify their product offerings especially as the critical mass of fresh, sustainable, honest foods grows and consumer palates become increasingly discriminating about the quality and taste of products.

OTHER CAPUTO NEWS

Caputo’s wildly popular food classes resume Sept. 27 with a fall slate that will touch on everything from chocolate to cheeses and pairings with wine and beer as well as a cooking with chocolate class (to be conducted with Vanessa Chang, one of SLC’s best-known food writers and bloggers). The class will focus on savory dishes, with historical roots going back four centuries, that incorporate chocolate.

When it comes to outstanding food products, in the nearly 40 classes offered each year, Matt Caputo makes it easy for people to take the metaphoric red pill made famous in The Matrix. For example, in the introductory chocolate tasting classes, with as many 80 people attending at a time, Caputo quickly dispenses with the famed name pretenders, revealing their paltry content of true chocolate and extensive use of artificial ingredients. And, then he introduces participants to the wonders of Chocolatier Blue, Amano Chocolate, Amedei, and others that are now part of a distinguished collection available at the store.

Caputo’s has shaped the classes as an integral part of its larger mission of creating a local food enterprise that is sustainable, accessible, and affordable and that celebrates why truly fresh, environmentally responsible ingredients comprise the cornerstone of outstanding cuisine.

Indeed, the Caputo family has demonstrated why its tasting and cooking classes have become the essential ingredient in its branding, tied directly to preserving a centuries-old tradition of southern European and Italian cuisine and food products. The classes not only serve the needs equally of the gourmet foodie and the thrifty consumer but they also orient the store’s employees at the front line to be effective guides for the customer’s specific needs.

“Our customers deserve that we are honest and it makes no sense to try and do the hard sell of the most expensive products,” he explains. For example, the classes are designed to help consumers navigate with an increasing sense of confidence the imposing selection of olive oils available. Rightly so, Caputo breaks the products into manageable categories ranging from least expensive to most expensive, paralleling the best ways to use them.

The classes also are a good channel for understanding how globalization has shaped the food economy, especially in the ways in which pure, honest, simple cultural food traditions are being standardized, repackaged, and sold utterly different from their origins.

The cost per class is a highly reasonable $25 with a wine pairing available at an extra $15. Cooking classes are $45 with a wine pairing available at an extra $15. For more information, see here.

Just in the last 20 years alone, more than 100,000 small retailers across the country have closed, giving way to big-box supermarkets that typically carry as many as 40,000 items in massive spaces of 60,000, 70,000, or more square feet.

Happily, Sotiriou, a pharmacist and third-generation owner, along with members of his family have kept this charming market intact. And, with larger numbers of downtown SLC residents who increasingly eschew the big-box retail experience in favor of locally grown produce, milk, eggs, meat and other products that support area farmers and reduce the environmental footprint, Sotiriou has enlisted the help of Kathie Chadbourne, formerly the owner of Avenue’s Bakery, to change the store’s dynamic to meet precisely this demand.

In a short time, Chadbourne, whose network of contacts with local food producers, suppliers, and growers unquestionably is comprehensive and diverse, has effected quite an encouraging transformation in less than two and a half months.

Already, more than 50 local food producers are represented in the store with products ranging from Beehive Cheese to Heritage Valley Organics poultry to Canyon Meadows Ranch beef and Morgan Valley Lamb and from Amano’s prize-winning chocolates to buttery cookies, velvety cupcakes, and in-house pastries including galettes adorned with fresh fruit and nuts. The store also offers a solid sampling of Rico’s products and makings for a freshly baked pizza as well as other ethnic food items including those representing Sotiriou’s Greek heritage. And, with Utah’s peak growing season now in full force, customers will see fresh, organic produce in the colorful display near the front of the store.

Sandwiches, salads, and soups – including a sweetly fragrant tomato and basil offering – are made in house and have been consistently flying out the door. With extended hours, the store has been drawing new clientele just from being open during major events such as the recent Pride festival and the monthly downtown art gallery evening strolls.

The store, which still offers traditional grocery and nonfood staples for the convenience of its downtown customers, has also received a cosmetic facelift that certainly has warmed the experience of casually strolling the aisles checking out the unusual mix of products, including the intriguingly nostalgic packages of Fentimans’ botanically brewed soft drinks. And, of course, the full-service pharmacy is available as usual.

Customers also will notice artifacts retrieved from basement storage such as an antique vault, a display case, and a huge weathered chopping block, now proudly standing amid the retail section where Mediterranean olive oils are displayed and where some of the store’s product samplings are offered. The southeast corner of the store now features a bright display of food-related art which has the functional aesthetic of suggesting another new store service – assembling customized food gift baskets per individual tastes.

The rejuvenated Broadway Urban Market bears watching especially as it parallels an equally rejuvenating trend in terms of small-based farmers and local food producers, such as Butcher’s Bunches, a Cache Valley based family operation that is producing phenomenal fruit jams and jellies. In the United States, farmers’ markets have doubled in numbers just during the last decade and while many participate in these venues, small urban-based stores such as the Broadway present yet another promising channel to distribute and sell their goods.

And, likewise for shoppers in search of fresh organic produce or locally-made products that follow an environmentally sustainable model, the Broadway store fills a niche especially for those who might not be able to make it regularly to a farmers’ market.

Furthermore, certainly as Sotiriou’s grandfather discovered in the late 1940s, a demand is created just by virtue of the store’s existence – acting as a welcoming hub for a changing community that not only appreciates the options for making socially conscious choices to buy locally but for the easy walkable access to have those options.

As Sotiriou has discovered, with the help of Chadbourne and others, it does make a difference.

In the brutal economy of 2009 – where the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau (SLCVB) saw its public sector budget cut by 15 percent, corporate meeting bookings declined significantly, and traditional advertising was trimmed by more than three-fourths – Scott Beck, president and CEO of the SLCVB, says the commercial reminds him of just what needed to be done in hard times.

“We didn’t adjust down our goals,” he says, “and we worked to strengthen our perception among current and potential clients.” And, the results – fueled by an enthusiastic and holistic sales approach combined with a shift in emphasis to smart public relations and social media tactics – point to a lot of future success with an expanding slate of new and prominent convention bookings – all while the bureau has learned to live with a significantly leaner budget, even slimmer than last year. In 2009, the SLCVB’s 25th anniversary year, indeed, turned out pretty well despite the economic hits.

And while some of its counterparts in the industry are struggling to regain their positions after a period of abrupt retrenchment, the SLCVB is leveraging wisely its positive capital from major gatherings in Salt Lake City such as the highly successful Meeting Professionals International’s (MPI) world education congress last year. Already the SLCVB has captured a bit of the front-end halo effects of the MPI gathering. In 2016, the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) and The Center for Association Leadership’s annual meeting and exposition – considered the “Super Bowl” of conventions – will be held in Salt Lake City.

Despite initial skepticism about the city’s suitability to host the 2012 Republican National Convention – which could bring in as many as 40,000 to 45,000 people – Salt Lake City was among three of the 22 potential sites selected to be a finalist, joining the much larger cities of Tampa and Phoenix. The fact that the city is a serious contender for such a high-profile event speaks to the SLCVB’s effective positioning in competing with destination venues both large and small when it comes to the meeting and convention industry.

In 2009, the SLCVB booked near $160 million in new convention business for future years and it represents a broad range of industry and trade interests. This year, SLC will host the annual meeting of the Western Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus, representing more than 140 organizations throughout the West and Canada. In 2011, for the fourth time in history, the city will host the high-profile National Governors Association’s annual meeting. In 2012 and 2016, the city will host the annual conference of the Association of Computing Machinery/Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Supercomputing (ACM/IEEE SC). During this conference, the Salt Palace will be home to the most powerful unclassified computing network in the world.

The SLCVB also has proven to be quite agile should a switch in venue be needed. The 2012 NACE International gathering – expected to draw more than 6,000 engineers specializing in corrosion control – was originally slated for Seattle but Salt Lake City won out over Phoenix and St. Louis when the convention bid was reopened. The Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Expo, which had scheduled its meeting in Reno for 2011, switched to Salt Lake City and may do so again in 2013 and 2015.

In 2017, the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League will hold its biennial convention in SLC. Other booked meetings as a result of 2009 activity include the American Association of Equine Practitioners and the Porsche Club of America.

In fact, being weaned from the comfortable platform of traditional media advertising, the SLCVB used personally targeted efforts to hit every performance measure for tourism sales in 2009 – for example, attending 15 tourism industry trade shows, making numerous outside sales calls, conducting more than three dozen site inspections with potential group and package tour clients, hosting 10 familiarization trips, making more than 300 substantive calls to solicit new business, generating more than 100 new business leads, and making hundreds of referrals related to the tourism and hospitality industry.

Also central to consolidating the most enduring perceptions of its brand has been the SLCVB’s commitment to a user-friendly website that is proving to be essential in these direct-contact efforts, supported as well by Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

In terms of marketing, sales of the Visit Salt Lake Connect Pass have been so successful (hitting 190 percent of the 2009 target) that the SLCVB recently has expanded the pass program to include a year-round option. Individual pass prices start at $24 ($20 for children; $22 for senior citizens) for a single day and range up to $69 for the 365-day option. There also are 2-day and 3-day options with the pass.

With 13 top attractions available on the pass, families may choose to stay downtown and take in a show at the Clark Planetarium, go hands on at Discovery Gateway and then enjoy a buffet lunch at the historic Lion House Pantry. They could visit Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort for a scenic tram ride and spend an afternoon at Utah’s Hogle Zoo.

With all of the nearby amenities widely recognized by consistently loyal groups of tourists, skiers, bikers, hikers, mountain recreation enthusiasts, and amateur and professional genealogists, the success of the Connect Pass program — along with the SLCVB’s extensive personally focused efforts — reflects just how well Salt Lake City has been able to hold more than its own in a convention and hospitality market significantly altered by the deepest recession in decades.

For more information about the SLCVB, see here.

The price comparison is interesting but not nearly as important as one might be led to believe.

There’s been a lot of media chatter about a new wave of frugality and references to “value” consumers but, as usual, few talking heads ever take the effort to explain what they mean by “value.” Take, for example, the following statements provided by the Hartman Group, a consumer research consulting film, which underscore the problem:

“At the end of the day, smart leading brands are engaging consumers in a new value conversation.”

“This newly conservative shopper demands solutions that help them feed, clothe and take care of their families based on a new definition of value.”

However, if you’re thinking that the fundamental value proposition has changed for consumers, guess again. Surveying a research-solid random sample of 1,000 consumers, the Hartman Group found that when it comes to evaluating a product or service for value, the most important attribute is that it works well or tastes good. More than 80 percent cited that aspect as their most important consideration. Price does not emerge as a benchmark until the sixth factor in consideration. Indeed, the performance of two firms would suggest just how wrong the conventional wisdom has been and just how compellingly realistic the Hartman numbers are. In the fourth quarter last year, WalMart’s same-store sales dropped 1.6 percent from the previous year. Whole Foods saw its same-store sales rise 2.5 percent in the same period.

And, as I was enjoying an immensely satisfying and comforting plate of pasta graced generously with soft sweet clam pieces in an olive-oil sauce, I realized that any conversations we should be having about value must always start and end with the issues of quality.

Caputo’s, with its rightly earned stripes as one of the top 10 food retailers as named by the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, has artfully played its role in this conversation. And, it’s rightly timed as more consumers continue to shift gradually their shopping focus toward a more widely accessible range of fresh food products that are local, artisanal, and premium in every aspect of quality and value.

On any given day, the daytime deli operations at Caputo’s will serve more than 500 lunches and, I assume, as the weather improves and the evenings become more inviting for a casual dining experience, the nighttime dinner service will grow as it most certainly should. The menu features familiar classics such as Penne Arrabbiata and Chicken Parmigiano and guests can still get any of the sandwiches, with garnish and pasta salad for $8.95. Five different Italian classic pasta dishes come with soup or salad and grilled garlic bruschetta for $10.95. Hot dishes like Grilled Halibut Melograno start at $13.95 and come with pasta, soup or salad and grilled garlic bruschetta. There are a few appetizers, but these entrees are designed to be full hearty meals. The wine and beer list continues that right balance between price and quality with a pleasantly surprising range of diversity.

Consider the price as a pleasant little bonus. However, consider the first-class quality, which becomes visible in so many small and large ways during a dining experience at Caputo’s by Night. There always is the temptation to try and classify customers to fit particular designations, categories, and terms. Definitely, there is the satisfying sense of a well-prepared, wholesome meal. However, especially in an age where the restaurant and food market is crammed with confusing claims about freshness, authenticity, and organic products, there is also the awareness of Caputo’s genuine acknowledgement that even as consumers — who have many different motivations — might prefer lower prices, quality always leads the way with respect to value.

The cave, little more than 500 square feet in total, is essential to a cheese’s affinage, its aging process, which means that Caputo’s can bring in, for example, whole wheels and rounds of European and Alpine cheeses steeped in centuries-old traditions of indigenous, handmade, single-farm products distinguished by unique terroir characteristics.

However, the store also is beginning to feature spectacular cheeses from enterprising farms in Utah, California, Vermont, Wisconsin, Indiana and other locations. As the store lays the groundwork for building a second cheese cave, Caputo’s is looking toward an affinage partnership with Utah’s Beehive Cheese Company as a small test model to see if the success of Vermont’s cheese cooperative, the Cellars at Jasper Hill, and similar ventures is achievable in Salt Lake City.

The cheese cave is a notable success because, as Matt Caputo explains, Utah is among the worst places to age cheese. The cave requires 90 to 100 percent humidity at nearly all times, no small feat in Utah’s dry desert climate. And, cheeses are temperamental because mold spores and other contaminants can infiltrate the cave even despite the strict vigilance and procedures maintained inside the facility.

There are plenty of benefits to be realized. Cheese buying at Caputo’s is a distinct customer-friendly process. First, customers get as much as they want or need from a particular cheese. Some may flinch at paying $20 or more per pound for some cheeses but once one realizes just how much taste and flavor can be obtained at $5, $8, or $10, the price-quality-value paradigm is readily evident. And, there are quite a few cheeses, as outlined below, that are spectacular bargains in the $12-$15 per pound range.

Second, customers can sample cheeses and receive good tips about how to serve, store at home, and use in cooking. Many of the cheeses stand simply on their own, needing nothing more than a glass of wine, a piece of fruit, or a piece of bread or cracker. They are elementally spectacular.

The following are current selections of particular note. This list, by no means, should be considered comprehensive. However, they exemplify what has been made possible in this program of excellence.

The Gourmino Gruyere ($19.95 per pound) from Switzerland won first place in the 2008 World Cheese Championships but one does not need to be a trained judge or aficionado to see why this product’s toasted, nutty and floral notes work equally well alone on a cheese plate or melted for a recipe. A cooperative group of Brown Swiss cow dairy farmers – some with herds as few as five animals – transport their raw milk twice daily to a certified cheese maker. The 80-pound wheels are aged first locally and then at a larger facility in Langnau until they mature at nine to twelve months. Caputo says the cheese is especially noted for its low acidity and salt content.

Another cow’s milk cheese, which actually is aged an extra three months in Caputo’s facility, is the Comte Juraflore Legende ($21.95 per pound), which is normally aged for a year. Les Trois Comtois makes this cheese – quite creamy and nutty in taste – and the cheese carries the green band indicating the French’s highest AOC (appelation d’ origine controlee) approval.

A consistent characteristic of the European cheeses carried at Caputo’s is that their producers are relative newcomers who have expertly adapted practices that are at least hundreds of years old. A Fontina ($18.95 per pound) from the Italian Alpine producer Fromagerie La Haut Val d’Ayas is like the Gruyere noted above, perfect alone or incorporated in a recipe. Opened in 2002, the cooperative works with 65 local farmers and uses more than 2 million liters of milk annually to produce some 18,000 pounds of cheese.

Taking advantage of their learning curve, the Caputos have managed to use affinage to not only get better results from their Chaource ($9.95 per unit) and Le Chatelain Camembert ($15.95 per unit) but also to lower their prices by at least a third if not more than what they previously offered or what were the prices at other markets.

As noted previously in the Selective Echo:

Chaource, which hails from the Champagne region of northeastern France, is, in some respects, France’s answer to the La Tur of Italy’s Piedmont region. Having the cave has given Matt and his colleagues the opportunity to offer this soft, creamy, mushroomy bloomy-rind cheese at its perfect ripeness. “French cheeses often present challenges in forecasting sales,” Matt says, “because the cheeses can either be too ripe or too young.”

In the cave, a young Chaource which is slightly sour with a fruity flavor touched with a small acidic tone matures within three and a half weeks into a small smooth, creamy, mushroomy round that will make cheese lovers forget about those wedges of brie found in most grocery store cheese displays.

Another Alpine cheese of great interest is northern Switzerland’s Försterkäse ($31.95 per pound), commonly called a lumberjack’s cheese because of the chocolate-colored pine bark used to bind it. This is the definitive example of umami with its briny white wine wash and the spicy wood notes that have all of that wonderful vacherin complex qualities without the typical pungency of washed rind cheeses from France. This cheese is versatile in its wine pairings, including pinot noirs and Rieslings and virtually everything in between.

The American-made cheeses – representing clearly the top 0.1 percent of farmstead producers — featured at Caputo’s are well worth the excitement.

The O’Banon ($13.95 per unit), made at the Capriole farm in southern Indiana, is a phenomenal American take on the banon cheese that’s been made forever in France’s Haute Provence. It is distinct in several important ways. First, it is considerably lighter than the creamier, denser French version. Second, the chestnut leaves wrapped around the cheese are soaked in Woodford Reserve Bourbon instead of the traditional French eau de vie. Third, the name’s American flair pays tribute to a former Indiana governor.

As mentioned earlier, Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont not only produces its own highly respected cheeses but it also has become the affineur for many other of the state’s cheese makers, despite its comparatively small size. Constant Bliss ($9.95 per unit) was the result of a happy accident in a recipe that originally was intended to produce a Chaource cheese but ended up being nothing like a Chaource. It’s a deceiving product. The original impression is that it might be a double crème cheese but its extra creamy, buttery nature is from a slow-ripened lactic curd.

Another Jasper Hill cheese is the nutty and grassy Bayley Hazen Blue, which hints at a blend of La Peral or Valdeón. One of the cheeses from a Vermont producer aged by Jasper Hill is Landaff ($19.95 per pound), which is a versatile, easily accessible buttery cheese that works as well – if not better – than some of England’s finest cheddar cheeses.

One of the producers which approached tiny Jasper Hill was Cabot Creamery, perhaps Vermont’s best known cheese maker on a wide scale. As press reports from the time indicate, Cabot, hoping to piggyback on Jasper Hill’s success as a cheese artisan, asked the small farm to age nearly 200 wheels of cheese, hoping then it could use its large retail market expertise to sell the product. However, Cabot only managed to sell a handful of wheels in a year so the Jasper Hill owners – brothers Andy and Mateo Kehler – tapped into their own customer base and moved all of the wheels in less than two weeks.

And, this is where the experience of aging comes critically into the economic equation and why customers at Caputo’s potentially enjoy better cheese prices than what might be available at markets throughout the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. In some instances, by working with suppliers and producers to ensure that quality control is being sustained in affinage, Caputo’s can continue the aging process in its facility especially when dealing with cheeses being made in small batches by enterprising farms such as Jasper Hill.

Furthermore, the Cabot experience motivated the Jasper Hill owners to serve as the affineur for owners of small farms who could potentially earn a much higher return on cheese making once they had the prohibitive labor-intensive costs of aging taken out of their economic models. The model thrives, as noted near the top of the article, in the form of the Cellars at Jasper Hill.

And, as for Cabot, its award-winning Clothbound Cheddar, wrapped in muslin, ($21.49 per pound) is available at Caputo’s. Milky and full of natural caramel notes with all of the appropriate texture one would expect from a traditional British cheddar, this is proof that even a large cheese producer can lay verifiable claim to offering a artisanal product.

Rounding out the hot offerings is Dunbarton Blue, a unique mashup of aged English-style cheddar and a rightly tempered injection of blue cheese mold. Made by Roelli Cheese Haus in Wisconsin, the cheese comes from pure grass-fed raw cow’s milk and is aged on cedar planks. Thanks to enthusiastic buzz at local farmer’s market, the cheese found supporters in Madison, Milwaukee, and Chicago at restaurants and local gourmet shops. Now, add Salt Lake City to the roster.

In Washington. D.C., as Congress finally gets to the challenge of passing comprehensive health insurance reform, a large immigration march was underway and by 2 p.m. today four blocks along the National Mall were filled with people. Today’s rallies across the nation are designed to propel this legislative process. Mark Alvarez, an attorney and member of the City Library Board, contributes the following which summarizes the principles behind these events. Alvarez and Tony Yapias, a key organizer for the 2006 and 2010 marches, host a Spanish-language radio show in Salt Lake City, which is never lacking for calls from listeners who have been concerned about the stalemate in the immigration reform debate.

Today, thousands of people marched in Salt Lake City for immigration reform. This stems from a Latino community meeting held two weeks ago. At that meeting, people told stories.

Ramiro, a seven-year-old boy, said he could visit family in Mexico then return but that his father could not. Strict immigration laws trap many undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

Alicia suggested that it was not enough to be informed. It was time to mobilize. The U.S. Census will soon show a sizable increase in the Latino community. The capacity and desire to organize is also growing.

Several people spoke about the need to come out of the shadows. Emi said it was necessary for immigrants of all types to excel. The U.S. provides opportunities to people with determination.

The English language is important here. In 2006, The Pew Hispanic Center asked Latinos how important it was to teach English to children in immigrant families. Foreign-born Latinos ranked this highest. It was very important to 96 percent of them.

Most foreign-born Latinos express respect for the symbols and culture of the U.S. They came here to do well and to do good for themselves, their families and our society. Why should a country oppose that?

Some have questioned the wisdom of a demonstration. At the community meeting on March 6, several hundred Latinos discussed this issue. After two hours of conversation, they voted unanimously for a march in favor of humane immigration reform. Hard-working, mostly quiet people decided inaction and silence were no longer options.

The priorities for reform comport with good politics and justice. Society needs open, respectful conversation about wise immigration policy. Insults on all sides should end.

The U.S. should have smart borders, secure against criminal activity, including the smuggling of undocumented immigrants, yet safe for commerce and an ordered flow of people.

Undocumented immigrants who meet certain criteria and demonstrate goodwill have earned the opportunity to stay on the path of the American dream. Continued isolation is unsustainable and harmful to U.S. values.

Immigration policies should facilitate faster reunification of families. Some spouses must wait more than 7 years for reunification. In several family categories, people wait from 10 to 22 years.

Employment-based policies should adjust to changing economic realities. When the economy is strong, worker visa availability should increase. Vice versa when the economy weakens.

Immigrant workers at all skill levels deserve respect. Recently, dairy farmers complained about the difficulty, perhaps impossibility, of finding enough American workers to fill jobs. Technology companies have long advocated increasing the number of visas for the highly skilled. Reform would stimulate the economy and enhance U.S. global competitiveness.

Genuine employment verification must be part of immigration reform. This verification should respect privacy. Implementation should not be onerous to businesses. Immigration processes ought to be cheaper and simpler. Forms need not ask newcomers if they intend to overthrow the U.S. government.

Finally, the U.S. would be well served through greater appreciation for and better integration of immigrants coming to join our society. The challenges we face are great, and we should work together to address them.

Owners John and Yiching Piquet will use a two-bean blend consisting of Brazil Sweet Yellow Bourbon from Daterra Farms and an El Salvador bean from Finca Matalpa, a fourth-generation family farm. John describes the blend as offering “sweet woody and spice notes ranging from caraway to anise that merge into a roasted peach/peach juice finish.” The Piquets roasted the coffees separated, using different profiles to highlight unique flavors from each bean. And, with a nod to their well-honed scientifically precise craft, they shipped a portion of the blend to Colorado so it could be acclimated to particular environmental conditions.

A veritable geekfest for true coffee aficionados, the competition comprises making and serving 12 drinks (four espresso, four cappuccino, and four signature drinks) in fifteen minutes. Scores center around the espresso as it is the heart of all the drinks. Baristas are judged on, among other things, flavor balance, mouth feel, crema color/consistency, proper texturing and ratio of milk, consistency of shots (timing, volume), coffee knowledge and passion, and overall performance.

Win, lose, or draw: The simple fact of Caffe d’bolla’s participation in this competition further underscores just how the Piquets have been able to cultivate awareness of coffee not as a mere afterthought but as a truly extraordinary beverage with a primary culinary status that matches wine, chocolate, cheese, and other foods that merit serious attention.

For more Selective Echo articles about this magnificent downtown gem, see here, here, here, and here.

A couple of epiphanies became readily apparent in the process that brought together more than 140 representatives from more than 80 companies in the outdoor recreation industry. There are no perfect metrics and whatever metrics are used, they should help tell ultimately the story to a consumer who wants to know just how much energy or water went into manufacturing the new pair of trail runners he or she just purchased and if the packaging for those shoes is effectively biodegradable.

“The initial feedback we got was that the draft guidelines were too confusing and cumbersome,” says Ken Stone, a member of the working group and product development manager at Black Diamond, an outdoor equipment manufacturer in Salt Lake City. “Through many iterations, we eventually came up with a set of documents that keeps the end consumer in mind and looks upstream into the supply chain.”

The guidelines are readable and accessible (e.g. five pages for the materials guidelines and three for packaging); as they should be for an industry mindful that proactive voluntary compliance hopefully will serve well as many companies increasingly find their organizational responsibilities go deeper into the supply chain not only with issues of environmental sustainability but also with those involving labor rights, fair trade and internationally recognized quality control standards.

Many of the more than 16,000 participants in the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market, now running at the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center in downtown Salt Lake City, will get a solid look at the materials and packaging guidelines that are part of the comprehensive ECO Index which the OIA will formally unveil in August.

The index – comprising guidelines, metrics, and indicators – will be a web-based, user-friendly tool with an a la carte approach that small startups of three employees or multinational companies with thousands of employees in different locations will find equally instructive and applicable, Amy Roberts, OIA’s vice president of governmental affairs, says. “The underlying assumption is to understand that no company could realistically achieve a perfect score but the intent is to make it operationally effective so that we can keep moving the bar upward and forward through the next few years.”

And, Roberts explains the index’s rollout is appropriately timed as the industry expects domestic and international governmental regulations to increase especially on environmental and labor practices. “Hopefully, we’ll be in a proactive position to demonstrate real-life examples that are being implemented and lead to workable standards without the need to make regulations unnecessarily cumbersome and which avoid the punitive economic effects for potential violations.”

The guidelines also reflect existing brand-neutral standards wherever possible so that companies can comfortably leverage research and practical experiences achieved in and out of the industry. Stone notes the group was acutely conscious of avoiding any superfluous, costly duplication of efforts that could confuse retailers and consumers in the end. In fact, each of the guideline sheets will include the following template language:

“[A]re qualitative principles and management practices, intended to be used as an educational tool, promoting continuous environmental improvement for companies and suppliers. They are intended to be more general in nature and provoke thought, further research, and questions. It is each company’s responsibility to apply these Guidelines in a way that is meaningful to their products and business.”

Stone says the working group’s process was consistently open and collaborative and the result is that many companies comfortably can adapt these guidelines to their own internal framework of management and operations. Roberts agrees, adding the Salt Lake City session will include panelists who already have implemented these guidelines. For example, Black Diamond has moved to FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified paper for its in-house manufactured product packaging.

In 2009, Novara Cycling, which is REI’s cycling brand, focused on eliminating unnecessary dunnage and maximizing the environmental impact of unit load capacities on containers. This included a pilot program incorporating Novara bike tubes into a shrink-wrap design that eliminated 98 percent of material used in previous designs. Novara bike accessories also are being customized with 60 percent less material than what was previously used.

Wisely so in keeping with the fundamental objective of making the index guidelines as flexible and as approachable for as many manufacturers and retailers alike, consumers will not see a reductible certifying score or comparable standardized “seal of approval.” The index’s breadth and depth are extensive with guidelines focusing not only on materials and packaging but also forthcoming documents on matters of transportation logistics, end of product life cycles, and manufacturing processes as well as metric lenses on toxicity of chemicals, waste, biodiversity, and land, water, and energy use. The index’s framework not only is conceptualized upon the interests of corporate accountability for environmentally sustainable practices but also those for branding and marketing decisions as individual companies see fit for reaching out and educating their core consumers.

For more information, see here.

Ever more frequently, Caffe d’bolla appears on the critic’s short list of must-visit food and beverage establishments in Salt Lake City (e.g. It was named among the ‘Best of the Beehive’ in the August 2009 issue of Salt Lake Magazine.). Indeed, the shop is a solid example of how superior local businesses not only sustain themselves but also thrive during challenging economic times.

There’s no mystery about why they have succeeded in perhaps one of the more unlikely cities for anticipating a great cup of coffee. The direct proof comes in the coffee — a cup of elemental purity so delicate, smooth and subtle yet so complex in its natural portfolio of aromas and taste. This, of course, comes from their mastery of the siphon-brewing technique and an offering of freshly-roasted single-origin, farm-specific coffee beans that assuredly cannot be found anywhere else in the city nor in the state (with the exception of Tony Caputo’s Market and Deli which carries Caffe d’bolla beans). And, Caffe d’bolla is perhaps one of just a dozen shops in the United States that can justifiably claim their expertise in siphon brewing.

And, to help mark the holiday season, Caffe d’bolla is offering several gift packages extraordinary not only for their quality but also for their price — showing value that will be remembered long after the holidays have passed.

Siphon Coffee Experience for Two

Sitting at the Caffe d’bolla coffee bar, one can readily see why the siphon brewing process is such an intensely sensory process and a great conversation starter. More importantly, the process means there is no residue whatsoever in the cup and the complete portfolio of flavors, notes, and properties of the freshly-roasted single-origin, farm-specific coffee bean is expressed with memorable results.

This might be the perfect gift to impress a family member or friend — a beginning or experienced coffee enthusiast — not only at the shop but also at home. A customer and a guest will each enjoy a single-origin siphon brewed coffee while learning the history of siphon brewing and siphon brewing techniques.

The experience will continue at home with a Tokio three-cup siphon brewer and two 12-ounce bags of freshly roasted whole bean coffee. The entire package, normally valued at $140, is being offered during the holiday season for just $100.

Caffe d’bolla asks that in order to provide the best siphon experience possible, this offering is available by reservation only, at least 48 hours in advance. See the bottom of this article for contact information.

Coffee Mill Special

This includes a ceramic conical burr coffee mill, a portable piece of precision equipment whose grinding capacities and features far outweigh those of comparably priced products found in many kitchen and culinary goods stores. The ceramic burrs will last a lifetime of grinding and adjusting the steps on the grinder is effortless. And, John explains it can be carried anywhere so grinding beans for fresh coffee should never be an issue.

For the holiday season, Caffe d’bolla is offering a phenomenally priced package: Customers can purchase the coffee mill as a set with a three-cup Tokio siphon brewer for only $85 or with a 36-ounce French press coffee maker for $70.

Gift Card Special

Along with its siphon-brewed coffee and espresso beverages, Caffe d’bolla offers a wide range of first-class teas and the ever-popular bubble tea drinks as well as seasonally appropriate offerings of homemade gelato and a limited list of food items. And, a gift card might be the most appropriate way to go. Customers who purchase a $50 gift card will receive a $5 store credit and those purchasing a $100 gift card will earn a $15 store credit.

Caffe d’bolla is located at 249 E 400 S in the street level of the Stoneground Restaurant Building, easily accessible from the Library Square TRAX station. For more information, call (801) 355-1398 or email caffedbolla@yahoo.com

If you’re looking for coffee jobs, BevForce.com is the best place to start.

For between $25 and $30, give or take the sales tax, one can assemble a package of truly phenomenal chocolate: An Amano Guayas bar, made in Orem featuring cacao beans indigenous to the Ecuadorean floodplains of the river named on the product; the beautifully balanced taste profile of the Italian-made Amedei Chuao bar, and a five-piece assortment of Chocolatier Blue’s creations in which every drop and every ingredient is naturally sourced, right down to the color of these confectionary masterpieces.

Chocolate does not have to be a pretentious fancy nor the representation of a default gift that one goes to, unable to think of anything specific to buy for someone on his or her gift list. Instead, the gift of food – especially when it comes from independent producers and makers who are as passionate about nurturing the sustainability of their farms and suppliers as they are about providing wholesome nutritious goods exceptional in quality and surprisingly reasonable in price – becomes a profound gesture. Heroes of the food industry — such as Amano’s Art Pollard in Orem, San Francisco’s Christopher Blue, and Alessio and Cecelia Tessieri of Italy’s Amedei — give consumers the capacity to add a meaningful touch of wholesome happiness and satisfaction to the holidays – if not to bring back a sense of humanity and sanity to the whole season.

In Utah, Amano has had an extraordinary year. It won five awards this year from the London Academy of Chocolate, which, in effect, translates to this local producer being represented in one-third of the top 15 chocolate products anywhere in the world. While its Madagascar bar has become synonymous with its growing reputation, Amano has created a new class of chocolate bar epitomized for its attention to masterful hand-crafting techniques. The Guayas bar, for example, is a 70 percent dark chocolate bar featuring an Ecuadorian cacao bean that is grown nowhere else on the planet. The bar’s floral aroma is exquisitely tempered with textured smoky notes along with nuanced flavors of green banana and blackberry. Other bars of spectacular note are the Ocumare, Jembrana, and Dos Rios.

Like Amano, Amedei has cultivated close relationships with plantations and farmers dedicated to producing single-origin beans of rare quality. For example, the Chuao is grown in the specific microclimate conditions of the Venezuelan area by this name. Matt Caputo’s appraisal is rhapsodic: “Its complex, layered flavor reveals notes of overripe red fruits, plums, and black cherries along with nuances of almonds and a creamy texture.”

He adds that the bar’s production is a first in the world because it was created using only the Chuao beans from Venezuela. “There is absolutely no cut with lower grade criollos, trinitario, or forestero,” he says.

At two dollars per piece, Blue’s chocolates are as affordable if not even more so than some of the best-known — and inferior — mass-produced name brands. And, to wit, all of his packaging follows the same rigorous set of environmentally-sustainable principles. His holiday season flavors available for only a limited time include: caramel, peanut butter & jelly, palet d’or, pistachio, sage honey, chili, hazelnut, lemon, passion fruit, apple cider, egg nog, gingerbread, pumpkin, cranberry with sage, peppermint, pear with thyme, flying goat coffee, chestnuts, grapefruit with rosemary, and rum-soaked currants.

With Blue and other great chocolate makers such as Amano and Amedei, knowledgeable consumers and bona fide connoisseurs of truly great chocolate believe the quality standards and the never-compromising commitment to exceptional natural ingredients make the price a genuine bargain. This is no idle assertion. A typical truffle from a well-known international outfit which positions itself as a gourmet chocolatier (hint: it starts with a “g”) costs as much (if not more) and its ingredient content is replete with artificial colorings, compounds, and flavorings. Meanwhile, Chocolatier Blue’s product follows its natural commitment right down to the coloring which is made from dehydrated fruits and vegetable skins.

The store’s chocolate collection is diverse and extensive, featuring some 275 different products and including well-known international chocolate makers such as Pralus, Domori, Michel Cluizel, and others.

And, gift certificates are available for chocolate tasting classes (offered at beginner’s, intermediate, and advanced levels). As for products such as cheese and chocolate, the classes are a good channel for understanding how globalization has shaped the food economy, especially in the ways in which pure, honest, simple cultural food traditions are being standardized, repackaged, and sold utterly different from their origins.

Most focused tasting classes are just $25. For example, at a recent beginner’s chocolate tasting class, the 43 participants sampled 11 different chocolates including the products cited above.

For more information, see here or follow Caputo’s Market on Twitter here.