<< Previous   of   Next >> For the Enterprise/P.S. Guthrie  (click to enlarge) Neal Brown and sons, Sam and Wes, watch as coffee beans begin spinning and cooling. Brown is now open for retail business in addition to wholesale at his Shoreline store.

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Web: www.brownscoffee.com Phone: 206-661-9654 Address: 19042 15th Ave. NE Hours: M-F, 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; open Saturdays starting in June

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CONTACT THE ENTERPRISE Jocelyn Robinson, News editor jrobinson@heraldnet.com

Just coffee

Shoreline roaster offers tasty deals to customers

By P.S. Guthrie
For The Enterprise

One cup of coffee, one buck.

Can such a bargain be possible in this la-la ka-ching ka-ching land of $4 lattes?

Look for the dollar deal on Shoreline's 15th Avenue NE between North City and Ballinger Way, where a black 1941 Dodge panel van decked out with flying coffee cups marks the spot of BrownsCoffee.com, 19042 15th Ave. NE.

On the former site of Leland's General Store, a popular market and gas station built in 1925, now sits the coffee roasting business of Neal Brown, who's been involved in the region's bean bonanza since 1987. Five years ago, he decided to learn his way around a roasting machine and find a family-friendly place to fire it up. Brown specializes in organic and fair-trade coffee, and just expanded his wholesale and Internet business to include drop-in customers to buy by the pound or cup.

Early morning into the afternoon, a steady stream of customers -- construction workers, students and a father picking up two bags of beans for his son -- drop down a dollar or two.

Or $24.

"I just came by this place one day and it hit the spot," said Jim Wright, 70, of Lynnwood. "Sure beats corporate coffee."

In late afternoon, Brown switches gears from retail to wholesale. That's the time of day his two young sons, Sam and Wes, are often around. Half the space is devoted to their needs -- Star Trek board games, a wooden wheelbarrow full of toys and tiny trucks, piles of books, balls and other boy stuff. Their artwork is also proudly on display.

Brown & Co. also offers Coffee 101 seminars, better known as roasting demonstrations.

"All fair-trade coffee is cooperatively grown," Brown told a group one recent evening. Waiting for the "first crack" to hiss from the beans getting toasty inside the big red roaster, Brown offered a lesson in the economics of coffee, the world's second-largest commodity traded -- after oil. "It's one of the most brutal businesses for the people working on the land," he said, adding that farmers need large swaths of land to grow coffee plants and that women picking the beans have earned as little as 10 cents a day.

Fair trade means that people who planted, picked, sorted and sold coffee in places such as Ethiopia, Sumatra, Guatemala, Peru and Brazil are paid a fair wage that is determined by an international trade group, and that sustainable growing methods are used. Fair trade also assists in programs to improve the health, education and living conditions of farmers and workers.

By the time a person in Seattle, Shoreline, Everett or Edmonds sips a cup of joe at work, home or favorite café, the product has passed through at least 19 sets of hands, Brown told the group from Green Bean Coffeehouse, a Greenwood non-profit café that uses his beans.

Brown said his business is benefitting from the "buy local" movement. But because the land of sunbreaks and salmon isn't quite the climate to grow coffee, the best option for fresh java is to find a local roaster.

"My customers have the beans the day they are roasted whereas bulk coffee can sit for six to eight weeks in warehouses," Brown said as the intoxicating smell of just-made java mixes with the cool evening air.

Local wholesale clients include the Landmark Theatre cinemas and Café Allegro in Seattle's University District, one of the area's oldest and busiest coffee houses.

Brown opened his doors for local retail business last fall when Internet orders dropped to a dribble. While espresso drinks may be added in the future, for now his menu is simple old-fashioned drip coffee and pastries at long-gone prices.

"We're Norwegian, so we grew up with a coffee pot on the stove 24/7. My dad would throw eggshells on the grounds," said Luanne Brown, Neal Brown's sister, while dropping in one afternoon with a Greek salad to-go lunch for her 51-year-old brother.

As if on cue, a new customer unfamiliar with the shop's offerings gushes, "You mean it's really drip? It's not espresso?"

"Yep," coffee roaster Neal Brown replies, as Crema King dark roast swirls into a paper cup. "Just like grandpa used to make."