Last Wednesday, Seth Lester and I had the opportunity to visit the new Counter Culture Training Facility in Chicago’s West Loop District. A new and beautifully designed space, there Seth and I met Josh Dugue and Rich Futrell who run the Chicago division of Counter Culture. We had pitched the idea of a Twin Cities versus Chicago throwdown during the Triwizard Tournament, but needed to hammer out some details (whilst sober), but first, we played with some coffee.

The space is beautifully conceived and it was my first chance to play on a La Marzocco Strada and Seth got to play with a Kalita Wave dripper. After severe over-caffeination, we got down to the nitty gritty.

Counter Culture wants to host a throwdown. The newest Counter Culture account to the Twin Cities, Blue Ox Coffee Company (38th & Chicago) also wants to host a throwdown. Both places want to hold events in their new spaces, but how?

Here’s the idea: On September 29th, 2011, Counter Culture is going to be kicking off their new lecture series and they want to ride the wave of the event and host a throwdown, but not that day. I proposed the “Tale of Two Cities: The Twin Cities versus the Second City” Throwdown and they liked the idea. Strangely enough, that Sunday is October 2nd!

But a throwdown on a weekend, are you mad?!

Well, yes and no. Rather than have a throwdown that’s all booze, dancing and debauchery, why not have a throwdown that’s relaxed, fun, and easy. Instead of beer we’ll have mimosas & bloody marys!!! Also, I’ve noticed that Sundays tend to be relatively quiet as the day progresses, so the throwdown will be a chance to unwind from the morning chaos, and since baristas will already have poured a lot of lattes that day, why not relax with a mimosa, pour another rosetta, and meet some people in a different city?

Here’s the game plan. At 2pm on October 2nd, each city will start their own selective throwdown (did you catch the running 2 theme?). Each throwdown will have their own judges, judging their pours, to determine each city’s 4 finalists. Once both cities have finished their respective throwdowns, it’ll be city versus city with the 4 finalists representing, and that’s where Twitter comes into play.

Each city will have access to the same Twitter account. When the finalists are ready, each city will pour and take a photo that will then be posted to the Twitter account. Then 3 judges (Seth has already nominated himself to be one) from across the country will reply to the tweets with their 1st round winner. If the first 3 rounds go to the same city, game over. If it’s a split decision, with 2 and 2, then each city will nominate their respective Champion to compete in a final round – winner take all.

No buy-in. We’ll set up a live stream so the cities can mingle with one another during the tournament. To the victor goes bragging rights and each city will swap a box of t-shirts of coffee shops/companies to show some cross city coffee love.

Let’s have a Sunday Funday!

-Gordon J Bellaver

Bull Run Coffee