From pulling espresso photographs in an ice cream store to founding Espresso Machine Service Co., Spencer Perez is aware of his method round espresso—and the equipment that makes it doable.

BY EMILY JOY MENESES
ONLINE EDITOR

Images courtesy of Spencer Perez

On this planet of specialty espresso, few roles are as important—and as missed—because the service technician. Spencer Perez, founding father of Espresso Machine Service Co., and Chattanooga, Tennessee’s go-to man for all issues espresso tools, brings a poetic pragmatism to the craft of conserving machines (and other people) operating.

From his early days pulling photographs at an ice cream store to descaling boilers in his bathtub and serving to launch the Service Layer Cooperative, Spencer’s journey blends hands-on grit with philosophical depth. On this two-part dialog, we dive into how a love for espresso, instruments, and group formed his path—and why the way forward for espresso would possibly simply rely on the oldsters behind the wrench.

Barista Journal On-line: First issues first, are you able to inform us about how you bought your begin in espresso and as a espresso service technician? 

Spencer Perez: My dad’s Cafe Bustelo coughing into the carafe, that’s in all probability the place it began. Waking to a small storm and the odor of moist earth. He’d let me have half a cup from time to time on Saturdays, once we labored on the vehicles or constructed bicycle ramps. By eighth grade, I used to be bringing a journey mug to highschool. That yr, this nice ice cream and occasional store opened close to our home, and once I turned fifteen, they employed me. That was my first expertise with espresso. That was 2005.

Quick ahead ten years by means of every kind of labor in a number of espresso firms—the latter three spent within the early days of PERC Espresso—and I used to be attending to know Andrew Gage, who began Velo Espresso Roasters. We’d speak a handful of occasions a yr about our challenges promoting light-roasted espresso within the Southeast. Ultimately, he requested me to come back on as a associate, and that’s what introduced us to Chattanooga.

We did plenty of work at Velo that I’m happy with, not least of which was a gaggle research with modbar. We shared our 3bar, 195°F espresso recipe with them, they usually pulled in different cafés who have been experimenting with low stress to begin to work out some concepts about all of it. These machines opened new horizons for espresso, however they weren’t particularly dependable. Or perhaps they might have been, have been there extra good techs. I don’t know, ours broke continually. My dumpy bikes did, too.

I’d taken up pastime motorcycling, and the talents I’d gained with a set of instruments made me the de facto in-house tech at Velo. Days, I designed packaging and ran QC. Nights, I descaled steam boilers within the bathtub.

In 2017, we endured a string of disappointments. Our shoestring second café wasn’t doing nicely. Our chilly brew growth wasn’t both. Employees felt ignored. Tensions have been excessive. We have been spent.

Jacked into the pc in my windowless workplace, my ideas grew more and more idiosyncratic. I obsessed over magical roast-phase meta-ratios as silver bullets for sweetness. Manic delusions of Fibonacci spirals and non-orientable surfaces stuffed my waking hours.

I used to be consuming rather a lot. I used to be over-caffeinated and underslept. It was hurting me and the corporate. I wanted a change. I wanted to work with my physique once more. To return again to earth. I purchased a scythe to chop my grass. One early Saturday morning—it’s higher with some dew on the bottom—I spotted Chattanooga wanted a technician, and I knew it needed to be me.

What does your day-to-day appear like?

I’ve been in a stable-ish morning routine for the previous couple years. Mild train at dawn, espresso on the porch, and breakfast with my daughter. My spouse Sarah runs operations at Espresso Machine Service Co. (CMSCo), and I deal with gross sales and tech help. If I don’t have one thing very first thing, we often get to the store across the identical time, between 8:30 and 9.

Summers are totally different, it is a household enterprise. I make one other espresso and we meet for 15-30 min to assessment the day’s work orders, make clear buying requests, no matter. Then it’s into the work. Generally, we’re busy within the discipline with upkeep, repairs, and installations. Generally, we’ve bought machines on the workbenches. Generally, it’s techniques growth or cleansing the toilet. Generally, it’s conferences all day. It’s often some mixture of the entire above. Most weeks, I spend plenty of pleasant time speaking with baristas and café homeowners. That’s good power for the work. On cooler days, I’ll spend a bit of time within the hammock after lunch. That’s an necessary a part of the job, too. 

There’s no finish to the work, so I get to determine once I’ve finished sufficient. Time permitting, I would bounce in a creek, work on a private venture, or simply sit awhile and see what comes up. Then I’m going residence to spend time with my household.

Other than being a technician, you additionally work as a marketing consultant, installer, and contractor—is it typical for service technicians to tackle a number of roles on this method?

All the perfect techs I do know operate as consultants occasionally. To search out the fitting tools for a buyer, we have now to grasp their priorities, strengths, and weaknesses. If they need it, we are able to leverage our community or expertise with espresso to enhance their operation. So CMSCo. usually are not “espresso consultants” per se, however we spend plenty of time doing these types of issues.

Set up is included with the acquisition of latest business espresso machines, however not all techs set up gear they didn’t promote. We do, with some circumstances: particularly, a monetary association with the shopper or reseller that pretty compensates us for an professional bench check, set up, and person coaching, which tools gross sales assist us subsidize. Compromises to that course of within the curiosity of price financial savings hardly ever go nicely.

And sure, most founder-techs put on plenty of hats. It jogs my memory a bit of of the early years of American third-wave. That is nonetheless a younger commerce, principally propelled by folks with extra imaginative and prescient than cash. Individuals cautious of the corrupting affect of debt. Individuals deeply attuned to the relationships between physique, work, and group. Lengthy-gamers. We develop slowly.

What prompted you to assist facilitate the launch of the Service Layer Cooperative? What points have you ever skilled firsthand as a espresso service technician that you just hope to handle by means of the SLC?

Doing this nicely is rewarding in so some ways, but it surely took me a very long time to seek out stable footing. If I can assist deliver a richer model of my expertise with the Service Layer to extra techs, I’d wish to.

For CMSCo., it was arduous early on to seek out steering and sources for constructing an operational basis. Producer trainings are typically rudimentary, and you may’t go to all of them, so generally you’re employed on unfamiliar platforms. Service Layer members have been instrumental in supporting our growth. They’ve shared arcane data, workshopped greatest practices, and mentored us. They’ve organized extra superior trainings with allied producers and adjoining specialists.

Shaping client tradition is difficult, too. Often, we’ll get a name from somebody who had a unit put in —who is aware of by whom, (or if) it’s a mannequin we promote—a yr or much less into its possession. It’s not arrange proper. Or they bought a nice deal on a “refurbished” unit. They don’t know how you can use it. They don’t know how you can backflush. Nobody ever talked to them about service. However they’ve bought scale within the tanks, steam leaks, move fee discrepancies, they usually discovered us. Crickets from the reseller, particularly after they attempt to submit our invoice for guarantee protection.

It’s arduous for a first-time café proprietor to know how you can navigate {the marketplace}, and techs have plenty of work to do to extend visibility. I’m hoping SLC can assist with training, client entry to nice native techs, and provide you with honest preparations with different distributors so everybody does nicely. The co-op’s members are dedicated to deeply satisfying tools experiences for his or her prospects, which incorporates the purchasing half, but it surely’s arduous to put money into that have once we’re being undercut by brokers with little regard for a similar.

We are going to launch half two of this text tomorrow.

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