Slow coffee, by hand.
Zeno Coffee is a bespoke barista service for private events.
Zeno Coffee leaves nothing to chance. We make coffee how it was done in Rome, Vienna, Paris, and London 150 years ago, carefully updated to today. Every drink is pulled by hand with a manual lever espresso machine—no wires, no electricity—and takes only enough time to be just as it should be.
Your guests will never accept coffee from a pot again.
Step One to any good event is making sure there’s coffee. It doesn’t matter if it’s for a meeting of the C-Suite, the book club, or the friends making it through the morning after a 21st birthday. If there isn’t coffee, well, that’s a problem.
But coffee doesn’t have to be an afterthought or a frantic Wawa run. It should be an experience for your guests, something that they remember, and part of the fun.
99 percent of people will not have seen coffee made like this. 99 percent of people will not have tasted coffee like this. You can be the gateway.
Your Choices, Our Design.
We have options, but keep them intentionally limited. Each drink is curated to bring out the best flavors and give you and your guests a unique coffee experience.
Espresso Tonic
Floral. Bright. Cool. Mildly intense.
Clarity to cut the heat and humidity.
Dbl. espresso (lighter roast) | 4oz fancy tonic water | twist of citrus | crystal rocks glass
Flat White
Velvet. Rich. Warm. Perfectly proportioned.
Balanced comfort to relax and chat.
Dbl. espresso (darker roast) | 2⅓oz oat milk | ½oz cream | ¼ house syrup | Gibraltar glass
Our story
I love coffee, but it bothered my stomach. In my search for a cup that could leave me with a polite buzz and a happy belly, I learned that true precision not only felt better but transformed the taste for the better, too. I switched out the machines of the mass market for older tools, touched up for today. Hand grinders, lever espresso machines, and even a stove-top milk steamer.
This is a different kind of coffee. It is not fast, nor is it slow. It comes right on time. The coffee is not lost in a sea of milk or blunted by 100 grams of sugar. It is the base for a handful of drinks that are a simple and inventive delight.
Zeno Coffee is named after our Australian Shepherd, Zeno, who, like the robes of the Italian Capuchin monks who gave the cappuccino its name, is the perfect blend of coffee colors.
This is not my day job. I am a CEO of an economic development agency for a large city. I promise the coffee is as good as my tax incentive strategy.
Our instruments.
All our tools are analog, made of metal and glass. We could make our cortados and americanos in the woods over a fire (though it would take even longer). Each drink has its own glass, curated to it and no one else.
Ice cubes are chosen to match the need for the rate of melting.
Our ingredients.
We are about making the coffee. Our local roasting partners take care of the beans. We offer organic and fair trade medium, light, and dark blends sourced carefully from the best coffee regions in the world to match your preference or offer you the chance to try something new.
We offer local dairy milk, as well as oat and nut milk with no gums or stabilizers. Unless necessary for the recipe, we use agave or maple syrups instead of sugar.
So… how does this work exactly?
We will bring everything to you. Beans, grinders, espresso machines, ice, glasses, and so so on.
Please do have electricity. We need it for the induction hot plates. In keeping with the analog theme, we thought about propane burners, but, um, decided against it.
Water is a nice to have, but not necessary. We can bring jugs with artesian spring water from the Frenchtown Well.
*This button will take you to a form that will help us understand your expectations of Zeno Coffee. We’ll take it from there.
