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Is the Future of the Drinking Straw ...al dente?

By Rim Philpkisp

It’s Summer, 2018:  Almost everywhere you look you can find evidence of our culture’s current reckoning with plastic waste, and many are awakening to its true environmental cost. Viral videos seen millions of times over show harm to wildlife from plastic trash, such as the sea turtle with the straw lodged up its nose. NPR, BBC, and the New York Times have recently highlighted the problem. The EU has gone so far as to propose a ban on some types of single-use plastics. The National Geographic’s latest issue’s spectacularly poignant photos of people and wildlife being forced to live and adapt to humanity’s widespread plastic pollution is certain to cause some deep reflection. The Nat Geo themselves have since discontinued plastic sleeves in their distribution of the printed magazine. Others at home and at work are learning why simply recycling plastic isn’t enough and are scrutinizing their daily routines to refuse, reduce, reuse, and otherwise cut back and help prevent more plastic from entering the waste stream.

What used to be a fringe topic is now front and center. For the ever growing and ever important conservation conversation, single use plastic straws are being singled out by small businesses and consumers as a more avoidable hazard to the Earth. Are straws the lowest hanging fruit of the #zerowaste movement due to their conflicted juxtaposition as a cheap luxury item; perhaps even more needless, superfluous, and destructive to the planet than the plastic grocery bag? Do plastic straws have any justifiable existence other than disability, lipstick, or other extenuating circumstance in contemporary “woke” society to justify the strain on the environment and threat to biodiversity on our planet they cause?

...Is it time to #stopsucking?

While more and more environmentally conscious humans and businesses are choosing to abandon straws entirely, many will seek to replace them with a reusable or biodegradable alternative. Some trash conscious yet straw-addicted are carrying stainless steel straws around. Some businesses who swear by the hospitality of the straw are offering paper straws instead. And some,    

...pasta.

I heard that my neighborhood coffee stop in New Orleans, Hey! Cafe, started offering pasta straws this week. I went by to give it a try and see if I could get behind the noodle.

I ordered my cold brew and stepped toward the condiment table. I spotted the bucatini noodles in the clear straw dispenser and grabbed one. I took a sip.

MAMMA MIA the experience was near the same to any other straw. I didn’t detect any contamination of the flavor of the coffee, and the straw felt perfectly comfortable to the mouth. Has the solution to the straw problem been in the pasta aisle this whole time?

Straws are culturally established, and breaking the habit will be tough for many, and it’s not for everyone. Some believe the only way refusing straws will become mainstream is if they are made illegal. Don’t expect that any time soon! Maybe it’s more realistic to adopt a compostable alternative. With paper straws going floppy in cold beverages more quickly, the pasta straw may be the best alternative we have, at least for the gluten tolerant. Al dente!

Quitting the plastic straw alone will not save our oceans, but it will represent a shift popular thought. What other changes will come when we as a culture reflect and take personal responsibility for the effects our decisions have on the environment? With thoughtfulness, awareness, innovation, and a few changes of habits; there’s hundreds of millions of tons of plastic that we can deflect from the waste stream every year.

Rim Philpkisp is an environmentalist and food writer in the Uptown, New Orleans area

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9 Reasons Hey! Cafe is the Most Rad

...and by rad, we mean RADICAL!

Whether it’s unique artistic presentations and performances, imaginative escapades, or roasting the best cuppa in the South and beyond; Hey! Cafe is proven time and time again to be on the frontier of unique business ideas and inventive paths to great coffee.

They’re the FIRST shop roaster in New Orleans, ushering in a whole new local movement.

...but then, what more would you expect when two Louisiana born weirdos, a caffeine addicted cartoon illustrator and a rock musician, operate a New Orleans coffee hub?

1.  Punk Shows: Be it noise, punk, metal, or experimental; Hey! Cafe has hosted some of the gnarliest, spleen shredding, face melting, rip-roaring rock shows of all time. 

No stage? No problem.

2. Alternative Currency: Reminiscent of the Mardi Gras doubloons from the days of old, Hey! Cafe distributed a ‘Gift Currency’ made of wooden nickels in as a quirky alternative to the more commonplace plastic magnetic strip gift cards. Despite being backed by the American Dollar and exchangeable for regular currency, they were still quite effective and revolutionary. 

Tales of late night exchanges of the wooden nickels for alcoholic drinks have been confirmed on the corner of Magazine and Napoleon. It was not uncommon for service industry regular to accumulate a small fortune of coffee wooden nickels, but then spend all of their cash tips at The Club Miss Mae’s (CASH ONLY) before being able to afford that “one last drink.” The unfortunate soul would then offer his Caffeinated Currency to a comrade in exchange for a High Life.

“Buy me a drink, I have these coffee nickels”

“You betcha, I’m headed there in the morning anyhow”

If you’d like some gift coins, they are still available at Hey! Cafe! Just ask.

3. No Garbage: Unlike anywhere else ever at any time (only a slight exaggeration), Hey! Cafe has no garbage can, and at the start of 2016, they led an initiative to challenge the American gluttonous overdependence on landfills for disposal. They’d been composting for years, but in 2016 they canned the can entirely. Bye bye, Garbage Can! 

This makes Hey! Cafe the first storefront in the South to nix the commercial waste bin contract altogether. Instead they support a local composting network (Special shoutout to SCHMELLY’s DIRT FARM!) and recycling services for waste management, doing their part to save land for better use. Other local businesses have followed suit!

4. Roasting In-House:

 ...or on-back-patio as some would put it! Hey! Cafe is the first to roast coffee at the same address that the coffee is served, paving the way to the new wave of shop-roasters in New Orleans.

Glad yall could join!

Soon we’ll be sharing some news about what our roast has in store for you next!

5. Hey! Cafe’s Website SUCKS: “1993 called, it wants its website back”

Their website is radically bad. And that’s okay.

6: Bicycle Freaks: 

Hey! Cafe advocates for expansive and safe cycling, organizes local bike rides, sponsors local bike races, delivers local online orders by bicycle, and has served their popular nitro coffee off of a tricycle at special events. 

...you could say they’re a little obsessed.

7. A Southern Attitude: The South is more than a geographical location, it’s an attitude that can be difficult to put into words. It’s an impassioned drive to accomplish spontaneous raw beauty with an admiration of surroundings regardless of the challenges, resources, or tools at hand. These ideals set Hey! Cafe apart, as they preserve the look of the 100-year-old building they occupy while a handful of newcomers bring a sterile, whitewashed, well-financed, backlit, drab sleekness into town.

Hello there, nice money!

If you look, there’s plenty of remnants of the location’s barber shop and sculpture studio days! Pictured above is some gentlemen at the barbershop that occupied Hey! Cafe, taken around 1915.

8. Face-to-Face with Zephyr Coffee Importers: Before Hey! Cafe’s expanse into sourcing raw coffee in 2012, Zephyr Coffee Importers hardly ever hosted walk-in clients. Everything was done by phone and email for this global commodities trading company focused on specialty coffee. That all changed when Hey! Cafe waltzed into their office at St. Charles and Julia and tried to order some roast samples from a surprised yet welcoming staff.

Since then, Zephyr has modified their interior to facilitate this arrangement for the subsequent waves of local micro roasters so that they can really help bring the greatest coffees of the world to New Orleans. Hey Cafe is still a proud partner of Zephyr Coffee Importers in sourcing the world’s best coffees.

9. Direct Trade Coffee: It’s quite fortuitous that Hey! Cafe made contact with Leivas Coffee’s Geovanni, a fourth generation Guatemalan coffee farmer, while investigating new roasting equipment. A serendipitous growth in friendship between Hey! Cafe and Geovanni has resulted in their best and most traceable coffee yet. Hey! Cafe purchases this crop directly from the farm, helping to add greater accessibility to education and safe drinking water to the village. 

You can taste and learn more about Hey! Cafe’s direct Huehuetenango and Zacapa coffee crops from the Leivas Familia’s farm today, and even take a fresh-roasted bag home with you. 

So come on down!

-Rim Philkispkf, coffee writer

Note from Hey! Cafe:

It is only with the love and help of our friends, the New Orleans coffee community, supporters, neighbors, walk-in guests, wholesale clients, friends, and family that we are able to express ourselves day-to-day through our words, experiments, and actions. We are so humbled to be in the company of other radical people doing groundbreaking acts of love, hospitality, kindness, creativity, and leadership every day. This goes out to you.

In no particular order, we’d thank:

Our all-inspiring Customers and Associates, Our Loving and Supportive Families, Appoline, The Sneaky Pickle, Pulp & Grind, Satsuma, Humble Bagel, The Club Miss Mae’s, The Rest of Our Neighbors, Orleans Coffee Exchange, Dashing Bicycles and Accessories, Cherry Espresso Bar, Breads on Oak, Community Records, Midcity Pizza, Aleece Langford, Spitfire Coffee, Mike the Bike Guy, The Superfoods Bar, Ecole Bilingue De La Nouvelle-Orléans, Girls Gone Vegan LLC, Zephyr Coffee Importers, Leiva’s Coffee, Le Petit Grocery, Shaya, New York Pizza, Del Fuego, 45 Tchoup, The Brothers 3 Lounge, Mr. Zlotowicz, and Avenue Cafe, and anyone we forgot!

YOU’RE RAD!

-The Hey! Cafe Team

heycafeeveryday@gmail.com

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Hey! Cafe:  COFFEE INVASION

Back in 2012, Hey! Cafe employees and general coffee freaks Mike W. and Tommy L. were experimenting with roasting coffee in Tommy’s shed out back of his Annunciation St. apartment in New Orleans.  The results were DELICIOUS and gradually, they started presenting more and more of their roasted coffee to Hey! Cafe’s customers as the house coffee.  

Before long Mike and Tommy became obsessed and were roasting all of the coffee that Hey! Cafe served (on a 600 kilogram roaster, no less!), and our coffee-loving neighbors were thrilled.  The time had come to announce our exciting news in a BIG way with the hope that the rest of New Orleans would want to give a try.  

...and so we threw a SCI-FI themed party at Hey! Cafe.  How else?

Hey! Cafe: COFFEE INVASION was on December 12th, 2014 and featured the comics and animation of Tommy L, SYNTHTASTIC soundwaves from Sharks’ Teeth, and a journey through time and space with FAILIEN.

Here, we’d like to share some of the promotional material, animation, comics, and photos of this wacky evening!

Tiny Qomix!

Funny vids!

A video posted by Hey! Cafe & Coffee Roastery (@hey_cafe) on Oct 15, 2014 at 10:51am PDT

Special effects!

A video posted by Hey! Cafe & Coffee Roastery (@hey_cafe) on Oct 27, 2014 at 3:10pm PDT

Coffee Spaceship!

Below is the program that event attendees received upon arrival!

What FUN!

A photo posted by Hey! Cafe & Coffee Roastery (@hey_cafe) on Dec 12, 2014 at 5:41pm PST

A theramin performance by FAILIEN

Then we ended it all out back on the BIG screen watching MARS ATTACK!  This was one of our favorite evenings of all time, and we think we got the word out!

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The construction at Napoleon is winding down.  Here’s a gif from Tommy L. to celebrate!

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Here’s a GIF by Hey! Cafe’s animator-in-residence, Tommy L.

“Be a Regular, Order the Usual”

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Canning the Can!?

Hello, I’m Tommy L!  I am the operator at Hey! Cafe & Coffee Roastery in New Orleans.  Today I’d like to share the steps we’ve taken as a business to reduce our dependence on landfills and advocate for reduced and more responsible disposal practices at your home or business!

When we started Hey! Cafe, it seemed obvious that we needed to have a contract for a commercial waste bin for pickup.  It was only 3 years after Katrina and recycling services were nearly non-existent.  But that wasn’t the problem!

I just thought creating lots and lots of garbage was the sign of a successful business!  It’s just what businesses do, RIGHT?  After all, isn’t the success of the Mardi Gras season in New Orleans measured by the amount of garbage?  I love my home New Orleans, but many things about the town are very landfill-friendly.

I regret to admit, that during the first few years of business, we sent all of our waste to the landfill; however, we have always have encouraged the hospitality of reusable mugs and glasses.  We have also offered discounts to those who bring their own travel cup.  Still, workers and customers threw trash away as though it was no consequence for a number of years.  Then we’d would bring it to the curb as though it was no consequence, all the way to the end of the waste stream where it was incinerated or mummified in landfills.

...But let me tell you, there are serious consequences to the gluttonous use materials and irresponsible disposal of them.

Landfills poison communities, destroy habitats, hinder the decomposition of organic waste, and cause increased methane gas emission; which traps 10 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.  

It became clear that as a business operator that I had a moral responsibility to rethink our disposal practices and seek alternatives while advocating for reduced and more responsible disposal.   I expanded our composting and recycling program at Hey! Cafe, and would cancel the garbage pickup service altogether when our contract was up.  We started purchasing more eco-friendly and biodegradable items.  

quick note:  Not a lot of people realize this, but the traditional paper go-cup you get a coffee houses throughout the world are not recyclable OR compostable, because the paper is lined with petroleum-based plastic!  They are VERY landfill-friendly, and we should be avoiding them!

Then, we removed our garbage can!  

Where previously we had a waste receptacle, we now feature a beautiful scene painted by yours truly, Tommy L!  Even though we had recycling and compost containers near the waste bin before this switch, guests found it all to easy to throw it all in the landfill can!

Well, not anymore!

That’s quite the dilemma!

Now we send less than 3 lbs of garbage a day to the landfill.  Not bad for a busy cafe!  We recycle and compost the rest.  Customers are instructed to place all refuse into the bus tub where the dishes go.  The employee then sorts all of the trash for proper disposal.  

Here’s a photo of a bag of trash from a busy day at Hey! Cafe.  Note the quarter for reference!

And most of this trash came from outside our shop!

Next, we’re working to reduce the amount of trash we recycle.  We’re proud to have canned the waste bin, but we are still recycling a large amount of refuse.  Recently, we at Hey! Cafe have implemented a DIY soda water system with reusable CO2 tanks and soda bottles.  With this method, 1 liter of soda water without any packaging whatsoever and each liter costs us less than 5 cents!

....which leads me to my next point!

Does it cost money for a small business to go landfill-free?

No!  Hardly anything!  In fact, you’ll probably SAVE money!  

...and don’t underestimate the promotional value of making more responsible choices.  Our customers love it, and many have told me that it’s what sets us apart, and its why they keep coming back!  

The money that we used to spend for disposal is now being spent more ethically supporting local composting networks and recycling facilities.  We save a TON of money every year by encouraging the use for-here mugs and glassware.

We also have felt more involved in our community by reaching out to neighbors who find creative uses for our palettes and burlap!  And seen some great Mardi Gras costumes!

But what about when we DO have garbage?

It’s terribly shameful, but it does happen.  Usually I throw out our daily 1-3 lb trash bag in a city trash can by the bus stop!  If we have larger waste, like construction debris or the like; I throw it in our gracious neighbors dumpster!  HUGE shoutout to The Club Miss Mae’s!  Thanks for putting up with our TRASH!

If you have any questions about how your business can be more landfill-free, i encourage you to email me!

tom@heycafe.biz

Thank you for reading!