Grounds for optimism at new Mt. Airy café

by PAMELA ROGOW

Meg Hagele grew up in this area and attended Germantown Griends School.

Meg Hagele’s delight in coffee is so unbridled that I am tempted to wonder whether it is itself fueled by a stiff morning cup of joe. But no, her love of coffee runs deep.

Meg waxes enthusiastically and expertly about the beans, the roasting, the milk, the steam, the customers, the timing. Everything just so, described with a wall-to-wall smile so warm it would brighten the start of anyone’s day, coffee or no.

Come late June, Meg will open High Point Café, building on her success with a similar venture in Seattle and on her connections with family and friends in hometown Philadelphia. And this is how one person comes to open a coffee bar on Carpenter Lane in Mt. Airy in 2005.

A lemonade stand operator during a childhood summer, Meg attended Germantown Friends School before switching at 14 to George School. She attended Skidmore, graduated from Whittier College in California, then managed the theater company that brother Matthew founded in Ithaca, eventually moving with him to Seattle where she had a leather-making business with a partner, James Miller, who turned out to be a brilliant pastry chef.

To support herself while the leather bag business grew, Meg worked as a barista — preparer and server of fine coffees — and then as a bookkeeper for Caffe Lladro, where the owners encouraged her interest in the business. “They were willing to educate me, knowing I wanted to open my own shop. I continued their employment practices, using their model as an inspiration.”

Seattle is a big coffee culture city, and in 2000, she and James opened Café Besalu, a coffee bar that instantly enlivened an entire neighborhood. It was also a favorite haunt of the food writer of the Seattle Intelligencer. Seattle was also where Meg “met my roaster. This is key to any good coffee enterprise,” she explains. Roasting is complicated and precise.

“At Caffe Lladro, I’d served this woman coffee. She’d asked for a drip coffee, but I said, ‘May I make you an Americano?’ The difference absolutely hooked her. Five years later, she left her job and wanted to work with coffee. But she’s not a morning person, which you must naturally be if you are a barista. So I worked with her to become a roaster, developing her blends, our own blend, which was tailored to my palate. I will be using her for my blends now, too.”

Last year, after a decade in Seattle, Meg, 34, sold James her half of the business and headed back to Philadelphia. She and her husband of five years, Curtis Coyote, wanted to own a home, an unaffordable goal in Seattle. Meg picked a spot for High Point Café across from Henry School, just off the intersection of Greene Street and Carpenter Lane. The location is a commercial mini-zone in the midst of a residential neighborhood.

For customers, Meg is counting on neighbors, teachers and parents from Henry School, shoppers from Weavers Way Co-op (with upwards of 3,000 member households) and students and parents from the Moving Arts Studio (which holds small group classes daily, for adults and children). Later this year, a bookstore is scheduled to open nearby on Carpenter Lane as well.

Meg is currently in the process of hiring a baker and baristas. She trains them carefully: don’t re-steam old milk — after 20 seconds, it’s dead if it isn’t incorporated or poured. “There’s an art to this, there is much to learn,” she explains. “The roast and blend determines the length of the shot — how much time it should take for the coffee to go grounds. The milk should be rich and velvety. No bubbles; it’s not foam.

“Drip coffee is more forgiving. Which doesn’t mean that one shouldn’t make perfect drip coffee. But there is a larger margin of error. Espresso is extremely precise — a large amount of water through a lot of grounds. Espresso is an ounce of extremely concentrated shot of coffee. It is versatile. You can customize above and beyond a little cream or sugar. One shot with 12 oz. of milk — that’s a mild latte. Or you can have four shots in eight oz. of milk, and a totally different experience. A shot of espresso,” she explains, “can make a little less than one cup of coffee.

“I have always loved coffee. It’s tactile to make espresso — I love making it perfect, the tamping of the coffee, all the parts. Every coffee is different. The beans have any number of origins, roasting fashions, different flavors. The more that I learn, the wider the world becomes in terms of coffee. I believe in making a perfect cup of coffee. You’re spending a lot of money if you’re getting a latte.”

Meg and Curtis are just now putting the finishing touches on the renovation of the former childcare center. Good thing, too, that Coyote is a sculptor and scenic artist in the theater and movie business. Count on a clean, bright, simple ambiance, with rotating art.

“What’s attractive to me is being part of a neighborhood and community. Part of people’s everyday lives. An owner-operator makes a difference. As we extend our hours, I won’t literally be able to be there all the time. Community is what it’s all about, which makes it extra sweet for me, coming back home.”

Menu: scones, coffee cakes (cardamom coffee cake with walnuts), upside down cake (great way to use seasonal fruits), pies, jams. Organic whenever possible. Crepes of all kinds, made with organic eggs and hormone-free milk. A small green salad will be served with savory crepes. Sweet potato crepe with goat cheese, caramelized onions and pine nuts is a favorite. (“The staples are easier to consistently get organically, “ Meg explains.) High Point Café. Opening late June. 602 W. Carpenter Lane, off Greene Street. 215-849-5153.