By Anna Marden, News Correspondent
Attention coffee addicts: There is a new place in the neighborhood to get your fix. Pavement Coffeehouse, at 1096 Boylston St., specializes in high-end, hand-dripped, made-to-order espressos, coffees and teas.
Pavement is the evolved cousin of the Espresso Royale Caffe (ERC). Both brands are owned by Larry Margulies, who also owns the source breakfast joint, Bagel Rising in Allston. Pavement features a familiar offering of drinks, bagels and sandwiches, but also an expanded menu. New foods include salads and paninis, but the biggest new feature is the “slow bar” menu of hot drinks and rotating guest coffee roasters.
Coffee and tea from the slow bar are hand-dripped, meaning they are brewed to order through a small filtered ceramic cone which makes one cup at a time, said Jake Robinson, the coffee program director at Pavement and ERC.
“Slow bar is the menu that we built to showcase the coffees that we think far outshine your average, everyday cup of coffee,” said Robinson, who said he played a big part in the planning and development of Pavement. The slow bar, in particular, was his project.
Robinson said the process of opening Pavement began nine months ago, when Berklee College of Music officials approached Margulies, because their campus needed a coffee shop.
“Espresso Royale wasn’t our name or business model. What we wanted to was so different that we needed a new name,” Robinson said.
ERC used to be owned by a commercial chain that sold cheaper coffees and served no food, Robinson said. Margulies, who already owned Bagel Rising, purchased the ERC franchises and added bagels and sandwiches to the menu.
“The name Pavement Coffeehouse is meant to combine the idea of a street level, alternative, cafe culture with a coffee and tea menu you would find in a boutique coffeehouse,” Robinson said.
Every few weeks, Pavement hosts guest espresso and coffee roasters from around the country to offer customers a variety of high quality coffees from around the country, Robinson said. He said this is something they don’t do at ERC.
Though Pavement offers high-end and hand-dripped coffee, they are able to do it at a relatively low cost. Drinks are cheaper there than at ERC because they want to make their product available and affordable to all demographics, Robinson said.
Pavement’s assistant manager, Michael Brandon, a 2008 Boston University graduate, said the pourover [hand dripped] coffee is one of his favorite parts about working at Pavement.
“Being able to get a perfect cup of coffee whenever I want is so awesome,” Brandon said.
Brandon said he also appreciates the new food items, like the salads.
“Working [at ERC], you eat the same food all the time; you can only eat so many bagels,” Brandon said.
New menu items aren’t the only distinction at Pavement. The inside of the store has a different feel and atmosphere than ERC, Robinson said.
Comfy, silver cushioned benches are one of the notable features of Pavement’s interior design. They artfully clash with natural wooden chairs, hand-painted tables and colorful vintage armchairs.
The partially painted exposed brick walls and tin ceiling painted a cream-yellow along with soft, down-tempo music tie together the multi-faceted interior design.
Outside, the patio offers eight tables and plenty of chairs, offering more seating in a busy outdoor environment near the Berklee bookstore and intersection with Massachusetts Avenue.
Alex Gable, a Berklee mandolin student who sat on the patio with his dog, said he visits two to three times a day. “At night, [the patio is] great because I can bring my dog. The view is beautiful,” he said.
Gable said he likes that Pavement focuses on the art of espresso and coffee, plays softer music and has a more relaxing seating, which he said he thinks makes Pavement a more accessible coffee shop.
“What else more could you want?” Gable said. “This is the perfect college environment.”
Mini-reviews of provisions served at Pavement.
Hand-dripped coffee from the slow bar — $2.25
I had a cup of Toarco, Sulawesi coffee, by guest roaster Ritual Coffee Roasters in San Francisco.
The barista, Joe Smith, let me watch him throughout the process. He first poured an ounce of hot water through a filtered ceramic cone onto the freshly ground coffee to saturate it before he slowly added the rest of the water, which mushroomed up over the grounds as he poured. said it was so sweet it wouldn’t need milk or sugar.
I was skeptical, since I’m usually a flavored-latte drinker, but it ended up being delicious. The first sip was slightly bitter, but as I drank the cup down, the taste grew on me and I began to notice the natural sweet and sour flavors that accompanied the traditional coffee taste.
Panini — $6.50 to $7.25
Even though it took a little longer to make than a bagel sandwich, it was definitely worth it. It was the mozzerella, tomato and pesto panino, recommended by Coffee Program Director Jake Robinson and cooked to perfection.
Salad — $5
Pavement offers a simple and delicious salad, starting with a base of hearty romaine lettuce and three veggie toppings of the diner’s choice. For a small additional fee, there is a selection of cheeses and meats available. They have a variety of Newman’s Own dressings.
I chose balsamic and got to pour it myself. The large salad came un-tossed, with an unnecessary amount of bean sprouts, but overall I was happy because it the lettuce wasn’t iceberg and the salad was fresh and delicious.
Cold brew — Coming soon
Smith handed me a mysterious small glass of iced beverage that looked somewhat like dark rum on the rocks. It is his experiment, said Assistant Manager Michael Brandon, and it’s not yet on the menu. It’s essentially a cold brew of the house espresso, called Soma, by roaster Barismo. The ice numbed the strong flavor and helped it go down easy. Keep an eye out for this on the menu in the future if you need a jolt of energy on a hot day.
