Noah Phillips
The EVP, in EVP Coffee, stands for “Etes-Vous Prets?!” — that’s “Are you ready?!” in French. I went to the city’s east-side EVP, at East Washington Avenue and Baldwin Street. When I visited, the walls were covered in memorabilia devoted to the late Ben Masel, professional proponent of pot legalization, who used to frequent this store. Every April, in his memory, EVP’s owner bedecks this coffeeshop with his pictures, campaign posters and clippings.
In the back room sits EVP’s Sivetz Fluid Bed Roaster, which roasts beans for the cafe’s five Madison locations. The Sivetz uses a special technique that keeps the beans aloft in the roasting chamber, using hot air to roast them, rather than tumbling them and letting them roast via contact with a heated surface (the more conventional method). The “fluid bed” creates a more even roast. A peek in the back room also reveals many stacked sacks of beans.
I order a bottomless cup of EVP’s Ethiopian Yirgacheffe roast, a fair trade offering. Like many other African coffees, it is lightly roasted to preserve the flavorful fruitiness of the drink. The coffee’s distinct, floral flavor lingers pleasantly on the tip of the tongue, not incongruous with the subdued classical music coming from EVP’s speakers.
