Posted Tue Oct 12, 2004, 1:25pm Subject: Travels in Stavanger - P3 - KRAMER
Day three in Stavanger
After 2 tries I finally find Kramers Kaffeebar open. It turns out that they are closed on Sundays, all day. It also turns out that the Kaffeebar is the middle floor and there is a women’s hair salon above and a men’s salon below.
I walked in and instantly notice the atmosphere is more like a neighborhood bar than a café. The food case is very small and they have a fully-loaded bar. Also, it’s hard not to notice the displays for hair care products on the walls. To me it seemed a little odd but certainly not enough to dissuade me especially when I saw the espresso machine is a La SanMarco (I believe). It also turns out that the Kaffeebar is the middle floor and there is a women’s hair salon above and a men’s salon below.
The place was deserted, I had arrived a little before 5 PM.
So I walked up to the bar where a young lady was working and I said, “ hello, how are you doing today” (I always do this to let people know I can’t speak Dutch). I told her that I had heard Kramers makes the best espresso in Stavanger. She just about blushed, but she agreed that she thought they had better espresso than other places in town. She also said that there were some new places so there is more competition than before.
I ordered a double espresso. She dosed from the grinder but she didn’t tamp. She looked closely at the grinds in the portafilter and then she looked at me. “I just began my shift,” she explained using slightly-broken English and a sheepish smile. She dumped the portafilter and emptied the doser and tossed that out as well. She started the grinder and made her adjustment with the doser lid open so she could watch the grind fineness. I couldn’t help but think good things at this point.
She used a protamp (?) tamper (the big all-stainless super-heavy kind). This is the only place so far to use a pro tamper. Food story used the tamper on the grinder and Café Francais used the plastic one. She also leaned into the tamp pretty well. As the machine was running I asked about food and ordered “whatever sandwich she likes best herself”. By the way, it was open-faced prosciutto and swiss with lettuce, mayo, fresh basil (growing in a pot at the counter) and spiced green olives. It was very tasty indeed.
Back to the coffee…
The shot was beautiful, and had a nice crema on top. The crema was maybe 1/8” when served to me (a far cry from what some of us make at home, but the brew was also bold and medium-bodied without a hint or sourness or bitterness. The finish was a little nutty with a hint of tobacco IMO. By far the best shot in I had tried Stavanger yet. I lavished my praise on the young barista, and tipped her (tipping doesn’t happen here like it does back home). She appreciated the acknowledgement. I noticed they have ristretto on the coffee menu so I plan to return and try it.
Kramers gets excellent marks for service and for the coffee (and the sandwich was excellent as well). The young lady took it all very seriously and it showed in the attention she paid to every detail. At the same time she was being friendly and speaking English for my benefit, even though it was clear that her English isn’t very strong. That’s the sort of effort and customer care that sets one place above the other very good cafes.
What I was trying to communicate is that I would always start the conversation in such a way as to let the other person know that I did not speak the local language. In this case it was Norweigan and not Dutch (it was Dutch on the airplane).
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