(relaxing guitar music) (Chef Plum yawns) - Good morning, everybody.
You know, here in New Haven, your coffee choices in the morning can vary from everything from that green lady logo that everybody knows to a local bodega to a trendy coffee shop.
But here at Poppy's down on Whitney Avenue, they've got great food, great coffee, but get this, they roast the coffee beans themselves.
So you know your friends here at "Restaurant Road Trip" had to pack the cars up this morning and make our way down to New Haven to check this out.
We're excited.
Oh, and don't tell 'em my first cup almost came from the Keurig this morning.
I did wait.
(relaxing music) (upbeat guitar music) Dave, a pleasure to meet you, my friend.
- Yeah, you too.
Thanks for coming.
- Dude, thanks for having us here.
First of all, - Absolutely.
- Place is gorgeous in here.
- Thank you.
- It looks really good.
Tell the story about this wall.
'Cause this wall is just gorgeous.
It's like a work of art in itself.
- Yeah.
This place was in pretty rough shape when we took over three years ago at this point.
And we started chipping away at the plaster, and we found that brick wall underneath it.
- Wow.
It's a beautiful space in here.
I love the columns.
I love the artwork you got up on some of the walls.
It's a beautiful spot.
But what really takes me is the coffee, the smell of the coffee.
One of the things that drew us here to you was you actually roast coffee on premise right here, right?
- We do.
Right behind us.
- This machine right here, right?
- That little refrigerator looking machine right there is our emissionless electric coffee roaster.
So yeah, we're able to source our own green coffee, roast if we need it for the next couple days.
And take it from there.
- The amount of control you get over your coffee by being able to do that's gotta be phenomenal.
- [David] Yeah, we do.
It's great.
We're working on just doing what we're doing now well.
- [Chef Plum] Right.
- [David] And then once we have that down, we'll move on to the next thing.
- [Chef Plum] I like that mentality.
I think too many people.
- [David] Focus on breakfast coffee.
- [Chef Plum] Yeah.
I wanna talk about the coffee really quick.
You say you're sourcing your own green coffee.
- [David] Green coffee.
Similarly to like micro-brewing.
- [Chef Plum] Yeah.
- There's been this renaissance of micro-roasting, micro-brewing.
So there are a lot of good third party middle men to help a really small roaster.
So we buy 150 pound bags, but I can pick one 150 pound bag.
It's mostly about us not just getting the green in, but finding what green we like.
- That's great.
Let's get back to this kitchen.
I wanna try to make one of these BECA sandwiches I've heard about.
- Yeah, let's do it.
- Let's do it.
- Come on in.
- Let's get in here.
(upbeat music) All right, David, I gotta get gloved up here.
- Yeah, please.
- 'Cause I wanna get started cooking with you.
I'm excited to be in this kitchen.
What a great looking kitchen, by the way.
- Thanks for coming.
- Yeah, this is awesome.
What are we making?
- Bacon, egg, and cheese avocado.
- Okay, bacon, egg, and cheese.
- So the BECA.
- All right, the BECA.
- The BECA.
Probably the most popular thing we're doing these days.
- Okay.
- [David] Let's get you some eggs.
- [Chef Plum] So we do two on there, right?
All right, I got two in there, and we got a little bacon, you said?
- Bacon, three pieces on there.
- Three piece of bacon.
That's some nice looking bacon right there.
- [David] Little bit of butter on the bacon.
Help make it crispy.
- He's smart.
He knows it.
Butter on the bacon.
- All right.
- Let's go.
Tell me about the rolls here.
- [David] So, Apicella's Bakery in Fair Haven.
- Just toast 'em up, right?
- Yep.
- [Chef Plum] Okay, so we got bacon, we got eggs.
Am I seasoning these eggs, or no?
- [David] Salt, always.
Yeah, as high as you can go, obviously.
- Listen, it's a joke when we do that.
We're joking.
But like the reason why you do that is 'cause the higher up, the more surface area you cover.
The more surface area you cover, then your salts not in the middle, it's all over it.
Right?
- Smart guy.
- Shout out.
- Yeah, smart guy.
I would cut those in half.
Flip 'em both over.
- [Chef Plum] We're over.
- [David] I got two slices of cheese for you.
- [Chef Plum] Right on top of the eggs?
- Right on top.
- All right.
So where'd the idea of this sandwich come from?
'Cause I know you have a great Gochujang mayo on this.
- Yes.
So listen, we're doing a bacon, egg, and cheese here.
We serve breakfast, right?
- Sure.
- So we're doing a bacon, egg, and cheese.
Avocado adds an extra little fat.
So we like that on the bottom and Gochu mayo, yeah, a little bit more fat.
- Yeah, great.
Because that's where it's at.
- [David] Egg on the avo.
Then the next egg on top of the avo.
- Love it.
Just the bacon right on top of it?
- Yep.
I would fold it, fold them in half so they fit.
Close it up.
And then you can swing it right over here for me.
- Oh, come on.
Here we go.
- [David] Cut that baby in half.
- Make it pretty.
- That's the BECA.
- That looks delicious.
I'm excited about this.
That's awesome, man.
- Yeah, absolutely, that was fun.
- It was great.
(latte machine hissing) - I'm gonna show Chef Plum how to make a latte.
- I'm excited.
- Okay.
- I love lattes.
- Yeah.
- I do, I love 'em.
- Yeah.
- Do you know where the name latte came from?
- I believe milk, French, maybe?
- Close, 'cause it costs a latte money.
(crowd groaning) (crowd laughing) Sorry, sorry.
- All right.
So we're gonna take our porta filter.
We're gonna just do a rinse in case there's any grounds in there.
And then I want you to dose some coffee in there.
So just pull it toward you and let it slide back.
Yep.
Got a nice little temper stand here for you.
You can, yeah, that looks great.
- Right here?
- Yep.
From left to right.
There you go.
- [Chef Plum] Okay.
- Just press it and it'll go.
Got my milk ready.
Now just yank down on that.
(latte machine hissing) And we're gonna introduce a little air like that.
Yep.
And then we're just gonna let that vortex distribute all the rest of that air.
12 ounce latte mug.
- [Chef Plum] Full?
- [Josh] Just, ooh, liquid gold right there.
- [Chef Plum] Mm.
Can I pour it?
- Yeah, I'm gonna set you up for success, okay?
- Oh.
I need that.
- [Josh] Now, pour a thin stream into the center.
- [Chef Plum] Into the center.
- [Josh] Yeah.
Oh, very nice.
Closer, closer, closer.
Pour a fatter stream.
Fatter, fatter, fatter.
Yes.
Now, pull up four inches.
- [Chef Plum] Ah.
- [Josh] That's okay.
- You know what I made there?
That's a cursive Q. I did it on purpose.
- Yes.
Yeah, it's the tree of the world.
You know what?
It's gonna be tasty too.
- It' looks, how'd we do?
Okay?
- Yeah, I mean, okay.
- Okay.
- Okay.
- It's a cursive Q.
- Oh.
- [Chef Plum] He's not buying any of that.
(laughs) - All right.
A little extra pretty factor.
- [Chef Plum] Okay.
- And then there we go.
- It looks awesome.
- Yeah.
- That's fun, man.
Thanks brother, I appreciate that.
- Yeah, for sure.
- I gotta do better next time.
- You're all right, you're all right.
- Thanks, man.
(relaxing music) Dave, this food looks delicious, man.
Like I didn't, you know, you're talking about making a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich.
This is far more than a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich.
Look at all these colors.
It's incredible.
- Yeah.
You know, we wanted to be a breakfast place, like I remember going to with my mom.
- Yeah.
- But understand where we are and that it's 2022, 2023, something like that.
And just elevate a couple things.
- Looks amazing.
- [David] That's the whole idea.
- These pancakes are monsters, blueberries in there.
- Yes.
Lot of buttermilk.
Lot of sour cream.
Lot of melted butter.
- There's a lot of love in this.
I mean.
- [David] We take 'em pretty seriously.
- These pancakes are incredible.
You can taste that extra fat that's in there from the butter.
The sour cream, just is such a whole different level of flavors in there, right?
- [David] We wanted to add a tang too.
- Yeah.
- [David] Right?
With all the sour cream and the buttermilk.
We don't want it to taste just sweet.
- So good.
I almost wanna keep eating it and just have Dan pause it.
Sorry, Dan, these pancakes are great.
Let's talk about this delicious dish right here.
I love a little avocado toast.
- Yep.
Multi-grain bread from Whole G Bakery, which is a New Haven based bakery that I've been using for a while now.
Connecticut eggs, keep 'em runny.
- [Chef Plum] Ooh.
- [David] Avocado, pickled onions, and then house chili crisp.
- That's incredible.
The tang from the onions.
But that chili crisp, is it weird that I feel like it goes great with the bread?
- [David] It goes great with everything.
- Yeah.
- That's what I'm saying.
- [Chef Plum] All right, now this dish right here, the BECA.
- And you made it so if it's messed up.
- This isn't messed up at all.
Mayo on a egg sandwich is a win-win in my world.
This egg sandwich is phenomenal.
Seasoned beautifully.
The gochujang mayo works amazing with the bacon, 'cause you have that fat and you have a little bit of spice.
I mean, you're hitting all the points here, and I'm not gonna share it with anybody else.
This is absolutely stunning.
Dan, you can't have this sandwich, okay?
Not gonna happen.
(Chef Plum laughs) He's all, he's sad now.
(laughs) I love the beautiful latte here.
I mean, it didn't even take a latte time to make.
I'm sorry.
That's.
- Okay.
Fine.
That's your one.
(Chef Plum laughs) You get that one.
So that espresso, it's a blend of Guatemala and Ethiopia.
So it should have like some of the more traditional Guatemalan, South American flavors with a little bit of the brightness from some African flavors.
And then you pair it with whole milk.
Once again, like it's not rocket science.
- Keep it simple.
- You know.
- I love this mentality.
Keep things simple.
That's so refreshing to me.
- I'm a pretty simple guy.
- Yeah.
- You know.
- Egg sandwiches and coffee.
But you do it really, really well.
- I appreciate it.
- There's not a lot of caffeine in this either, is there?
This is like my ninth one.
- Yeah, you'll be fine.
When you start shaking.
- Yeah.
- Just like stay put.
- We're good, nothing's blurry yet.
- Okay, good.
(upbeat music) (footsteps thumping) - Woo.
Poppy's has delicious coffee.
Amazing food.
I can't wait to come back here and have some more.
This stuff's outrageous.
(footsteps thumping) With my family, with my friends.
I'm gonna drink my coffee.
I'm gonna drink their coffee.
I'm gonna drink his coffee.
I'm gonna drink their coffee back there.
I'm gonna drink all of it.
This stuff is so delicious.
(footsteps thumping) Big fan of Poppy's.
Hope to see you guys here next time.
If you can catch me.
(upbeat music)
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