It's not dessert that marks the final moment of a restaurant meal, the moment that is remembered as soon as you leave, whose flavor instinctively determines whether the experience was more or less positive. It's not dessert, but coffee. Under this different light, a cup of coffee becomes much more than just a single cup: it's the last flavor before saying goodbye, the last opportunity to be remembered. And as such, it deserves importance, the same importance given to the entire savory course, the sweet dish, the service, and the overall hospitality. That's why two important realities, both focused and complementary, wanted to compare their expertise to face a more than fundamental challenge for dining out: quality coffee in fine dining. On one side is Agust, an artisanal roastery from Brescia since 1956, and on the other is the JRE - Jeunes Restaurateurs Italia association.

At the center of this precious moment of confrontation, a theme above all others: coherence.

It's the taste of coffee that accompanies the customer when they leave, lingering on the palate at the end of the experience lived in the restaurant.

But how do you prepare a good, high-quality coffee inside a high-end restaurant, which, as is well known, has few covers? It is a common and widespread opinion that a quality cup is difficult to serve in such establishments due to the numbers.

But the reality is different: culture and training are enough. Giovanni Corsini from Agust talks about this.

Technology and Materials

"Small adjustments can change the fate of coffee in restaurants. Choosing 250-gram packaging instead of 1 kg preserves the raw material. Steel portafilters instead of brass simplify cleaning procedures, making the first espresso good. Technologies like coffee grinders ensure the necessary dose, facilitating consistent grinding."

Knowing these small details "opens the way to serving high-quality coffee in our restaurants," comments Alberto Basso, president of JRE-Italy and chef of TreQuarti restaurant. "The problem of quality espresso has always existed. Information of this kind allows us as restaurateurs to overcome it, maintaining high quality."

Trainings

Of course, it's not enough to rely on good-quality coffee or cutting-edge equipment if the person preparing the coffee is not adequately trained. The human hand, the last step in the chain, is "fundamental to not wasting the great work done from production," adds Corsini.

Training must also consider the internal roles within the restaurant: "A restaurateur is often also an entrepreneur and must consider different aspects," explains Massimiliano Mascia from San Domenico restaurant in Imola. "The people who take care of coffee preparation can be different; it wouldn't be sustainable to have an expert who only deals with coffee. That's why training becomes fundamental."

Coffee and Culture

"You do training on one side," concludes Mascia, "and you intrigue the customer on the other." The customer, first and foremost, is often not informed about coffee as they are about other major Italian gastronomic products, like wine or oil.

That's why it's necessary to intervene, capturing the attention of a customer who "often goes to the restaurant to experience something cultural. Training becomes fundamental not only to serve coffee but also to tell the story that is inside a cup," declares Stefano Di Gennaro from Quintessenza restaurant.

A certainty now: the average user's interest is increasingly keen for everything related to raw materials, their history, traceability, and identity. Obviously, nothing is immediate. As with natural wines, which took time to take root in consumers' tastes, so it can be with coffee. "We are in Italy," deepens Dario Guidi from Antica Osteria Magenes, "tied to a gastronomic culture with deep roots."

Once equipment and raw materials are improved, once the staff is trained, and once the customer is intrigued, you can move forward, imagining the creation of a coffee menu with different references at different prices: