DaVinci Gourmet presents,

America's Best Coffeehouse Competition

APPLICATION PROCESS

To compete in America's Best Coffeehouse Competition at Coffee Fest, interested coffeehouses must complete the application found at the bottom of this page. Coffee Fest is now accepting applications to compete in all three 2013 shows. The application for our next show in Chicago can be found here.

In addition to the completed application, each coffeehouse must submit either a three minute video highlighting the coffeehouse, the team members, and the attributes that they believe make them the best coffeehouse in North America or a picture of the coffeehouse and team members.

A maximum of up to 20 cafes will be selected for the preliminary “field qualification” based on the review of all information on the application and the video or photo submission by the selection committee.

The application deadline for Coffee Fest Chicago 2013 will be April 2, 2013. The Coffee Fest Seattle 2013 application will be August 6, 2013.

FIELD QUALIFICATION (30 days)

Once the coffeehouses are announced by the selection committee (January 11th for New York’s eastern region), each coffeehouse along with their video submission or photo for the competition will be posted at www.coffeefest.com to be viewed by fans and potential new fans as the voting public casts their vote for the coffeehouse they think should make it to the semi-finals at Coffee Fest.

FAN VOTING

Once named, the preliminary round competitors will begin a race against the calendar to see who can garner the most support (votes) from their customers, friends and fans over the 30 day period at www.coffeefest.com. Fan voting totals and Secret Shopper results will be used to determine the order in which the seven finalists will select their competition date (Friday or Saturday) and time.

PROFESSIONAL JUDGES/SECRET SHOPPERS

The competing coffeehouses will also be evaluated by secret shopper judges who will grade each shop on customer service, drink quality, ambiance, cleanliness, organization and efficiency.

A combination of popular vote results and secret shopper scores will determine seven semi-finalist teams who will compete in America's Best Coffeehouse Competition at Coffee Fest. The seven semi-finalists for Coffee Fest New York 2013 will be announced February 14th, 2013.

ON-SITE CAFÉ TEAMS

For the on-site semi-finals and final round competition, dueling coffeehouse teams of three employees each will be filling roles such as barista, bar back, and greeter/cashier, who will serve attendees and judges. Each team member must have been on companies’ payroll for minimum of 120 days.

Four of the selected semi-finalist coffeehouse teams will compete at Coffee Fest on Friday, and four semi-finalist teams will compete on Saturday. A combination of secret shopper scores and fan votes are used to determine the order that the coffeehouse teams select their competition date and time first, second, and so on. At 4:55pm on Saturday the three finalists to compete on Sunday will be announced. On Sunday the three finalists will have one more 30 minute competition time at Coffee Fest to determine the championship.

Semi-final and final rounds will feature each team working in the coffeehouse competition venue. Everything other than coffee will be provided. Teams may bring anything else they wish to support their competition time. Each team must be prepared to serve: espresso, cappuccino, latte, flavored latte, two manually brewed coffee options, and a daily special. All drinks must be no larger than eight ounces.

Coffeehouse teams determine and bring the ingredients, equipment (if necessary) and serving vessel to support their daily special.

The DaVinci Gourmet, America's Best Coffeehouse Competition is designed to evaluate teamwork, hospitality, aptitude, professionalism, presentation and limits. Coffeehouse teams will be judged by 30 carefully selected judges appointed by Coffee Fest. Coffeehouses will have 15 minutes to set up, 30 minutes of competition time and 15 minutes to clean up.

America’s Best Coffeehouse Competition is made possible by the generous support and sponsorship of the following companies. DaVinci Gourmet is the proud presenting sponsor. Design & Layout Services designed and fabricated the coffeehouse competition venue. SelbySoft, Inc. point of sale systems is proud to support this competition and coffeehouses across America. Mahlkoenig has provided the whole bean and espresso grinders. Fresh Cup is the media sponsor.

The application deadline for Coffee Fest Chicago 2013 is April 2, 2013. Up to twenty coffeehouses selected for Field Qualification in central North America will be announced April 5, 2013 and public voting will commence. The public may view all selected coffeehouse competition videos and photos at www.coffeefest.com and vote for their favorite.