August 31, 2007
Alfred Peet, 1920-2007
Since our trimethyldioxypurist is on the road for Labor Day, we're stepping in on the caffeine beat to pass along some sad news: Peet's Coffee founder Alfred Peet died earlier this week (Wednesday) in Oregon.
Mr. Peet, born in Holland, opened the first Peet's at Walnut and Vine in Berkeley in 1966, and watched it spread nationwide (there's Peet's in New England now?). And the rumors you've heard about the Peet's/Starbucks connections are true: the Starbucks folks knew Alfred Peet personally, started up the 'Bucks in tribute in the Pacific Northwest, and used Peet's coffee beans for their first year of business.
Mr. Peet retired from the business in 1983, and whenever asked to talk about himself, would say "the coffee tells my story." Lift a cup of Major Dickason blend today in honor of Mr. Peet.
Picture of Peet in the Walnut/Vine store from the Peet's blog.
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Peet's 101 Blend brought me to the Bay Area. Back in the pre-Web 1.0 days, I had to make a choice between MIT and Cal for graduate school. Both places had equally good departments at the time, but at Cal the coffee at the Friday afternoon seminars was superior to MIT's. And I've been here ever since.
Dallas needs a Peets like it needs ... a lot of things. How I miss the smell of that coffee house, as compared to the tired Starbucks.
Peets House Blend rules... they were the only one open in the Financial District for us market hour sickos forever - and - with kick your ass house coffee not made of brown crayons (cough.Specialtys.cough.Starbucks)