As early as 50 years before Starbucks was born, the Roosevelt family established a coffee chain in new york.

Theodore roosevelt is famous for its powerful natural energy. He was called a "predator in human pants" at Harvard University, but other things might stimulate his vitality. As a sick child, he got a cup of strong coffee and some cigars to relieve his terrible asthma attack. As president, he was so absorbed in these things that one of his sons described his customized coffee cup as "more like a bathtub", and the related content was "The Roosevelt couple: an intimate history"

Therefore, it is possible to learn that his sons Cmit, Ted and Archie, his daughter Ethel, her husband and TR's cousin Philip have opened a chain coffee shop in new york. Long before the bearded barista filmed single-source coffee in Brooklyn, and decades before the Brooklyn man and Starbucks tycoon howard schultz proposed to bring European coffee culture to the Brazilian Cafe in downtown Manhattan, it planned to bring high-quality coffee and social places to the tortured people of new york.

Brothers and sisters are part of a close-knit group. They spent a noisy time in the White House in their early years. Their 43-year-old father is by far the youngest president. He not only tolerates the eccentric behavior of six children, but also often encourages them. Although President andrew jackson drew the line when his portrait was decorated as a paper ball. When he heard that his children planned to launch an "attack" on the White House, he sent a message to the children through the War Department, advising them to cancel the plan. What is even more confusing is that dozens of pets, including a bear, a badger named Josiah, a hyena and Archie's Shetland pony Algonkin, are free to enter the children's bedrooms.

Meet the rooster (from left): Quentin, TR, Ted, Archie, Alice, Cmit, Edith and Ethel. (Printing Collection, miriam and Ella D. wallach Art, Printing and Photographing Department/New York Public Library, Astor, Luno and Thulden Foundation) So when the Roosevelt couple decided to start a business together, their relationship had been firmly established. At that time, 29-year-old Cmit first proposed this idea to others, ranging in age from 365,438+0 to 265,438+0. After spending several years in South America (exploring the Amazon basin in Brazil with his father and managing a bank in Buenos Aires), he became interested in cafes in this area, which not only served fresh ground beans, but also was much slower than American cafes.

Cafes are not new to new york. Joshua Reyes of theodore roosevelt's former residence, Mount Sagmore National Historic Site, said: "This city caters to new immigrants, or they are later called' more foreign factors', so I think they are thinking, maybe we can cater to more mainstream audiences under the ban." The idea of encouraging customers to stay is almost unheard of. "Are managers really going to keep their customers away from the traditional' gorging' period? A puzzled reporter wrote in Lookout magazine. Obviously. "It is also rare to use high-quality fresh ground coffee. Coffee served in restaurants or at home is mostly prepared in advance and canned, or worse, canned, which is a habit formed by soldiers. During World War I, they supplied coffee powder in large quantities.

Roosevelt's Brazilian Cafe opened in a brownstone building in19 10/9 with great fanfare ("Roosevelt opened a chain coffee shop; The house is similar to the old institution in London and will be built. " It is reported that Ethel Roosevelt is responsible for interior design. There are portraits of famous coffee lovers hanging on the wall, such as Voltaire (it is said that he drinks 50 cups of coffee every day), Shakespeare, male elk and so on.

"Real coffee" is the pride of this family. There are 30 small oak tables and chairs around Mildred & Philip Sawyer Papers/new york Historical Society. As the predecessor of Starbucks' laptop business, every table in Brazil Cafe has a part containing ink, envelopes and paper (engraved with "Brazil Cafe"). Dictionaries and encyclopedias (free Internet access at that time) were readily available. "What we want to do," Philip Roosevelt told reporters, "is to provide a place for people to chat, write letters, eat sandwiches and cakes, and most importantly, drink real coffee." . The manager of this shop, the young Brazilian A.M.Salazar, is a high-class coffee snob. He smelled that Americans "really don't know how to appreciate good coffee" and boiled it for too long to make it lose its flavor.

Salazar teaches customers how to prepare coffee correctly through careful demonstration. While they were waiting, he ground the coffee and poured the water on a "special filter". As a demanding, if it is a barista who is sometimes unbearable in 2 1 century, he will teach them proper temperature and baking. Salazar also suggested not adding milk or cream, which he thought would lead to indigestion, but he surrendered if the customer asked.

The timing of Roosevelt's adventure was ideal: after two months of opening, alcohol was banned and cafes filled the vacuum left by the closing of bars. "new york must thank the blessing of Prohibition," a writer commented in the daily bulletin of Wisconsin Daily. "This is to build a modern coffee shop, where you can get a cup of coffee, that is, coffee, instead of tannic acid soup. It must also thank the Roosevelt family for their new and unique enterprises.

The Brazilian Cafe was forced to change its name on 192 1. It turned out that Salazar once owned a Brazilian cafe in Pearl Street. When he sold the cafe, the new owner kept the name and served a legal notice to the Roosevelt couple. In order to avoid litigation, they turned to Double R Cafe to solve this problem for Monroe Douglas Robinson, the nephew of Roosevelt and TR, who also joined the project.

"KDSP”DoubleR eventually developed to four locations in new york, all named after South America: the original Brazilian branch moved several doors to 44th Street and survived a fire (TR's widow Edith happened to be there, drinking coffee calmly when the coffee was under control); Argentine outpost; A Colombian (the thief tried to steal TR's oil painting portrait); There is also an Amazon. The two brothers plan to set up their Archie reconnaissance station in Chicago and make similar trips to Boston and Philadelphia. They finally stayed in the local area, but the cafe did realize Philip's wish to bring different people together. Brazilians live in the theater district, which is the favorite gathering place for actors, artists, journalists and musicians. Its sponsors include H. P.Lovecraft, the little-known publisher of American Gothic novels at that time; His circle of friends, Kalem Club, is famous for its frequent appearance of double R.Lovecraft, and even wrote a fanatical ode "In Double R Coffee House" here.

Perhaps it can make the free soul forget the busy time and the tempering of the bustling crowd, and shine their deepest dreams loudly in their minds.

Despite the success of the chain store, by the end of the 1920s, the attention of the Roosevelt couple had shifted elsewhere. From 65438 to 0928, under the sponsorship of the Field Museum in Chicago, Ted Jr. and Cmit made a complicated plan for the most Roosevelt-style expedition: a long exploration of the Indian zhina to collect animal and plant specimens, including the elusive giant panda, and they shot and killed one of them (the skin was preserved from the perspective of the museum). Reyes pointed out: "In the late 1920s, Ted Jr.' s political career began to take off. "So this may be the reason why he wants to get rid of it."

A potential buyer is Maxwell Company, and aco conducted an investigation at 1927 according to the memorandum of Cmit in the document of the Library of Congress. This company has kept in touch with Roosevelt for many years, claiming that when T.R. visited andrew jackson Manor near Nashville on June 5438+0907, June 5438+1October 2 1, he took a sip of Maxwell Manor and declared that "this is the last drop of good coffee." "Teddy Roosevelt's popular slogan for Maxwell Manor Coffee", the company published an article with similar sponsorship content in Southwest Railway magazine of 192 1. "