From grocer to coffee king
Here’s a story to go with your morning coffee: How Phil Jaber turned a corner grocery store in the Mission District into a mini empire of coffee shops, slowly, carefully, one cup at a time.
There are now 11 Philz Coffee shops in the Bay Area, with more to come by the end of the year. Five Philz coffees are in San Francisco, two in Palo Alto, others in Berkeley and Sausalito. Philz Coffee is sold in Whole Foods and Mollie Stone’s markets. The sky is not the limit: Philz Coffee is now served on Virgin America airlines.
Not long ago, Philz Coffee was one of those out-of-the-way neighborhood discoveries that are a San Francisco trademark. The coffee was high quality, good to the last drop as they used to say.
Phil himself could be found behind the counter, wearing a black fedora, pouring not quite boiling water into individual containers lined with filters. He made one cup at time. It took a while to make each cup, but there was a line out the door.
His first shop, at 24th and Folsom streets, was, you might say, unpretentious: overstuffed chairs, scuffed tables, plants here and there. It was not Union Street. But it had a certain something, besides coffee: “This is like my grandma’s house,” Phil said.
By that he means Philz is welcoming, and friendly. “My customers,” he said, “are young, smart, and they don’t like B.S. They like quality.”
Phil Jaber will talk your ear off — he’ll give you his theories on running a family business, on customer relations, (“I earn their trust”) on hiring employees (“I interview them three times before they are hired. I make sure they are on our team. I want them to be happy”), and on quality (“It took me seven years to develop one blend, which I call Tesora, which means ‘treasure’ in Italian.’’)
He leans forward as he talks, grabs your arm to make a point. His dark eyes glitter. He could sell anything.
The sales talk masks a careful approach to building a business.
Keep it in the family. “My son, Jacob, is the CEO. He’s the boss, and he’s my best friend,” he said.
Phil’s daughters and his wife are also involved. “I listen to them all,” he said, “Then I have the last word.”
Have passion. “I love coffee,” he said. “My coffee is healthy. My coffee is medicine for the body.”
Know your product. Phil buys coffee from all over the world: “I buy from Yemen, Kenya, Indonesia, Zimbabwe, Jamaica, you name it, I buy it. Coffee is an art. My coffee is the real McCoy.”
Remember due diligence. Phil started out with a grocery and liquor store at 24th and Folsom, coffee brewing up by the front counter, a sideline. “We sold cigarettes for 49 cents a pack,” he said. “A long time ago.”
He saw the coffee boom coming and thought about getting into it, but he moved slowly and carefully. “It took me 25 years to develop my formula,” he said.
He also studied 1,000 coffee shops, made note of the customers, who they were and what they wanted, and watched how the employees worked, he tasted the coffee.
“I saw what they were doing,” he said. He turned the grocery store into a coffee shop in 2003.
Think about marketing. He blended special coffee: “I have one called Greater Alarm. Firefighters like it. I have Code 33 coffee, for police, you know? I have a Jacob’s Wonderbar, named for my son.” He called the shop Philz Coffee, with a “Z” for extra zing. “One cup at a time” is a slogan to remember.
Exploit social media. Philz is on Facebook, on Twitter, on Tumblr, all that. The original Philz in the Mission has 1,032 reviews on Yelp with a 4.5 stars out of five possible. There is a Philz Coffee at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park. Next stop: Southern California, maybe.
Owen Kelly discovered Philz on a trip to San Francisco from Ireland this summer. He went every morning. “It’s the bee’s knees,” he said.