No mater how good of a barista one is, the flavor extraction and taste differences between “drip”, “infusion”, and “espresso” are all totally unique. So a refile for a bottomless cup brewed from a drip machine, infusion device, or espresso machine (Americano) are all totally different in flavor. The infusion based cup, by virtue of time that the water and beans spend together, ussually will yield the most full-body and full-flavor cup of coffee. Infusion brewing is after all the method used by coffee roasters to test the quality of the roast in a “cupping”.

Please correct me if you think I am wrong in my understanding of drip brew and the flavor differences from the brewing methods.

Brewing the bottomless infusion style, pays respect to the bean and if the vacuum pot is used, also the barista. If its brewed this way, why should we not be able to charge $3.50 – $4.50 for a bottomless cup. As most people will not drink more than 4 cups, how is that giving it away for free?

By not offering the bottomless, the coffeehouse is discouraging longer stay customers and thus limit the possible of community.

BTW… I really do not know much are types of drip brewing, but am willing to learn.
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Regarding culture and the coffeehouse

Coffeehouses of the past, I believe, were actually culture driven and not coffee drink driven. That is to say that, the culture that formed supported the coffeehouse via drink sales. This is true of the Viennese Café, bohemian cafes of Paris, and the beatnik-hippie coffeehouse in the States.

At the 3rd-wave coffeehouse, 1. micro roasting and 2. culture-community work hand in hand as equals creating a dynamic cross-traffic marketing platform. Alterra in Milwaukee, Victrola Coffee in Seattle, and Awaken in the Bay Area are just three examples of this new type of cross-traffic “culture cafe”.

The 3rd-wave coffeehouse, is much different in nature than the espresso bar. At the espresso bar, espresso based drinks are the only attraction.

It seems to be much wiser to base the business model on a dynamic cross-traffic marketing platform, than on drink sales alone.

One thing has to take priority. If you are selling coffee, I believe coffee should be that priority.

It seems to me that you are not selling coffee. You are selling culture… and offering coffee to your patrons.

The bottomless concept hurts us all. It effects far more than your retailer. There are ways to encourage customers to stay for longer without giving away coffee (which is essentially what you’re doing with a bottomless scenario.. renting space, and you get free coffee with your stay. Such a poor display of respect for the coffee and all who have touched it on its way to the cup.)

Please do some thinking for yourself on this as well. Sure, some front-runner companies have ditched drip. They are not the only front runners, and all of us have not ditched drip. It is different. It is not “worse”. (of course, this assumes it is being done correctly)

If you want to discuss autodrip, that’s for another topic, and is a whole can of worms on its own. And no, I do not believe that it is necessarily worse than other brew methods. If you are good at what you do, the quality should be no different between brew methods. They will be DIFFERENT, yes, but outside of subjective preference, there should be no discernible difference in quality.