Episode Nine: The Double R Coffee House

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Coffee’s history includes examples of shops and cafes that didn’t fit their historical context.  On this episode of Coffee Canon, we deep-dive into one of these; a shop that was opened in 1919, but bears a striking resemblance to modern artisan coffee shops. The Double R Coffee House was ahead of its time, and its owners bear a familiar, American name – Roosevelt.

This episode contains references to a wealth of sources and articles, which I’ve linked to below. Most notably, I ordered scans of the Library of Congress file titled “Double R Coffee House.”  You can download the PDF here.

Below are a couple of images from The Double R Coffee House, some of which are discussed in this episode (click for full resolution versions):

Final note: Coffee Canon is now available on Spotify! Click here to listen, and make sure to click the “Follow” button!

Episode Nine Sources:

• “The Roosevelt Family Built a New York Coffee Chain 50 Years Before Starbucks,” Smithsonian Magazine, by Jancee Dunn.
• “Meet Me at the Double R Coffee House,” New-York Historical Society, by Edward O’Reilly.
• New York Times article announcing coffee shop opening (November 26, 1919): https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/11/26/96868990.pdf
• “All About Coffee” by William Ukers, 1922. Page 690 (769 of PDF) blurb about the coffeehouse while it was still open.
• Double R Coffeehouse mentioned in The Greenwich Village Quill (Magazine & Guide to Greenwich Village), August 1921 publication.
• Joshua Reyes, The Rough Writer: The News of the Volunteers at Sagamore Hill, Volume 9, Issue 3.
• “Simmons’ Spice Mill” VOL XLIII, dated January 1920. Page 56 (31 of PDF) blurb about the origins of the “Brazilian Coffee House” months after it opened.
• Wikipedia
  • Philip Roosevelt (cousin of President Teddy Roosevelt) served as President of Double R Coffeehouse. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Roosevelt#cite_note-5
  • Discussing Kermit Roosevelt and Teddy Roosevelt’s South American expedition in 1913-1914: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_Roosevelt#River_of_Doubt_South_American_expedition
• HP Lovecraft blog that discusses him visiting the coffeehouse: https://tentaclii.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/lovecrafts-double-r-coffee-house-photo/
  • “On The Double-R Coffee House” full poem by HP Lovecraft (1925): http://www.hplovecraft.hu/print.php?type=etexts&id=411&lang=angol 
  • Good source for Lovecraft info: https://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/image/1372/86/1372867413177.pdf 
• “Remembering the Sullivan County Catskills” section on Mrs. Elizabeth Worth Muller.
•  Music
  • “Climbing the Mountain,” Podington Bear http://freemusicarchive.org
  • “Into the Unknown” Podington Bear http://freemusicarchive.org
  • “A Gentleman” Podington Bear http://freemusicarchive.org
  • “Sweet and Clean” Podington Bear http://freemusicarchive.org
  • “Blues Angeline,” Lobo Loco http://freemusicarchive.org

Episode Nine Transcript:

Last episode, we talked about modern coffee culture, including what have become known as the “three waves” of coffee. While a rough construct, it does give a fairly good frame of reference when we talk about coffee’s history. It’s been a while since that episode aired, so here’s a quick recap: the first wave is associated with World War I and World War II, which brought coffee to the masses in pre-ground, airtight containers. The second wave was popularized with Starbucks and similar coffeehouses, which focused on quality above commodity, putting a larger emphasis on where coffee is grown and how it’s roasted. The third wave is associated with modern, artisan coffeehouses that are able to deal directly with farmers, care deeply about taste, and eagerly look for ways to push the craft of coffee forward. With all that said, it’s also important to realize that, like any aspect of culture, there are some people and stories that just don’t fit into their ‘wave.’ 

There are lots of modern examples of coffee companies that look and taste more like they belong in the first or second wave. One of these is Keurig – mass-produced, pre-ground coffee for everyone, even if that comes at the expense of quality, taste, or ecological sustainability. While fewer in number, there are also examples of people and coffee companies that were ahead of their time; they lived during the first or second wave, but acted like a modern, third wave company. On today’s show we’re going to deep-dive into one of these examples. The coffee shop we’re looking at today was opened in New York City in 1919. Its founders bear a familiar, American name – Roosevelt, and its origins start in the jungles of Brazil.

I’m Colin Mansfield, and welcome to Coffee Canon.

Four years after leaving office, the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, and his son Kermit went on an expedition to the Amazon Basin Brazilian jungle. The year was 1913, and the journey came to be known as the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition. Together with explorer Colonel Cândido Rondon, the group would go on to map the River of Doubt, a completely uncharted river over 1000km long. Later, as a result of the expedition, it was renamed Rio Roosevelt. Kermit accompanied his father at the behest of his mother Edith – he was reluctant, because it meant delaying his marriage, but his mother’s concerns about Teddy Roosevelt’s health and the difficulties of a new expedition won him over.

Originally, the scope of the expedition was small. It quickly expanded beyond the group’s original plans, leaving them inadequately prepared to face the dangers of the jungle. Of the 19 men who departed on the expedition, 16 returned home. One died by accidentally drowning in river rapids, and one was murdered by another member of the group. The murderer was left in the jungle, where he presumably died. Teddy Roosevelt was nearly a fatality himself – he contracted malaria and a serious infection from a small leg wound. The former president was weakened to the point of considering to take a fatal dose of morphine rather than be a burden to his son and companions. Kermit told his father that he was bringing him back dead or alive – and if he died, he would be an even bigger burden to the expedition. Kermit contracted malaria as well, but he saved medicine for his father and downplayed his own sickness. This nearly killed him – he lived only because a physician took action and directly injected quinine into Kermit.

Kermit’s outdoorsmen skills and determination saved his and his father’s lives. The expedition concluded in 1914, after which the group returned home. Kermit married his wife Belle, and he started his next job: assistant manager of the National City Bank in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He worked in that position from 1914-1916. By that time Kermit was very familiar with the culture of South America, and he became intrigued by the region’s coffeehouses. Where, in the United States, coffee was served quickly and drunk with haste, in South America it was made with freshly ground beans, and consumed leisurely, in a relaxed environment. Kermit Roosevelt saw a business opportunity. He conceived an idea to start a coffee house in the United States modeled after those he experienced in South America, and he pitched the idea to his brothers. But then, in 1917, the US entered World War I. Kermit’s idea was