Pot Luck

When I first saw the little light teal green antique drip coffee pot at Demitasse Coffee House Cafe in 2004, my heart started to beat a little faster.

The color was one I had not seen before or since and it matched our kitchen walls perfectly. I approached Dave & Deb, owners, to purchase the little pot, but Deb said it was one of her personal collection of nearly 100 pots of all shapes, sizes and colors that bordered the walls like molding and it was not for sale.

I grew up drinking coffee as a social event with my grandmother, Mamoo, and with my Mom and family at the age of four. Several times each day, they made a pot of coffee by adding boiling water to the drip top one tablespoon at a time through the French Market Coffee and Chicory brand or Community dark roast grounds. The result of this slow, tedious method of brewing was a smooth, bold, rich and very aromatic tasting cup of coffee that is similar to today’s espresso.

I can vividly see in my mind’s eye Mamoo adding condensed milk into my Demitasse (half a cup) and telling me that I would eventually learn to enjoy sipping my coffee without milk or sugar to get the full flavor – and she was right. But until then, I thought, be generous with the condensed milk!

Mamoo said that one of the things she really missed was the aroma of roasting coffee beans emanating from most houses before the sun had risen each day circa 1910.

She had a special black iron pot and long handled wooden spoon used only for that purpose. Roasting the beans to the darkest state, nearly ablaze, the bean’s caffeine is at the lowest level and the flavor is at the highest level. Next, she would grind the beans into the consistency of sand. Then she would start to make her first drip pot of the day.

By the time my children, Drew and Maryll, reached the age of 4, 1, too, introduced them to the afternoon delight.

I did the same for Caroline Elizabeth and Bree Claire, but none of them expressed much interest in espresso. However, just mention going to Starbucks and it’s, “Paw Paw I am coming with you; I want a vanilla frapachino.” Close enough for me!

My wife, Judy Kay, and I had just restored our old circa 1820 home, and we had four old-fashioned slow-drip white pots made in Belgium, just like Mamoo’s and my mom’s, on the kitchen windows.

A few days later while dining with my wife on a Panini sandwich at Demitasse, I pointed out to her the little light teal green coffee pot.

“I love it! It would really bring out the color of the kitchen walls,” she said.

Judy rarely expressed a desire for tangible items, so I knew that she wanted it. The value of these pots varies on condition and on all of the components on them. For the four pots that we have, I paid from a low of $20 to a high of $55.

I usually enjoyed my afternoon espresso at Demitasse several times a week and so I asked Deb to reconsider selling the pot by offering $400 for the little light teal green pot, She said no again because that was part of her collection.

Judy Kay moved to heaven in July 2007. My life was forever changed.

I wrote a book about our life together, “Love At First Sight: A Union Made In Heaven.” Dave and Deb sold the book at Demitasse.

In December 2010, Dave and Deb

experienced a tragedy that would devastate even the strongest person. Demitasse burned to the ground. They lost everything!

I met with them a couple days later at the site to photograph the aftermath.

I was taking photos when Dave and Deb came over and as we started to talk about their future and what they would do, our emotions exploded and we all cried.

The next day, Dave brought in some heavy equipment and began to haul off the burned rubble. I stopped by and walked to the area where the little light teal green pot would have been. I dug through the ash and pulled out this glob of burned and rusted pot metal encased in melted plastic the semblance of the once-immaculate little light teal green pot. I brought it to Deb and she said I should keep it because material things no longer mattered to her as they once did.

I took the fragile rusting pot to my shop and spent many nights cleaning and stabilizing the rust and fiber glassing the holes and smoothing the remaining porcelain which still adhered to parts of the pot metal. I primed and sanded it many times to get as smooth as I could. I tried to find a paint that matched the color but I could not find just the right color, so I just painted it green.

Toward the end of the painting process, Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior impressed to me that I should return the coffee pot to Dave and Deb when they reopened their new cafe.

It took them several months to relocate from small place on La. Highway 311.

I learned that they were open, so one Saturday I stopped there for my demitasse espresso and asked one of the workers to get Dave and Deb to step outside. I presented them with the green coffee pot, which is the only thing salvaged out of the original 12,000-square-foot antique mall. And yes the tears flowed again!

You have to have lost something that you love and that cannot be replaced to fully understand moments such as these.

Dave and Deb have since moved Demitasse to 6815 W. Park Ave. in downtown Houma. Next time you dine there you can see just above the register the green coffee pot that once was the little light teal green coffee pot.

Pot LuckPot Luck

When Demitasse Cafe burned down in Houma, not much was left. But the story of a teal green coffee pot reminds us of several valuable life lessons.

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