Milwaukee

In Milwaukee on a layover today.  A few blocks walk from my downtown Hilton layover hotel, I found by googling:

Stone Creek Coffee

List of observed geek cred:

-the door handle was a used portafilter bolted to the wood door, i've not seen this before, cool
-the machine was a four-group La Marzocco Linea
-there were two grinders, a K30 Vario used primarily, and a doserless Super Jolly that i did not see used at all.  i bet it had decaf in it.
-there was an AeroPress (good geek sign), and a dedicated pourover grinder.  they made an aeorpress drink for a customer, and weighed both the dose and the extraction
-i ordered (as always), a shot of espresso and small-amount, milk drink (machiatto, cortado, gibraltar, cappucino, etc...)  the shot was bright and third-wavey the way i like them, an indication that the beans are not too dark.
-the barista did not weigh either the dose or the extraction (things i do at home), but i asked her and she does weigh the dose from time to time as a calibration check.  she said she extracts by volume, and has a little beaker she uses to check on volume every so often so she can adjust the machine to reproduce that volume
-there were no oddities or foibles in her prep technique.  she dosed straight into the bottomless portafilter and did a stockfleth move and a standard, single-stage tamp without overpolishing or rapping the tamper against the portafilter after a partial tamp

An airline pilot's search for great espresso on the road...

I'm an airline pilot who has a serious taste for top-notch espresso.  I have invested a good deal of time learning about how to make good espresso and a good deal of money in equipment that allows me to make good espresso, and because of that, my own espresso tends to be my favorite.  I say, "tends" because there are a relative handful of places that make espresso with the same care I do, and that tastes at least as good.  I suspect most serious espresso hobbyists are in the same boat, and when they travel, inevitably sporting a serious jones for some good espresso, it can be quite a challenge to find a place good enough to satisfy that desire.  My job being what it is, I face that challenge more or less weekly.

So going forward from now, I will provide data and thoughts from the results of my exploration, more or less as I encounter them.  These will _most likely_ be limited to places that are walking distance from my layover hotel.  Occasionally, I accompany my wife in her business travels and we have a car.  I will review those places too.

I am on the fence as to how much of a critic I will be.  Should I review places that I did not like as well as the ones I do like?  Should I only present facts, with as little critical analysis as possible?  I don't know the answers to either yet.