Once upon a time, Jodi Lehr might have been described as Roberto Donna’s Mary Poppins. Not that a woman as stylish as she could be pictured in clumpy shoes, squashed hat and dowdy brown coat, clutching a stout umbrella. (Check the Len Depas photo.) But the chef who some (me) might say was the father of Washington dining out as we now know it, would probably agree that without the careful ministrations of Jodi Lehr, he might have gone to pieces.

She became Donna's personal assistant at a time when his ownership of restaurants was expanding at an accelerated speed. While Donna kept his eye on the boil, she kept hers on the ball, organizing his demanding day-to-day schedule, maintaining a firm hand, distractions at bay and the show on the road.

After 13 years, in 2003, she left to join her husband, William Gutierrez, in running his coffee business. And just as few outside the chefs’ world would have appreciated how much of their pleasure had been owed to her ministrations when they ate at Galileo or Arugula or I Matti or one of the Radicchios, they’re probably not aware that when they order an excellent French press pot of coffee at watering holes like Ceiba, TenPehn, DC Coast, Acadiana, Vidalia, Bistro Bis, Ruth’s Chris Steak Houses, Marcel’s, Two Amys, Crème, Café Saint X and Bar Pilar they’re also under the influence of Jodi Lehr and her husband. She is vice president of sales and marketing and co-owner with Gutierrez of Santa Lucia Estate Coffee, coffee produced with the meticulous care more commonly applied to making exceptional wines.

The description ‘fair trade’ is bandied about as often as ‘locavore’, ‘seasonal’ and ‘sustainable’. But, as Lehr points our, ‘fair trade’ doesn’t always mean good quality. And 15 years ago, the coffee being served in most of Washington’s white tablecloth restaurants was neither ‘fair trade’ nor good. “They were selling commercial grade coffee with their fine food!” Lehr exclaims. In other words, the kind of bitter, thin liquid familiar to anyone who has stopped at a Seven Eleven or Dunkin’ Donuts for their breakfast beverage. Santa Lucia Estate Coffee (from the plantation, left) is coffee praised by Wine Spectator for its “rich earthy chocolateness balanced by good acidity.”

Gutierrez, a Nicaraguan, had arrived in Washington in 1981 with $20 in his pocket, escaping conscription into the army of the Sandinista regime. He went from jobs in the capital to jobs overseas, from the Inter-American Development Bank to brokering sesame seeds. In 1993, a connection with coffee roaster David Dallis thrust Gutierrez into the Nicaraguan coffee business and together Lehr and her husband, now married 21 years, became embedded as a couple in Washington’s burgeoning food and restaurant community. “Before we had two kids [Robert, now 14 ½ and Marco, aged 11 ½] we attended lots of dinners,” smiles Lehr.

It was the best time to move into the coffee business. “Starbucks had just started and Columbian coffee put $19 million in developments in promotion and advertising of coffee. So coffee was becoming what it was. Everyone was starting to talk about ‘water’ and ‘oils’ and ‘beans coming from the farm’.”

Still, Nicaragua’s years of revolution had resulted in an American embargo of its exports. Its coffee went direct to Europe, by-passing the U.S. Lehr, who had got her start doing nightclub promotions and who had been director of marketing at the Old Post Office before she became Donna’s PA, went to the chefs she had met through him to encourage their uptake of her coffee in their restaurants. While Jeff Buben, Jean Louis Palladin, Roberto Donna and others may have opened their doors because of the relationship, Lehr says even those who responded to the couple’s coffee pitch with skepticism could taste the difference. And began to see that the humble bean should be treated with the same respect and appreciation with which a vintner approaches the grape.

As long as 10 years ago, before ‘traceability’ became yet another food buzzword, Lehr and her husband registered the slogan “From the farm to your cup,” which has evolved into “From our plantation to your cup.” The couple now owns the source of their coffee, harvesting, between December and March, up to 3 million pounds of beans. Picked from bushes 5000 feet up in the mountains, beans are washed, laid out on cement porches to dry out in the sun then sorted, all by hand. Only the best of the beans – around 20 to 25 percent of the crop – are selected, for roasting at Santa Lucia’s roasting house in Rockville, MD. The couple, says Lehr, are looking into doing the roasting in Nicaragua.

They bring Washington chefs down to see what they’re up to. “They don’t get it until they see. They can’t imagine what’s involved in harvesting coffee,” Lehr says. “It’s a beautiful process.”

And one that, with Santa Lucia Estate Coffee, doesn’t involve a middleman or a distributor. Pickers benefit from a premium paid directly to them. The estate’s coffee is a Sustainable Rainforest Alliance Certified product. The Rainforest Alliance offers support in a number of ways, from the building of a school and extra housing, to more bathrooms and showers, increased doctor visits, “And day care,” says Lehr, “so the coffee kids don’t  have to be out picking and can attend school.” Re-certification is annual, so there’s no room for sliding back.

We can buy their beans, too, and drink well and feel good about it. They've just been relaunched at Whole Foods as part of its local foods campaign.

Santa Lucia Estate 100% Whole Roasted Beans come in 12 ounce bags, Classic, Vienna and Decaf, at $9.99 and $10.99.

Related Information...

5 Comments

1. william

   finally someomne got it!!!
   Mr King of Coffee...Love you

2. Barbara Brown

   Good Evening : )
   
   Just had dinner at Mike's American Grill and had the BEST coffee ever!!! I asked them what they were serving and they told me it was Santa Lucia - WOW!!! It is like having a desert : ) Do you happen to know if it is the classic or Vienna inasmuch as I am interested in ordering some - I am guessing it is the classic - Do you happen to know?
   
   Thank you SO much and I am looking forward to ordering from you - Is your coffee sold in any of the stores?
   
   Thanks SO very much!!
   
   Appreciatively,
   Barbara

3. Santa Lucia Coffee

   Barbara -
   
   Thanks for your wonderful response. We pride ourselves on growing, roasting, and providing one of the very best coffee products available on the market today. The coffee you enjoyed happens to be one of my favorite too, it’s the Vienna Roast and your description of the coffee being like "desert" is a great representation of its flavor profile (Rich, Smooth, Chocolate tones with a pleasing finish).
   
   You can find out more about Santa Lucia Coffee and our product as well as purchase the coffee online at www.santaluciacoffee.com or check your local (DC area) Whole Foods Market shelf and look for our green label… Once again thank you for your great response. Your experience is what we work so hard to accomplish and what Mr. Gutierrez our president envisioned when he began his coffee journey so many years ago.
   
   Sincerely,
   Robert

4. Mary Jo Miller

   I'm so thrilled to have found you. We had dinner at Ruth Chris in Wilmington, NC where we now live. I asked the waiter about the coffee and he told me your story and said you were in Rockville. We move from the Rockville/Potomac area,
   so it all seemed kind of karmic. I hope you expand in our small market and I plan to make a sizable order on a regular basis. Best wishes to you and your wife and your continued enormous success. PS I sell Real Estate in Coastal Carolina where beach properties are under 500,000, so if you need a get away
   from all your hard work, please email me. All the best, Mary Jo Miller

5. Susan

   Disappointed that we can no longer buy Santa Lucia Coffee beans from Calvert Woodley Wine Shop. The deli manager gave me your number, but I have been hesitant to call you at home. Whole Foods in Annapolis carried your cofffee for a short time, but no longer can find it there as well. It also did not taste like the beans I got from Calvert Woodley. We usually buy about $50.00-70.00 at a time when we went downtown. Any suggestions? Sincerely, Susan