Drew Van Zee: Brewing up conversation

When he began working at Blue Owl Coffee in Old Town six years ago, Lansing native Drew Van Zee saw that the employee handbook advised baristas not to serve a cup of coffee they wouldn’t drink themselves. He took the guidance seriously.

“I took the extra time,” he said, sipping an iced matcha tea with lemon flavoring in the store he now manages. “I’d go in the back and make myself a cappuccino and see how it was in comparison to the traditional way to make one.”

But for all his skill with the steam wand, Van Zee thinks it’s the atmosphere he cultivates, not the espresso he brews, that led voters to select him as the Best Barista in City Pulse’s Top of the Town People Contest.

“If someone sits here for a while, I’ll have a conversation with them. I won’t just dart off to the back and do dishes and leave them alone,” he said. “I’ve had multiple days where I’ve realized, ‘Oh, shoot, we’re closed’ and had to tell guests, ‘I hate to kick you out, but our conversation should end because we’ve been talking for so long and I need to do work.’”

Though he only works Friday through Sunday, Van Zee has a number of regulars who come just for him. They talk about everything from video games to movies to life, politics and Lansing as a whole, he said.

“It’s really nice to be able to have that breath of fresh air of having new conversations with people,” he said.

Of four longer comments left on the People Contest voting page, two specifically mention the quality of his coffee. All mention the quality of his conversation.

One, mentioning both, reads, “Excellent coffee, excellent service, you will leave smarter than you came and with a better drink than what you thought you wanted.”

Another praises the ambiance Van Zee creates, and a third calls him “a great conversationalist.”

But Van Zee’s coffee skills deserve some credit, too. Not only are his shots perfectly brewed and his milk well-steamed, but he’s gone out of his way to try most of the flavor combinations Blue Owl offers for those who prefer their coffee sweetened. And that’s despite not being the biggest fan of coffee himself.

“I don’t like milk,” he said, laughing. “It’s crazy, I don’t like milk and I don’t really like coffee, either.”

Raymond Holt for City Pulse

Raymond Holt

Before he started working at Blue Owl, Van Zee’s favorite coffee drink was a Biggby beverage he described as more akin to a milkshake than coffee. He didn’t know that espresso required high pressure to brew or what it meant to “cup” coffee — that is, to evaluate the flavor and aroma of different cups.

He’s still perfecting his cupping craft, but he’s made and tried just about every drink a customer can order. His favorite is the lemon-matcha beverage he drank during the interview, which he called “the most refreshing drink we can make here.”

Asked about his relationship with Lansing, Van Zee’s eyebrows perked up.

“I’ve lived here my whole life, and I love this city,” he said. “I think everybody in it is an awesome person.”

A northsider himself, he goes to see the Lugnuts every Thursday, one of many communities that keeps him invested in the area.

“The Lugnuts community, the Old Town community, the REO Town community, all of them are so great. I love being a part of all of them,” he said.

In many ways, his approach to being a barista is the same as his approach to viewing Lansing: an open mind and a zeal to learn more.

“I love meeting new people and having new conversations every day,” he said, “especially when that can be a new conversation with the same person every time I work. But they can be wildly different. I think having that take on being a barista really invites people in and makes them want to come back for a little bit more.”