What's New
Well, it's simple, our cool tSlow Loris....& we LOVEEEEE them. They're so unique, so comfy, & made in the USA!Check out our very own Slow Shirts online here from the Christopher Park Gallery. You can also come into Rainer's & take one home today!
Here's a little Quick History from Washingt
on's very own Slow Shirts: Slow Loris designs are original drawings hand screened in small editions right here in our studio on Guemes Island. In our 12 years of business, we've never used computers for any designing steps in our illustration process, so every line and color separation you see, was made with my very own double-jointed fingers using an ink pen, xacto knif
e, and rubylith film. The drawing then, after being exposed onto a screen, is printed by a set of hairy knuckled fingers onto clothing, paper and accessories. This handmade quality is the unique difference you can count on. Team Slow is a partnership between artist and founder Jessica Lynch and newly retired fisherman turned screen printer, Arlo Rumpff. We screen print from a solar powered studio on Alternative apparel organic cotton clothing and American Apparel sweatshop free clothing, as well as various FLA (fair labor association) brands.
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What does it mean to be a Favorite place on Google. Well, it means that Google has identified over 100,000 businesses in the U.S. as "Favorite Places on Google" based on Google users' interaction with local business listings. We're one of those businesses! Each business is receiving a window decal with a unique QR code that you scan with your phone to read reviews, star the business as your own favorite and more. Check out a few of the favorites below, and try scanning a code.We're proud, because this means we're one of your favorite places...& Google says so! :)
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G Magazine's November 2009 issue featured two of our very own & we're proud! Congratulations to Ildi Revi of Leopard Forest Coffee Company & Irmgard Looser of Rainer's.
Food and Wine: The Naturals
November 2009
Relying on old-fashioned recipes and time-tested techniques, these Upstate food artisans serve up the past, one confection (or concoction) at a time
Photographs by: Patrick Cavan Brown
It’s arguable that food has never been so in style. From Top Chef to Food Network to Julie and Julia, we dine in an age where farming trends, celebrity chefs, and blogs about last night’s dinner are about as commonplace as frozen pizza. We are attuned to food, not only for its tastes, its connection to our health and environment, or the pleasure of turning out a really fine meal—but also to seek specialness in a world fast becoming too flat, connected, indistinct, and impersonal.
In our twenty-first-century pace, there is something wholly comforting about the purity and slowness of food made by hand. Its quality is noticeably superior—not to mention mouthwateringly delicious—and its tinkerers, scientists, and artists have become sacred keepers of time-tested culinary traditions. They are links to the past, to a time when life felt a bit less hurried. Lucky for us, these Upstate artisans continue to thrive.
The Reigning Roaster
Coffee connoisseurs will taste the love at Leopard Forest
by Lydia Dishman
Ildi Revi Owner and Roaster
Leopard Forest Coffee Company
26 South Main Street, Travelers Rest
(864) 834-5500
leopardforestcoffee.com
Favorite Brew: Pinnacle. “It is a large bean, on the lighter side of medium roast, but full-bodied, like cherry in a cup.”
Roast Toast: The South Carolina Department of Agriculture distinguishes Leopard Forest’s beans as “certified South Carolina grown,” because they are roasted here. The beans are considered products of our state because of this designation.
Ildi Revi’s love affair with coffee started with romance of a different sort. The Chicago native met Robert Boswell Brown, a native Zimbabwean coffee farmer, when she was teaching in Mozambique. It wasn’t long before the two decided to marry and settle on his family’s 1,000-acre property in the Vumba Mountains. Curious about the process, Ildi experimented with roasting in 1998 using a charcoal roaster that Robert had built during a drought, and continued to perfect her skills until moving to South Carolina in 2004 and opening Leopard Forest Coffee Company, a café and roaster in downtown Travelers Rest.
While Robert continues to own and manage the farm (he makes the commute several times a year to ensure things run smoothly and sustainably), Ildi fires up the twelve-kilo roaster daily to put the dark blush on those plump beans. “That size keeps it a craft,” she explains, as does the 100,000 pounds that go in it annually.
She is also quick to point out that this small scale makes it easy to track the love and care that goes into those beans from pick to pour. “My family raised this product, so it is really important to me what I do with it.”
In addition to taking care of those workers who toil to nurture the crops, Ildi hand-profiles each roast, taking into account slight changes in weather and temperature.
“We never use a computer. There is that much nuance in the process.” She also educates each wholesaler and retailer who carries Leopard Forest on the finer points of brewing the perfect cup. “I could lose all quality at the brew point,” she says. Ildi believes it is an ongoing collaboration. “I just want to make sure that whoever is drinking our coffee gets the optimum product from seedling to cup.”
Courtesy of www.gvillemag.com, G The Magazine of Greenville, by Lydia Dishman, Photographs By: Patrick Cavan Brown, Full article
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G Magazine's November 2009 issue featured two of our very own & we're proud! Congratulations to Ildi Revi of Leopard Forest Coffee Company & Irmgard Looser of Rainer's.
Food and Wine: The Naturals
November 2009
Relying on old-fashioned recipes and time-tested techniques, these Upstate food artisans serve up the past, one confection (or concoction) at a time
Photographs by: Patrick Cavan Brown
It’s arguable that food has never been so in style. From Top Chef to Food Network to Julie and Julia, we dine in an age where farming trends, celebrity chefs, and blogs about last night’s dinner are about as commonplace as frozen pizza. We are attuned to food, not only for its tastes, its connection to our health and environment, or the pleasure of turning out a really fine meal—but also to seek specialness in a world fast becoming too flat, connected, indistinct, and impersonal.
In our twenty-first-century pace, there is something wholly comforting about the purity and slowness of food made by hand. Its quality is noticeably superior—not to mention mouthwateringly delicious—and its tinkerers, scientists, and artists have become sacred keepers of time-tested culinary traditions. They are links to the past, to a time when life felt a bit less hurried. Lucky for us, these Upstate artisans continue to thrive.
The Cake Maven
Pastry artist Irmgard Looser’s cakes look almost too pretty to eat
by Blair Knobel
Irmgard Looser Cake creator
Eat Cake: Irmgard’s cakes are available at Rainer’s, 610-A South Main Street, in downtown Greenville. (864) 232-1753
She makes a fresh delivery every Tuesday morning, and her offerings vary weekly.
Faced with such elegant cakes, it’s hard to believe their creator was, at one time, thoroughly opposed to the job. “I hated baking,” confesses Irmgard Looser, the petite Hamburg-born baker extraordinaire. “I would buy $20 worth of ingredients and make a mess out of it.”
But after ten years of co-owning Haus Edelweiss, a local deli and gift shop offering German bites and knickknacks, Irmgard decided to change course. Having relatively little pastry experience—let alone at a fine-dining establishment—she convinced the executive chef of Greenville’s venerable Seven Oaks Restaurant to hire her to lead his pastry program. Then, instead of earning pedigree at a sterling culinary school or even taking a single class, the determined Irmgard taught herself the intricacies of cake making—by poring over texts, experimenting with ingredients, and calling on her own European roots. “I suppose it is the German in me; I refused to quit.”
Twenty years later, Irmgard continues to challenge herself to the delight of friends, family, and customers of Rainer’s, an artsy café near Greenville’s West End. Her cakes stand out artistically (fresh berries dance around precisely appointed swirls of white-chocolate mousse), technically (a delicate chocolate-rum mousse cake is a structural marvel, keenly executed and perfectly balanced), and authentically: Each of Irmgard’s cakes is a mouthwatering result of her own tinkering and trial-and-error baking process. She is a perfectionist and purist, often using imported ingredients to meet her high standard.
And the taste?
“I don’t do shortcuts,” she asserts. “If you’re going to splurge on calories, you might as well make the most of it. I use only the best ingredients and no preservatives.”
An assertion in this case (or any displaying Irmgard’s stunning work) that is deliciously apparent.
Courtesy of www.gvillemag.com, G The Magazine of Greenville, by Blair Knobel, Photographs By: Patrick Cavan Brown, Full article
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