New Owner Intro

[sakurama]

Hi all. My name is Gregor and I used to live on 8th Street in the East Village right next to 9th Street Espresso. Three years of their cappuccinos set a really high bar so when I moved in with my girlfriend in Brooklyn one of the conditions was that I wanted to be able to make espresso that good which lead to months of research and of course to here.

First I want to say thanks for the great site - it was a big part of deciding I wanted a Vivaldi. Luckily I found a used one and got a good deal on an early V1 in TX for $750. The machine is physically in great shape and is the red one which I really like. It arrived yesterday and since I was expecting the worst I wasn't too disappointed. It was dirty and the gaskets were rock hard but after a day of scrubbing and descaling and general cleaning it's slowing going back together. After years of restoring motorcycles I find something this small and simple to be refreshing to work on.

Thanks to reading about 4000 posts on this site the machine has been really easy to work on since I'd pretty much had it memorized by the time it showed up. I'd spoken to Tim at Chris Coffee about upgrading it to VII spec which I'm doing for a bit less than $600 all in so I'm pretty well under my budget. I'm sure I'll have some questions once I get around to getting it working but I just wanted to say thanks as this site has been really invaluable.

Now I'm hoping to have it together by tomorrow so I can finally pull some shots and start learning the art of espresso.

Gregor

[JohnB]

It was dirty and the gaskets were rock hard but after a day of scrubbing and descaling and general cleaning it's slowing going back together. After years of restoring motorcycles I find something this small and simple to be refreshing to work on.
Gregor

Welcome to the club. I feel the same way about these machines, even the full on restorations on H-B. I ran a business restoring vintage motorcycles for many years & have restored Italian sportscars for a hobby. Playing with espresso machines is relaxing fun compared to restoring a vehicle.

[sakurama]

Thanks John. One thing that doesn't come easily is pulling those perfect shots I've been seeing so often. I've gotten a bottomless portafilter and I think without that I'd be pretty thrilled but I still have a ways to go before I get anything close to perfect shots. Still, my coffee this morning was the best I've ever had at home and better than 99% of anything I've had out so I'm pretty thrilled.

[JohnB]

Perfect shots don't come every time even after lots of practice. As long as they taste good enough to drink be happy & keep trying for that elusive God Shot.

[Endo]

Everything was fine until I got the naked PF. Damn you bottomless! I'm little happier now that I'm back to tasting with my mouth and not my eyes.