Hi Melissa,

I built out a cafe in Oakland CA in 1996-7 and the main feature was a drip stand, so we could feature 28 different coffees, ground/brewed to order (we also had a really nice egg poacher, but that is another story). At the time, there were a couple other cafes in northern California that had them - one in Santa Cruz, I can't remember the other. Intermezzo in Berkeley had a dripstand for a while, but they junked it in the early 90's. Caffe Med in Berkeley used to brew in Chemex, but the coffee was terrible (new owners now, so maybe that has changed). Anyway, when we introduced the custom-brewed coffee, customers were confused, upset about the price, couldn't handle the choosing a coffee, etc. But within 6 months we were able to get rid of our presspots and serve only from the drip stand and the espresso machine. It didn't hurt that we had a store next door with an urn, for people in a hurry. The customers who chose the dripstand agreed that there was much more nuance in the cup. Dripstand customers were also more likely to choose lighter-roasted coffees, instead of the ultra-dark roasts that work well in large urn brewers.

Anyway, point being, drip stands aka pourovers have been around for a very long time. Neptune on Greenwood Ave put one in right after the Clover sale to Starbucks, labeled "Dandelion."