An eye doctor’s daily grind
BY AMBER SMITH
When Robert Fechtner, MD, was in high school, his parents took a trip to Italy, where, as he explained, “they were first exposed to fine Italian espresso.”
Upon return, his father invested in an espresso machine and grinder, and the family began making espressos and cappuccinos at home.
A few years later, his parents began remodeling their kitchen. Fechtner was attending the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. If they were getting rid of the espresso machine, he asked, could he have it?
Instead, his father found a machine small enough for a dorm room—and a coffee connoisseur was born.
Today, unless he’s operating, he starts each day with some form of coffee, often made at his Fayetteville home. Fechtner is professor and chair of ophthalmology and visual sciences at Upstate.
“I’m an early riser. I’ve been a surgeon my whole life. The first thing I do when I get up is turn on my espresso machine. It takes about 10 minutes to warm up.”
He believes in freshly ground coffee, so he grinds beans that he buys from a variety of roasters, including Recess Coffee, Freedom of Espresso and Salt City Coffee in the Syracuse area, as well as roasters that ship, including Peet’s Coffee and Blue Bottle Coffee.
Lately, he favors a “flat white.” That is an espresso with a higher proportion of espresso to milk than in a caffe latte, and a thin layer of microfoam — thinner than the usual foamed milk of a cappuccino, and with tinier bubbles.
He used to prefer his coffee black, the blacker the better. “But in the last 10 years I’ve started appreciating the wide range of flavors available,” Fechtner said. “There are all sorts of techniques. It depends on your mood.”
When he travels, he often packs ground coffee and a small AeroPress, a manual device for making coffee, “for the truly coffee addicted,” he said. He likes to try local coffee shops, but if there aren’t any, he likes to be prepared.
On surgery days, he seeks coffee after he completes his operations. He’s got a soft spot for hospital coffee and notes Upstate University Hospital’s 99-cent special on Thursdays. He typically blends the light roast with the medium roast.
Fechtner limits himself to two a day, and usually not after 4 p.m., so as not to disturb his sleep. But he indulges when he sees affogato on a restaurant menu. This, he explained, is the best way to enjoy espresso — poured like hot fudge over ice cream.
Some espressos are citrusy and bright. Others are more chocolaty and dark, which he drinks more of in the colder months.
“It’s snobby to think that there’s only one way to have coffee,” he said. “Coffee is a flavor. It can be a ritual. It can be a tradition. And it can be enhanced by so many things.”
This article appears in the 2024 Upstate Health magazine, Issue 1.
