Licensed

It is official, I have a legal "Retail Food Standup" establishment, licensed and everything. I'm surprised the license doesn't give me special powers given how many hoops there are to jump through. The question that struck me as I was leaving the Wally E. Webb Building was why the city cares if I have a lease agreement for getting the license. They don't check for it come renewal time, they just take my money. I was very, very tempted to take a picture of the people waiting for service and the counter devoid of any city staff. I am not sure where they go, but they don't seem to have any sense of urgency for getting the job done. They are all easily replaced by a little thing called the internet . . . hop to!

I spent some quality time at Rise & Shine with Craig and Jason from Pablo's getting some more Barista 101 and making sure my Fetco brewer actually worked. Good news it that it works and it is now calibrated to the brew profiles that they have found best suit their coffees. It was a very sad moment when I had to empty the 1.5 gallons of coffee into the sink since even I can't drink that much on my own.

The shop is really starting to come together nicely. I did a little more touch up work on the paint job. There will be spots that I find later on down the road that will never get fixed, but I'm doing my best to make it look perfect.


The comfy corner should be a popular spot for those choosing to enjoy their beverage in house. I have gotten a lot of positive feedback on the colors selected and the general layout. I am curious to see what it will look like with people passing through.


This space feels somewhat empty right now, but I have to keep reminding myself that once you put a person in the window seat and traffic by the espresso machine for drink pickup, it will be pretty full.


Speaking of espresso, here's the Rancilio in its new home. It got the seal of approval from Jason who verified that despite its lack of bells and whistles, it can hold its own. I have to do some grinder modification because the automatic function on the MD-50AT is a bit of a pain. I looked up the wiring diagrams and figured out what all can be bypassed to make it function like the manual version. I'd prefer to grind what I need and turn off the grinder as opposed to having it run until the doser's hopper is full and then turning on again every four pulls of the dosing lever.


I need to do some clean up and debadge the Fetco thermal pots. I will not be serving decaf drip coffee. If somebody wants it, I'll be perfectly happy to make a decaf espresso drink, but I'm not even going to make provision for that until later. It would require dedicating a grinder to the stuff. I get to play junior plumber and add a sink next to the hand wash sink since you can't wash things in a hand wash sink without making the health inspector really mad. There will also be a grinder next to the brewer to grind the 8 oz. of coffee required for a full batch.


I went to "shop" the competition a little bit to get an idea of what people are willing to pay. Pulling in $4.25 for a coffee and milk drink with some flavors seems crazy. My menu won't be anywhere near as extensive, I will just offer the normal and sane coffee drinks. If people demand fluff, I will cave, but the demands must be significant. I have some sort of standards . . .