2:55

If you want to know what it looks like when a New Orleans resident takes over a cafe space from a big chain that had intense colors and wornout floors, you should look up Pulp And Grind on 644 Camp St in the Warehouse District. Look them up on Yelp, or visit this episodes show notes to finout what-the-fuss is going on with those Bagel Bombs they’re cooking up.

3:30

While we were there Becca made me some chai she’s working on, we tried some of their juices….. Woohoo! But… (music stop) I don’t exactly have a recording of that. Because. We accidentally locked our phones and bags in the back room. With the backup keys….. ooops.

4:20

Flashforward with me now past all of that and to us leaving, where you get to hear us leaving with those same keys we accidentally locked in the back room! From there we got a ride from one cafe to the next spot.

8:20

High Volt Coffee, lifted counter space. We tried 3 different drinks, (1) Bulletproof style coffee with butter and coconut oil, (2) Coke with espresso and vanilla syrup, on ice, (3) semi green banana, almond milk, espresso, cocoa nibs, ice, agave.

14:00

District Donuts location - did you hear my excitement about the Maple Sriracha doughnut?

15:45

Revelator Coffee, totally got lost on ‘637 Tchoupitoulas’ before running into Brandon Paul Weaver. Very sleek space, minumalist, very limited and specific menu.

17:00

Thanks to a special barista from Spitfire Coffee

New Orleans is an old city, 1920 larger population than today, 384,000 residents. NOLA being a very traditional sport where things don’t change quick, its richly STEEPED in traditions and character. 

Backup and thank Byron, Spitfire Coffee off St Peter for making my list. That part of the city has buildings older than America itself.  

20:00 what was that cocktail Brandon?

20:30 Freshcup Bethany PDX

No I did not visit Cafe Du Monde… Also Spitfire is awesome.

This episode is a sneak peak into what it looks like to work with Levi in designing your beverage menu. This is just the start of the talk, where I interview the client. Its a real call, but only the first call, not the follow up. This is beneficial to you if you need some inspiration for your menu, also we chat about hemp milk and mocktails. If you need help with beverage, contact Levi[at]Boyrista.com for more information.

TIME 1:50 "What different trends do you see in the USA and abroad?"

1) The Australian coffee market may be 10 years ahead of the US market, maybe because of the high concentration of Greeks and Italians?

2) In Australia we see more dark/syrupy/chocolate but full of flavor coffee, not as much light roast or citrus/fruit/acidic centric coffee.

3) China appears to be quality focused, everything used has to be absolute highest quality beans.

4) America loves single origin coffees.

TIME 8:20 "How long is the waiting period between when you hear a customer wants Bare Coffee before they actually have Bare Coffee in their shop?"

1) We have an automatic system, if an order is set it can ship out nearly instantly.

2) Other customers can take about 3 months depending on their own internal systems. It seems that the Australian market is faster, just a different market.

3) If a customer has an agreement with their current roaster then there is that waiting period.

4) We don’t sell it to everybody that comes a long, you wont find out coffee in 7-11. We’re looking for people who want to be our customer.

5) We also have a system called Bare Buddies (lawyers/accountants/webdesigners). We offer this because we want our customers to be around longer, not to add another sale or source of revenue.

TIME 13:20 "What services that you offer to smaller cafes are the biggest help or biggest surprise to cafe operators?"

1) There’s only so many coffees you can make and sell in one day. Have you scaled up to see just how much you can sell within a day, or how much traffic/customers you can facilitate? There are so many other ways you can make money rather than selling just lattes. When there’s 30 cafes in a strip on a street, how do you differentiate or what do you do to keep open? You need passion - but likely you already have the passion, what you likely need to do is to learn how to make a profit. Usually cafes focus 95% on just the coffee and forget about the other peices that support it as well, and that can be an oversight.

2) Outsource where you can, put in some of the items that are higher margined or higher ticket.

3) Think about renting out a boardroom or space for freelancers to have a landing space to work out of. Now there is a person who chas thought about maximizing the offerings that their cafe can give. And my view has always been to charge for top-top-top quality wifi.

TIME 20:00 "What are your plans for the next 6-months and next 6-years?"

1) We’re moving into China, its a tough space to get into, but they love Australia. Perhaps setting up a roastery there.

2) We will be rolling out some new cafes as well, that we are really excited about.

3) The next 6-years? Wow, that’s a big question. The coffee industry is strong but always changing, how can we know where its all headed? Will Starbucks focus more on the home and will that change everything? Who knows. 

TIME 32:20 "How should we be educating our customers before they enter our doors?"

1) Starbucks has been great for educating the marketplace for us. We want educated customers.

2) But we definitely need to become more efficient as a workforce serving our customers.

• Chance to work with friends
• Enjoy working in a space (the USA) that is still blooming
• A chance to apply skills from other industries and take into the coffee industry

• Not specific to coffee, they’re always let by passion but don’t always identify the main goal whether that’s pure profit or a passion to be within the industry
• It needs to be business first and passion second, because at the end of the day the passion stops when the money runs out.
• Why is it you want a cafe rather than any other business. The key is when someone says “I wanted to run a great business and I love coffee.
• Or do what Richard Branson did, hire to your weaknesses so you can focus on your strengths

I was just at a TNT event in Milwaukee (thanks Stone Creek Coffee for hosting!) and ran into a listener who is not in the coffee industry. He was telling me about how much fun he is having at this TNT and how glad he was to have seen a simple poster hanging up by the door that told him about the event. He then went on to tell me my next podcast needs to be on this exact topic of "Why Your Cafe Should Host a TNT: and since customer service is so near and dear to me, Andrew, your wish is my command, enjoy.

• Timeline:
• 1:00 "What's more important, the coffee or the customer?"
  • You can be proud of your products, but if you're snobby about it then you've missed the point of serving people
  • You can humbly tell people that you think you have the very best coffee or products. Always be ready to share WHY you think you're the best, sharing through education NOT arrogance. Can you celebrate your industry with your competitors? If no then you may be arrogant

• 4:00 coffee from someone who loves coffee
• 5:00 have taste testing, if you think you have the best coffee in town then put your money where your spout is and offer refunds for not serving great brews
• 8:20 how do you prepare you staff to talk to customers, do you script answers for your staff? Jack Groot: "We would give them the education and information they need and then let them share it in a way that they felt was correct for the customer."
• 11:00 Would you use Kickstarter to start a business, how do you feel about debt?
• 15:30 Should you open a cafe where there are no other coffeehouses? Should you open a cafe if there s a Starbucks near by? What should I do if Starbucks is opening by my coffeeshop?

Thanks Jack!

Who is the most important person in your business, you, your staff, or your customers?

I was chatting with Matthew about what the 5th wave of coffee may be, then he opened up and shared his vision of a better world. A world where every piece of the coffee experience is market by excellence. This is definitely a silly poke of fun at the idea of artisin register skills but don't overlook this key piece of the customer's experience with you (or your brand). Everything we do can be better!

I asked Christian Ott to give us all the reasons to go down to coffee origin. Hopefully this will convince you (or your manager) to fund an eye-opening trip to the coffee producing country you love! Also, let's be real, there's some great points here to consider my friends.

Kenny Buckley is a friend of mine and is the Executive Chef at Airways Brewing in Kent, WA. I reached out about cooking with coffee, he gave me some advice, then we hopped on a call. No recipes in this episode, just mouth-watering-ideas that are surprisingly easy to employ.

Complete details at www.AudioCafePodcast.com/42

This is not a complete description of the Starbucks Reserve location, but select observations from visiting it between Christmas and New Years. If you don't like Starbucks then you may not like this episode ;-]

I am looking forward to seeing these ideas utilized in foodservice soon. For the complete list of ideas (16 of them) please visit www.AudioCafePodcast.com/41