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Permalink Reply by Jay Caragay on February 16, 2012 at 9:38am

I have extensive experience with cafe operations offering coffees from multiple roasters paired to multiple brew methods, all brewed-to-order, by hand.  In fact, it is the only thing we do.  No batch brews, no airpots, no compromises.  In fact, I was just discussing yesterday with someone in the company how we could push our limits if we opened another location.

My basic advice to you, based on what you've written above, is that you need to sit down and think very hard about this - and include your staff in the discussion.  You've got an existing operation and making changes on the fly can dramatically affect your revenue and profitability.  Further, you need to develop a clear vision on what you want collectively and understand how to pursue that vision.  Otherwise, you'll probably be throwing money, time and effort at something with which you have no clear vision, no clear goals, no real idea of what you're doing and no experience to back you up.  Not the best way to utilize limited resources.

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Permalink Reply by Casey Loseth on February 16, 2012 at 12:57pm

You're right, making changes is tough like that. We know where we are sitting, and this has been in our vision since day one. I'll give you a little background on this location of ours. This spot was opened just a little over a year ago. This is the second location, this is the fifth year for the first place. What the vision for this second one is as the owner says "coffee no bull", We are trying to be as close to the core of coffee as possible. It's the reason we chose intelligentsia as our base, we believe they have an excellent product, and have been extremely consistant and reliable for us. We don't compromise on anything. What we want is people to view coffee on the level that people view wine. They respect wine, flavour profiles are things that maybe not everyone has experienced with wine, but most people will admit that wine is complex, and full of subtle flavours. Coffee is the same, Restaurants serve wine from many different places all the time, why can't we. We have a clientele that we believe is ready for that level, we have a staff that we believe is experienced, and knowledgeable and ready. We recently started doing espresso catering, which has been a major success our city is ready for really serious coffee, we are dedicated and passionate enough to give it to them. What I'm trying to do here is make sure I know exactly what I'm doing before I just dive in and make those mistakes your meaning, This isn't a risk, this is just a system that I need to create before implimenting it. If I sounded defensive, I'm sorry I don't mean to, I really appreciate your advice and thats why I brought this here. There are some incredibly experienced and intelligent people here. We're far from any sort of coffee culture, we're in saskatoon saskatchewan, we're leading by example here, and I want to make sure we're a good one. And I'd have a long way to drive if i wanted to visit someone that is doing this personally.

Jay Caragay said:

I have extensive experience with cafe operations offering coffees from multiple roasters paired to multiple brew methods, all brewed-to-order, by hand.  In fact, it is the only thing we do.  No batch brews, no airpots, no compromises.  In fact, I was just discussing yesterday with someone in the company how we could push our limits if we opened another location.

My basic advice to you, based on what you've written above, is that you need to sit down and think very hard about this - and include your staff in the discussion.  You've got an existing operation and making changes on the fly can dramatically affect your revenue and profitability.  Further, you need to develop a clear vision on what you want collectively and understand how to pursue that vision.  Otherwise, you'll probably be throwing money, time and effort at something with which you have no clear vision, no clear goals, no real idea of what you're doing and no experience to back you up.  Not the best way to utilize limited resources.

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Permalink Reply by Jay Caragay on February 16, 2012 at 8:00pm

Casey-

Quite frankly, I think a road trip to visit the progressive cafes of North America is worth the expense and effort.  Like your company, when we were planning on opening the current location, our original location had been open three years. At first, the thought was to simply export our standards and methods of service to the new location (similar to Stumptown style of espresso and french pressed coffees).

But part of my job (or luck) is that I get to travel to different parts of the world and visit cafes while traveling, so I get to see a wide range of offerings and experiences that help shape my own personal vision.  In the year leading up to the opening of the new shop, I made two cafe visits that were instrumental in shaping what we would pursue.

The average barista might think that these cafes of significance would be something like Intelligentsia SilverLake, Blue Bottle or some other fancy, hipster, third wave, media darling. But truth be told, while places like that sport the 3W flag, tight jeans and make nice coffee, they're not doing anything much more interesting than espresso and pour over (with the de rigeur V60) while most of them augment their "rush" with batch brewed coffee.  Not to say they're "bad" because their coffee tends to be tasty and enjoyable - but to say they're "progressive" and really pushing the craft?  Not really.  In many respects, it's like reading a Third Wave Playbook.

The two cafes I visited that year were Caffe d'Bolla in Salt Lake City, Utah and Volta Coffee & Tea in Gainesville, Florida.  Both are small, tightly run cafes with owners possessing a hell-bent focus on coffee quality and guest experience. A visit to either cafe yields the most delicious and attentively prepared coffee in North America in a no compromises setting.  Day or night, rush or not, your coffee is prepared to order, by hand, by the cup - none of this compromise with batch brew nonsense.  Those visits were significant in refocusing our approach to the new Spro and resulted in the program we run today.

So I strongly encourage you to take some of your resources and spend a little time on the road.  Bear in mind that Baltimore, Salt Lake and Gainesville are all relative "coffee wastelands" where we operate "in the wild".  And we still have a growing customer base.

There's a thirst for great coffee in a good location. You just have to deliver.

One thing to bear in mind as you move forward. You're going to encounter resistance from roasters when you tell them you are utilizing a multi-roaster approach.  I was just told today that Intelligentsia gives preferential pricing discounts to exclusive accounts.  The roasters want to break the multi-roaster model.  Beware of that and be ready.

And not to worry because there's now a myriad of new, small and eager roasters sourcing nice coffee more than willing to take on your business.  Counter Culture told me that they wouldn't sell to me because their owner didn't like the fact that I had been publicly critical of him - as though he expected that move to hurt my business. It only freed up our cash flow and shelf space for newer and more niche roasters to do business with.

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Permalink Reply by Casey Loseth on February 17, 2012 at 6:21am

I'm entirely expecting resistance which is why I want to maybe try doing smaller roasters. Transcend in Edmonton Alberta is one of them, they have the current national champ here as well. The owner has made quite a few visits to them as he can do it overnight and has started a bit of a relationship with them. I totally agree with the hipster cafe statement, Vancouver has had that be an issue (in my opinion, maybe not the publics) with A certain cafe that kept winning competitions but kept letting me down at the store front. That's precicesly what we don't want. I've heard of Volta unfortunately haven't ever been there. Our first cafe is definitely in the wild, it's in the national park 400km north of here. It's tough we try to get away a bit and the owner did do a trip to the west coast last summer, that took him to stumptown revolver in Vancouver and barista in Portland. He did bring back a lot of good info for sure.

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Permalink Reply by Casey Loseth on February 17, 2012 at 6:32am

I just took a look at Volta, their menu looks great

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