started with a favourable mention in The Age on Tuesday - then things got crazy from there on in! People coming from all over - Eltham, Geelong, and ever Wheeler's Hill - I kid you not!
Man the place was jumping this weekend - with Saturday being especially busy - what we really needed was an extra pair of hands to polish cutlery etc... The additional cutlery and plates that I bought for the weekend piggy-backing on the positive publicity in the press were accidentally delivered to my old cafe and I'd promised to pick my daughter up early from kindergarten - so there was no way I could go back to work to sort it out - and sure enough we were short of cutlery and plates, cups and saucers etc for much of the day on Saturday, and customer service suffered somewhat as a result
Thankfully though the mad rush only lasted for an hour on Sat and we were just really busy for the rest of the weekend!
Sunday was almost as good as Sat takings wise but the patronage was spread out over the entire day - so we were always busy and never rushed - which I far prefer to being slammed!
Oh well... preparing now for a coffee class that I'm conducting on Tuesday for all front of house staff, as I want to make sure that we are all speaking the same language when it comes to our understanding of how the coffee is crafted, what its individual characteristics are, and how we share this with our customers!
Cheers,
ACg
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
foxy photos
Foxy logos!
Foxy staff feasting!
Foxy madness! Lis going crazy on the iced coffees and Collette - well... what can I say... she's just crazy!
foxy brown espresso - the new kid in town!
Well folks sorry I haven't had much to say recently - too busy opening and running my new cafe!
We're located at 31 South Crescent, Westgarth (all right... most folks cant find Westgarth on the map so try Northcote instead!), Victoria, 3070
We're right on the corner of Mason Street and South Crescent and located in a residential area opposite the train tracks on the Hurstbridge Train line - exactly half way in between Westgarth and Dennis Train Stations - or less than five minutes from the city by train so there's no excuses for not coming!
To cut a long story short we've been going gang busters - a few technical hitches and some staff training issues not withstanding!
Had a write up in The Age newspaper on Tuesday and business (which was busy to start off with) is up 30 per cent since then - with today (well... its yesterday already) being absolutely packed to the rafters!
Between 10.30 and 11.30am this (yesterday already!) morning 60pax (plus takeaways) walked through the door and we were slammed - so apologies to anyone who came and waited 20 minutes for their coffee - but it was the only time that folks waited so long all day!
I'll endeavour to get some pics up of the joint, and to draw your attention to the great publicity that we've had already - but I'm not making any promises just yet as to when - as most of the time I'm working my a*** off!
My wife says that she is officially a 'cafe widow' meaning that she hardly sees me any more... and the other day I heard one of my kids saying: "Mummy... who is that strange man sleeping in your bed?"
I hope for all our sakes that she was talking about me!
We went through 7kg of coffee yesterday - which is definitely a record, and we would have done more had we greater seating capacity
Speaking of which new banquette seating is on the way, which should dramatically increase the seating capacity, and we have front and rear courtyards to accommodate the 'rug rats' (children in Aussie parlance)
Free wireless internet is also up and running, and boy, oh boy - am I looking foprward to the evaporative cooling ducted aircon going in on Tuesday!
I've got a fab team of staff - in the kitchen and front of house - I feel truely blessed! ANd for some reason that includes a bunch of kiwis!
Not surprising really considering that I am an expat myself - and giving the average New Zealander's (well... I speak for Wellington really, not that other unspeakable city!) coffee credentials!
We're running with a custome build BFC Synchro - designed in Melbourne and built in Italy! The machine features masive oversised 600ml heat exchangers in the boiler dedicated to each group head, and 2ml flow restrictors at each heat exchanger - which slows the flow rate to the group head down to a trickle - producing amazing extended extractions: thin 30mls from 50secs with a 20sec pre-infusion and you are in the ballpark!
ANyway - the place is jumping, and I'm eating into my nap time (no NOT while I'm working! I tend to doo all my admin b/w one and three in the morning!) - so it's laters from me!
Will keep you postered!
CHeers, Askthecoffeeguy
We're located at 31 South Crescent, Westgarth (all right... most folks cant find Westgarth on the map so try Northcote instead!), Victoria, 3070
We're right on the corner of Mason Street and South Crescent and located in a residential area opposite the train tracks on the Hurstbridge Train line - exactly half way in between Westgarth and Dennis Train Stations - or less than five minutes from the city by train so there's no excuses for not coming!
To cut a long story short we've been going gang busters - a few technical hitches and some staff training issues not withstanding!
Had a write up in The Age newspaper on Tuesday and business (which was busy to start off with) is up 30 per cent since then - with today (well... its yesterday already) being absolutely packed to the rafters!
Between 10.30 and 11.30am this (yesterday already!) morning 60pax (plus takeaways) walked through the door and we were slammed - so apologies to anyone who came and waited 20 minutes for their coffee - but it was the only time that folks waited so long all day!
I'll endeavour to get some pics up of the joint, and to draw your attention to the great publicity that we've had already - but I'm not making any promises just yet as to when - as most of the time I'm working my a*** off!
My wife says that she is officially a 'cafe widow' meaning that she hardly sees me any more... and the other day I heard one of my kids saying: "Mummy... who is that strange man sleeping in your bed?"
I hope for all our sakes that she was talking about me!
We went through 7kg of coffee yesterday - which is definitely a record, and we would have done more had we greater seating capacity
Speaking of which new banquette seating is on the way, which should dramatically increase the seating capacity, and we have front and rear courtyards to accommodate the 'rug rats' (children in Aussie parlance)
Free wireless internet is also up and running, and boy, oh boy - am I looking foprward to the evaporative cooling ducted aircon going in on Tuesday!
I've got a fab team of staff - in the kitchen and front of house - I feel truely blessed! ANd for some reason that includes a bunch of kiwis!
Not surprising really considering that I am an expat myself - and giving the average New Zealander's (well... I speak for Wellington really, not that other unspeakable city!) coffee credentials!
We're running with a custome build BFC Synchro - designed in Melbourne and built in Italy! The machine features masive oversised 600ml heat exchangers in the boiler dedicated to each group head, and 2ml flow restrictors at each heat exchanger - which slows the flow rate to the group head down to a trickle - producing amazing extended extractions: thin 30mls from 50secs with a 20sec pre-infusion and you are in the ballpark!
ANyway - the place is jumping, and I'm eating into my nap time (no NOT while I'm working! I tend to doo all my admin b/w one and three in the morning!) - so it's laters from me!
Will keep you postered!
CHeers, Askthecoffeeguy
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