Nate.

Today is my baby brother's 21st birthday. I actually remember 21 years ago sitting on a bench at the end of the hallway in the hospital with my Grandma K. We sat there patiently for what seemed like forever. Finally, I heard crying and my dad came out and said "You have a brother." I remember feeling very proud. I am so lucky that Nate and I are so close, he is one of my best friends and I know I can always count on him to be there for me no matter what, I hope he feels the same.

 

I am so proud of the person Nate has become. He is a junior at St. Olaf and was just elected as the captain of the St. Olaf basketball team. He is so smart, so driven and I know he is going to be extremely successful. I can't wait to see what he accomplishes, considering what he's already acheived at 21. I'm sure Nate doesn't read this and I'm sure he would make fun of me if he did, but whether he sees this or not I want my baby brother to know that I am so proud of him and I love him more than anything.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PIE!

Week One

It's Sunday afternoon and Jason and are winding down and finishing up our first week of business. It has been quite the week. The 4:00am wake up call is definitely an adjustment! It's getting easier each day but boy is that early. We get to the shop between 5am and 5:30am Monday-Friday but I must say we are becoming quite efficient in the opening tasks, so we may be able to get an extra 10-15 minutes of sleep in each morning.

As for business, it's been good. Being that it is our first week, we have been slower than we'd like but the future is very promising. We already have probably 10 regulars who have been in 3+ days this week! A couple of them were even kind enough to write up some five star online reviews!

On a personal note, today is one of my favorite days of the year....THE ACADEMY AWARDS! I have always loved the show but after my three semester stint as a film major I have a greater respect and a greater interest in the industry and the academy. Every year I push myself to see as many of the nominated films as possible, but being that I have been slightly distracted the past few months I think I have only seen 9 of the films. I am on my fourth year of running a very cut throat Oscar Pool where everyone fills out a ballot for their choice of winners and pays a $5 entry fee. The past few years I have seen twice as many of the nominated movies and have never finished in the top 3, maybe now that i'm completely guessing like everyone else I will have a better chance!

Shout Out!

I have to give a shout out to our friend, Per! Per and my best friend Libby have been a huge help and support during this process. Per, however, was a major help in the creation of our website. Being the completely un-computer savvy person that I am, I had toyed with the idea of hiring someone to do our website--which costs a fortune! After a lot of great advice from Per I felt like I had the potential to attack this mission myself. Per did some research for me and found a great site with some easy-to-use software that allowed me to (what I think is) successfully build our website. If you haven't already seen it, check it out:

www.CoffeeBuzzMN.com

Welcome to Coffee Buzz, Can I Take Your Order?

Today was a major day! Our POS systems and security systems were installed and the menu boards were hung!

 

 

We also had a preliminary walk through with the Health Inspector. After our walk through our contractor told me that it couldn't have gone any better and it was the smoothest walk through he's ever had. RELIEF! She gave us a couple of things we need to do to really meet the codes but for the most part she said everything looked great! 

Tonight, the magic cleaning angels are coming to give it a really good scrub down which I could not be more excited for! The shop is so dusty and so dirty from all the construction and all the people coming in and out. I cannot wait to get there in the morning and see it sparkle! I have a small order coming tomorrow to add to a huge order I got yesterday, so my day will be filled unpacking and organizing all of our smallwares. Basically, I'll be getting everything set up and organized out on the front counter and start stocking our back room. Then, tomorrow afternoon we have our electrical inspection, Thursday afternoon we have our building inspection and on Friday at 11:00am we have our FINAL HEALTH INSPECTION!!! If we get all the inspectors approval and signatures by Friday afternoon we will have our license and be ready to start training and open on our terms! FINGERS CROSSED!

Meet the Team!

Jason and I are so excited to have wrapped up interviews and offered three wonderful ladies a position, all of which accepted!!! So, it's time to meet the Coffee Buzz Team!

Sara Walz, is a twenty-five year old graduate of Crown College with a degree in Intercultural Studies. She is currently working in the very early stages of creating a non-profit clothing line. Sara spent a year living in Nashville after her and two friends decided to move there without jobs or a place to live! Sara also has almost six years of coffee shop experience!

Leslie Spriggs is a forty-nine year mother of three who just recently moved to o Hopkins from Mankato to be closer to her kids. After twenty-two years working for a bank, Leslie, decided to start her own Interior Design business. With the slow times and the growing amount of energy Leslie finds herself having, she needed something to supplement her business. Lucky for us, Coffee Buzz was just the thing she needed!

Josi Krawec is a twenty-nine year old graduate of the Culinary Arts program at MCTC. Josi works part-time at the St. Paul Cheese Shop and is quite the cheese expert. She has an amazing knowledge and appreciation of food and beverages. Josi will be an awesome addition to Coffee Buzz and I think we will all benefit from her passion for fine food.

So those are the ladies! Don't they sound great? If you want to get to them better you'll have to come buy a latte and meet them! :o)