To whom much is given...

Etc etc etc.
In the last few months I have been busy.
I have been on the recieving end of a lot more responsability.
Here is the short story.
On August 30th I accepted a full time position of espresso cafe manager at the one year old casual fine dinning cafe the- Carriage House Cafe-
www.carriagehousecafe.com
I was in great distress because I knew that I had such a good thing at gimme! coffee and they have been such a blessing to me for the last two years. I could honestly say that those two years were my most formative as far as coffee is concerned. But I knew that this was the next step for me. I had a real deep feeling driving me to the carriage house. I'm sure you know what I mean when I say that I knew the time was then and now. So rather than drag out the descision I prayed it over for a couple months and one Friday afternoon made the desicion and it was the right one.
Since then I have been going full steam at the tasks nescaessary to being a manager. This includes paper work, bar time, training, suplemental information training, and since we are a fully functional food cafe...serving, dishes, and random creative input and brain storming.
Our Idea is one word. Excelence. Our food our breads, our coffee and tea. All that we put our hands to we want excellence. I was hired to over see one aspect of excellence ...coffee.
In the world of food service coffee is secondary and you can really ony find one or two places that are doing a decent job. The reason is that there is so much stuff the cheff has to conentrate on that coffee dips bellow their radar. To combat this you need dedicated and quality oversight of that area. That's where I come in.
We want to make progessive steps in espresso offerings that will change the temperature of the fodd and bev service water. Making it easier for "just coffee" cafes to get rid of things they have always wanted to but rely on for revenew. Since we serve a sit down crowd we can make move to eventually do away with to-go cup, drip coffee, 16 ounce beeverages etc. I see it as doing our part to bring about the espresso culture we all yearn for. Where consumers stop being consumers and start being people. Where People stop mindlesly drinking and eating and start really experiencing. Alot of what Chris Tacy says about progressive bar culture I can Identify with Although we are not surly bartenders we are, Lord willing along with other progressive "doers", going to make a difference so that the bar will be raised for everyones sake.
The first step we have taken is two fold.

One. Only french press in the evenings...."do you have just regular coffee?" "Why certainly...right here in our french press is our regular coffee"

Two. A desert and coffee/espresso pairing menu.
We have two of these. A Ginger creme brulee paired with a slightly hot spiced machiatto.
and a Valrona Chocolate Pot de creme paired with a Medium Mexican Malinal french press
(These are both evening items)
So There is a little of what we want to be about. I'll post more in a bit(I always say that don't I)

Other than that...I WILL write late.
God bless.

-Chris