Friday, November 23, 2007

coffee, yesterday, today & tomorrow

Another view

One of my dear friends in Ca sent this our way.

(click to enlarge any photo)

One of many views of how we would change
our windows to attract attention. For awhile, that
poster on the left would go on the other window,
and many people would ask what it meant.
What could you say?

Where you see the yellow fabric.
We put benches near the window, in hopes
people would actually sit there. In the end,
only a few people actually used them.

We couldn't figure that one out.

For those new here, we had a coffeehouse,
circa Oct 31, 1999 - March 2003.

I received this from my friend Greg
@ Group 362 and it was hanging behind
our cash register.

When we searched to find equipment for
our store, Lisa found what looked like a
great deal in Nyak, NY. We talked to the
owner who had a store and closed it.

The owner of the storefront we were going to
rent, knew someone in Nyak who could look
at everything for us and at least let us
know how it all looked. Included in the sale
was a 2 group head Cimbali espresso machine,
marble tables, chairs, frig, pastry case, etc, etc.

It just so happened, the couple in NY, not only went
and looked for us, but they used to go into that
coffeehouse themselves. We did purchase the equipment
and it turned out the Cimbali was a great find. Once
it was cleaned out and tuned up, well, I won't bore
you with the details. For the price, we saved lots of
money and had a nice looking store to boot.

This is the note we received from Mark,
that looked at the equipment for us.
He later came out with his wife and we had
a very nice dinner with them.


These are only a couple of the articles
that showed a photo of the inside of
our place. Sorry about the quality of
the scan. The papers aren't exactly
printed on archival paper.

You get a sense of what it looked like though.

Notice the beautiful sign that Lisa printed?
We had a special, hence low price initially to
entice people who didn't know about
specialty coffee to try it. We started to notice
a few people only came in on that particular day.
We then changed it from day to day, and those
people then only came a few times after that.

Although you can't tell from these articles,
the floor was marble, as were the walls part
way up. We had to take out a rug that had
been on the floor for over 20 yrs. Paneling
was on the walls and we took that out
to expose the marble. Tin ceiling tiles,
which we had to replace a few of, and wood
was around the windows which also was
covered by the paneling.


Colleen is a Christian writer and we were
told she had written about us in her new
book at the time. Here are a couple of pages,
and the cover. My name was Steven, 'cause she
already had a Michael, darn. ; (

That's a small glimpse of our foray into the
business owner world. It's surprising just how many
things happened to us even before we opened.

We were to open in May, '99. As mentioned, we
weren't able to open until 10-31-'99.

But that's a whole nother story.

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks for t/blast frm the past. love how that construction paper mellows w/age.

Coffee Messiah said...

hr9: Doesn't seem like that long ago and always appreciate the sharing! ; )

Been going through the zine archives also. Man, we've been sharing with some of the top people in the MA world. What a great community!

Enemy of the Republic said...

Beautiful stuff. This blog always makes me feel at peace. Sorry I haven't been around.

Anonymous said...

Wonderful read, cm, and your coffee shop looked so inviting.

robin andrea said...

Your coffee house sounds like it was a beautiful place. Marble floors! How grand it must have been.

enigma4ever said...

ahhhhhh, nothing like watching the creation of a great coffee shop...so wonderful....I would love to do a Coffee Shop road trip one day,....you all did such wonderful cozy things...thanks for sharing this..

Spadoman said...

If I remember correctly, you no longer are in the coffee shop business. Or am I wrong with this assessment?

If so, what do you miss about it? Or better still, do you miss being an owner? What kinds of choices do you have for coffee where you live? Shops. roasters, etc?

I know you are like Mrs. Spadoman and myself and that you look for coffee while on the road. We need to exchange "finds" someday. On our last trip, we suffered with our coffee searches.

Peace to All.

Coffee Messiah said...

enemy: No problem & Thanks for stopping by when you do.

mirth: Thanks. we still run into people who tell us they miss us and the store.

robin: It was and I don't believe some people knew just how cool it was until we were gone.

e4e: I'm sorry I never took the before pics off my old mac. I still have it, but no way to get anything off right now. Thanks for coming by!

spado: As for your 1st ?, it's clearly stated in the post. As for the rest, I'll post another time about those ?s! ; )

We don't have a list and it's hit and miss, like you all, and like you, mostly miss. You get surprised sometimes though.

No, we purchase our beans, for our press and espresso machine from Vivace in Seattle. There's a couple of places to go in Ft Wayne and Indy, other than that, nowhere nearby to hang out or talk with others, unless you go to the donut shops. ; ( Which we don't, for obvious reasons. Thanks for popping in.

Mary said...

I enjoyed this post. The place looks like it was great. How cool that it is immortalized in a book. Shame that you are Steven rather than Michael but still...

Mary said...

Oh and I like that the note was signed "courage". Good choice.

Coffee Messiah said...

mary: Thanks! You should have seen/heard my reaction being in this book at 1st! ; (

But it was a very nice gesture and it took a great amount of courage, not only to open a coffeehouse in this area, but to manage 4 yrs and to finally say: enough.

Mary said...

Hey, I say get a little noteriaty (of the favorable kind) where you can. My cousin was once on the front page of the National Enquirer. She was also the editor in chief for a popular political magazine (George) but the N.E. is what impressed us. At least you are got in a book. No trace of me...YET.

Coffee Messiah said...

mary: ha, ha.....btw, shouldn't you be installing a mosaic? !

LET'S TALK said...

What ever happen to those times and those shops?

s. douglas said...

You know me Coffee, not big on caffeine. I prefer that good old Adderall buzz.

But I do enjoy your blog. It's so quiet here.

raffi said...

wow, you're famous ;) i'd love to have a cup o'joe at your place sometime. btw, nyak is about 20mi north of me here in the bronx (just some arbitrary info).

Coffee Messiah said...

let's talk: They are around, but it's like hide and seek to find them. Seems that once you make contact with the locals, you'll catch one. Thanks to SB and their fast food approach, they tend to eek out the good ones everywhere for some reason! ; (

fairlane: Thanks for looking at what we had. I don't know about quiet, just not so disorienting and without the angst! ;)

raffi:That's cool. The couple that looked at the equipment said the shop was pretty good too. Can't remember why this guy closed, although he was selling liquor and perhaps there were other problems also. Thanks for popping by!

Oh, and I wouldn't really say famous, I mean, how many people read those kinds of books????

Larry said...

We can always find a piece of yesterday at Coffee's.

Mary said...

Busted! I'll have to lurk from here on out.

Georg said...

Bonjour Coffee,

Here in Europe (and maybe in the US, too) people would like to have a look insite THROUGH THE WINDOW before actually stepping in.

Those big banners make this impossible.

Do you have a photo how your shop looks inside, right now?

Georg

Daniel said...

Hey Coffee, you don't happen to own a coffee plantation or two do you? That would explain why you're always so full of beans!

Take care now.

RubyShooZ said...

Looks like you had a beautiful shop in Nyak. I'm a bit surprised you lasted so long. Small town coffee shops can be hard to find business for I think unless you've got the right town for it.

We used to have a "Likker Store" here in our town but it was already closed when we moved here. We're not the sort of folks who would frequent a place like that and especially not with that retarded name.

Hey, I've not been well but I have had a bit of time to regroup and today is a good day so I am trying to make some quality sorts of comments on my buddies blogs but this comment doesn't seem to be too "quality"... :) Sorry my friend.

Wishing you much peace today and every day.

Always love,

~ RS ~

Coffee Messiah said...

larry: Hi there!

mary: Just joking, of course!

georg: Thanks for stopping by and the pics you shared. Paper articles are all that's left! ; (

daniel: Seems the after effects of the election have made you dizzy. ; )

ruby: Our place was in indy-anna, equipment from nyak. Glad to hear yesterday was a good day for you. Here's hoping there are more to follow!

Michael Bains said...

Hey there, Coffee. Sorry I've not been 'round much either. This post reminds me why I do so dig your digs.

Over the weekend I also visited an old coffeehouse haunt from 10 years ago for me. The place hasn't changed one bit and it's still as cool and relaxed as ever. This time I took a lady friend and learned, to my great joy, that she can play a mean piano! lol!

Ahh well, is just good juju, eh. Take care and see ya 'round.

Coffee Messiah said...

mb: Thanks for a word! Appreciate your stopping by and have found I've not been good at it either. Will drop by ASAP. Cheers!

tut-tut said...

thanks for the link from FB, which was or wasn't around when you originally posted here?

Coffee Messiah said...

TT - Oh no, I think we only met a few years after this - Thanks for taking a look = Cheers!