This time its for real

If its in the paper it must be true right?

We are having a fairtrade farmer who produces chocolate opening the shop tomorrow morning at 10:00. His name is Mr Choco (I kid you not). I must try to get in some terrible pun connecting his name with latte in some way.

As part of the opening we are going to donate all sales for hot beverages on Mothers day (Sunday) to the Co-op that Mr Choco works for. Drop in and have a nice coffee for a good cause.

Official, official opening on Sat 1st of March

We are going to have an official official opening next Saturday. The plan is to get a fair trade chocolate farmer to open the store and give all the proceeds from any hot drinks next Sunday to the co-operative he works for (more anon).

Here is the view you get in the store when working on the coffee machine.

Tall Americano with an extra shot

When we make our Americano we like to give them plenty of taste.

There are three espresso shots go into our Tall Americano. You would think thats enough; but we have a regular customer (after only four days) who likes to drink a Tall Americano with an extra shot.......

I thought for sure that Elliot and Nancy would be the first to hand back a full loyalty card but Mr "Tall Americano with an extra shot" beat you to it.

Busy, busy, busy

We are up and running and been very busy the past three days.

Tomorrow is Saturday and you would expect this to be our busiest day.

We are still finding our feet at this stage and will take us at least a week to get everything in order.

Now to get some sleep before tomorrow.

Open for Business

Opened for a full day today.



This was first thing in the morning.

Did a promotion to give flowers and champagne to the first customer. Should get us some pictures in the local press hopefully.

Gave some coffee to Clare FM as well. Did they mention Esquires on any of the shows?

Unofficially open ;-)

Unofficially opened the doors at around 3:00

Anita was our unofficial first customer as we let her in to the shop a little early.

We had coffee and cakes available but no sandwiches. We got great support from all the traders in Ennis and I would like to say a big thank you to all who called in.

It is taking a while for the new staff to get everything running smoothly so bear with us if your coffee takes a little longer than usual. Give us a few days and we will be flying.

Officially we open our doors tomorrow morning at 8:30 with everything available.

Just that last push.....

Just giving the inside the final touches. Here is an earlier picture of the interior.

Must remember to get the builder to move his boots.

Training finished

Coffee training completed today. Might take a while to open next Tuesday as we have electricians coming in on monday to switch out a fuse board. Still determined to open on the 19th at some stage .......

Sign is in place

The sign guys came and put the sign up yesterday. I like it. It is reflective and picks up what is on the street.

If you look really carefully at the 'R' you can see me taking the photo.

coffee shop lyrics - 2

Carly Simon

I had some dreams they were clouds in my coffee

Clouds in my coffee, and .....

Heard it this morning on the radio.

Tips of the Trade - 2

Went up to meet John Dunne who runs a coffee shop in Maynooth. I just want to say thanks John for taking time out to discuss getting the shop up and running with me.

He has a very nice setup in the shopping centre in Maynooth. I certainly learnt a lot from talking to him. He cooks his own scones using his Mother's secret recipe (at least he didn't give me the recipe).

One tip John gave me was to make your own coleslaw as the coleslaw you buy has too much mayonnaise on it. I tend to agree with him as I prefer coleslaw with less mayonnaise than you usually get.

Opening Flyer

Printed off an opening flyer to send to friends. Hopefully they will remember to call in when they are in Ennis.

Tips of the Trade - 1

I went up to http://www.matthewalgie.com our coffee supplier for some training on coffee. Lachlan MacGillivray went through all the basics of coffee with me and showed me how to ensure you make the perfect coffee/latte/cappucino every time. Thanks for going through this with me Lachlan as I now know a lot more about coffee than I did before.

We are going to make sure that everyone working in the coffee shop gets full training for a week before we open to ensure that the coffee we sell is an excellent cup every time.

One tip Lochlan gave me was if you end up with a lot of empty plastic milk cartons then give them a shot of steam before crushing as this will help them stay crushed and they will take up less room for storing.