Sneak Preview a Success Despite Massive Equipment Failure

So Saturday was the big day; we served our first paying customers (though to call most of the customers "paying" is a little bit of an exaggeration; coffee was free and lattes cost a buck) and there were no significant hangups. Okay, there were some pretty significant hangups.

On Tuesday of last week I plugged in the coffee machine. It has a normal looking plug, except one of the prongs is positioned sideways. That often means that the machine doesn't run on a normal current, but requires a more beefed up 220 electrical line. This particular machine, however, does NOT require such a powerful amperage. And if there's one thing I know about electricity (and in reality I know maybe five things), it's that if you plug something into a really powerful outlet and it's designed for a much less powerful outlet, you will, to use the technical term, fry the shit out of it. Which I did. Let's hear it for ignoring the directions. And the tag on the plug. Let's hear it for literacy. Fuck. On Thursday I got a new circuit board from the manufacturer and on Friday I got an additional (but different) circuit board. Both were installed and now the machine can make hot water but it won't brew coffee. Which isn't so helpful when you're a coffee machine. So it needs some professional servicing which I hope will occur tomorrow. But we made do on Saturday and used French presses and we were covered for coffee.

The espresso machine is in a world of hurt. I've had two licensed technicians charge me nearly a thousand bucks to "fix" the thing, yet by 4pm yesterday after a mere five hours of use, she was down for the count. I don't know what the hell I'm going to do about this situation. I suspect I'll end up returning her to the place I got her. And then suing the guys maybe? Ah, we'll see.

Other than the equipment going to crap, I think that Saturday was really successful. More than a hundred people came in, and dozens of those people were total strangers. People seemed to like the coffee and the atmosphere, and I've been getting a ton of positive feedback from the neighborhood. Thanks to everyone who came out yesterday, it was a great feeling to get so much support on the first day.

I expect the we'll be open for real on Wednesday morning.

So check us out then.

Or before if you like, I'll probably be around.

Holy Christ

The past week has been ridiculous. I think I've worked like a hundred hours. Yesterday was a seventeen hour day.

The good news: The Health Inspector came today. I'm approved to go get my food license. Assuming everything goes okay tomorrow morning at L&I, the cafe will open this Saturday.

Until then, I'll be working on the place most of the time. Stop by. Say hey. Have some coffee.