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.
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