Archive for April, 2005

THANK YOU! The turn-out last night for “Dining Out for Life” was huge. The Wilde Roast Cafe is donating 35% of our food sales from last night….so, I will be writing out a check for around $700. “Not too shabby.” It is nice to give when it is as easy as eating (or playing BINGO).

Dean and I would like to especially thank Sam, Betsy, and Heidi from Quorum for being our hostess last night. They volunteered their time to Pride Alive and greeted guests, cleaned tables, and even rolled silverware (and drank wine only after). Find more about Quorum at: http://www.twincitiesquorum.com/

Did you see us in the City Pages BEST OF THE TWIN CITIES 2005? Well we won BEST QUEER COFFEESHOP! Thanks for picking us City Pages!

http://citypages.com/bestof2005/restaurants/bestof2699.asp

This week has been crazy busy. We saw a large amount of new faces in the cafe after the KARE 11 spot. If you missed the TV segment keep watching our web site because it should be uploaded for you to view.

Don’t forget Thursday night is “Dining Out for Life.” We are giving 35% of our food sales from 5pm to closing to the Aliveness Project. For more information on Dining Out for Life (like where to eat breakfast and lunch) check out their web site (find link under NEWS/EVENTS page).

Oh my GOSH! Belinda warned us that we would be busy today…well, that is an understatement. The KARE 11 spot was on this morning and Jason did such a good job that we have been slammed today. Dean and I were going to work around the house today (our first weekend in town). I guess not…back to work. Thanks Belinda and Eric!

Dean and I spent this weekend in Seattle at the SCAA 17th Annual Conference. WOW! Who knew that this many people made their living off of coffee. Over 10,000 people attended the conference; 200 hours of education and 800 booths of products all related to the industry. Here is the web site of a new product we will carry…http://oralfix.com/

Not only is it good to see the new products, hear new ideas, it is good to network. We were able to meet face-to-face the people who we call for our POS (point of sale) computer system problems and the people who make our gift cards.

It is our first time in Seattle, which by the way is MUCH better than Dallas, and it is nice to meet friends from our fellow blue state. Our friends Tom and Cory always talk about moving here and now I see why. It is a beautiful city with many things to visit. We will come back to this one!

Did you know our web site has about 2000 visitors every week? Sure most are from my family…but, many want to know about the Wilde Roast Cafe or about coffee news. The most frequent question we get is “When are you expanding?” Well, this is a two part question…the space we are in now is not expanding…but, the possibility exists that we may have other locations. We are looking into other cities and other locations in the Twin Cities, but ONLY looking. We are generating some national recognition in a June issue of a national magazine (more info later), which would let us go to other cities. But, like I said nothing beyond looking right now.

For the people who are checking out this web site for coffee news: this weekend (April 15th-17th) is the Specialty Coffee Association of America (http://www.scaa.org/) Annual Meeting in Seattle, WA. Dean and I will be going to pick up any information on new trends in coffee. Neither of us has been to Seattle, so it should be fun.

Dean and I have actually gotten out of town this week for Spring Break (yes, St. Paul Public School’s break is late). We are in Dallas, TX. Why? Well, we have been here for a day and really have not figured it out. As a history buff I wanted to see The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. We are going to visit it today. We also wanted to visit the Dallas gift market to see if we could find any fun retail items to sell at the cafe. We will be home Sunday, and until them Jason and Paul will be the masters of the Wilde Roast Cafe.

Many people ask “What is Bubble Tea”? Well, last year when Dean and I went to CoffeeFest we found out about the trend of adding “texture to drinks.” I loved the extra treat with my drink. Bubble Tea is a latte tea with texture, we place tapioca beads into the iced drink.

If you visit Taiwan or Hong Kong you can’t help but notice the unique bubble teashops on every corner. Bubble Tea to Taiwan is what coffee or soda is to the U.S. One would think Bubble Tea is the national drink by its popularity.

Find Out More: http://www.bubbletea.com/