Kaiteur Coffeehouse

The week 3 winner is Janet!

Janet has not been in yet to collect her Coffee Card but we sent her an email to let her know.

 

Free coffee anybody?

Most of you guys know that we are doing a five week drawing for five $10 coffee cards compliments of Fidelity Bank and your Local Coffeehouse.

We use Fidelity and you guys know how passionate we are about service, well I have not found better Service in a bank manager than David Ridgeway. You’ve seen all of the touchy feely commercials from the big ones claiming that they are all about service and relationship but I have tried many of them and David and his team at Fidelity is the real deal!

James is one of our favorite 7 year old guests and will be our official name picker.

 

And the winner is….. Annie-Laurie!!!

 So stop in over the next 4 weeks and drop in a name for your chance to WIN! I wonder who will be next week’s winner?

 

 

Family game night anybody??

So I confess I am one of those people who always secretly envy those folks that have family game nights, because I have always liked the idea of the thing but actually getting it done is another story. But I have always had the idea of hosting a family game night here at the Coffeehouse.

I can see families arriving around 6ish, setting up their games and starting to play, I hear spontaneous out bursts of laughter punctuated with " You can’t make that move" or " that is not how you play it by the rules" and of course " Mom he's cheating!"

Even more importantly I see families that don't know each other at the start of the night deciding to share the same games in a match of guys vs girls.

Every year there is a happiness index done of all of the countries in the world ( http://www.le.ac.uk/users/aw57/world/sample.html ) and while you would think that the US would place at the top of the stats we actually place a relatively low number considering our wealth, and Hollywood. But the hands down winner for the past several years has been Denmark.

Now there are a numbers of reasons tossed around about why that is but one is that they participate in a number of clubs which are subsided by the government. If you have a hobby and can find a few others that share similar interest you get paid to pursue it, pretty sweet deal huh?

It turns out that humans are happiest when they are doing things together.

So with that all said we would love to know if any of you are interested in joining us for a family game night. This is really what we are about here at Kaiteur, building a stronger community. So let us know by sending a reply to this post. Who will be first?

Day after the big day

I was freezing this morning, This place doesn’t start getting warm until about 7:30 when we start running the Espresso machine and people start filing in bringing their heat.

Weekly wrap up

What a week that was! Overall January is living up to its billing as a generally slower month for sales but every new day is a new opportunity to turn that around. Couple that with the historic inauguration of the new POTUS, are you about tired of hearing the word “historic” yet?

 Kaiteur has enabled me to experience sheer exhilaration on the faces of supporters fully prepared to already pronounce President Obama’s presidency a success on day one and dejection on those ready to pronounce it a complete and utter failure on day one.  As with most things the truth will likely be somewhere in the middle.

Despite their philosophical or other subterranean reason for their approval or disapproval of the President, both register on their faces the recognition that something significant has happen in America, a shift has been made.  We have posted a video conversation that I had with one of our regulars on inauguration day that is both interesting and revealing; Rich is a great guy who is a solid supporter of Kaiteur.

Kaiteur has forced me to live outside of my bubble and come to terms with the reality that I have been happily harboring simplistic views of racial, cultural, religious and political opinions in America. I suspect that the true benefits (some would argue the negative consequences) of our shared collective experience seeing this gentleman elected president will not be appreciated for several years to come.

                  My feeling about where we are in this business continues to be complex and varied. On the one hand I can’t help but feel that we just have a few more corners to turn before this business is self sustainable. On the other hand I often look at the task ahead of us, and our starting point and ask myself, “are you crazy?, Nice vision sure, but all but impossible to be realized”.  It’s at times like that when I am encouraged with the knowledge that many of today’s venerable organizations and their founders must have been faced with these same challenges during the infancy of their businesses.

At all times when we are attempting to create something new we are confronted with two options after the romance stage, to quit or to go on. That is the sum total, no nuance necessary. I make that decision every day I come in and turn on the lights despite the pressing thoughts in the back of my mind.

Finally keep your suggestions coming about ways you can help support us here, they are invaluable. Even as I write this Larry just dropped off a book as a follow up to a very detailed email of helpful suggestions. 

 

Moose

Coffeehouse wisdom

This is a great conversation I had With Rich one of our regulars on inauguration day. There was noting unusual about this conversation this is the kind of stuff that happens all day everyday at Kaiteur. The difference, Erin had the consciousness of mind to grab a camera and record it. I call it "Coffeehouse Wisdom" and we will try to capture more candid moments like these in the future and bring them you.

Saturday Morning, Musing