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By Colleen, on May 19th, 2012
Okay, I just can’t let this go. I have to write, if nothing more than to vent.
There is a reason for having a tough policy for our restaurant concerning eating. Here’s my policy:
Don’t do it unless:
1. You bought the food and/or
2. We are approving a taste testing AND
3. It is done in the break room.
This means no gum, no candy, no drinks and no talking over the food. Period.
If you have to talk, move the food away from you or turn your head away from the food but don’t talk over it.
Is this asking too much?
I am very picky about food and this means my kitchens have to be up to the way I want food to be served to me. If you scratch your head, cough, sneeze or whatever, WASH. Okay? Wash your hands.
One of our policies is that if you are going to taste the food we serve, you will use a clean spoon to put a small amount in a clean disposable portion container. Take it to the break room and taste it. Get out of the dining room and kitchen and bakery. Then, wash your hands when you return to work.
Why am I venting? Because I just ate at a restaurant in Baltimore and I got reminded of why we have tough policies. I watched as the waitress dipped her hands in a glass full of pineapple chunks, popped a chunk in her mouth and proceeded to wait on customers while she was eating. And, she did not wash her hands.
The cook brought out a dish to serve but while he was walking out to the dining room, he took something off the plate and ate it, then he set the plate down for the waitress to pick up and serve. He then walked around the dining room chomping on a customer’s food. He also did not wash his hands.
The waitress must have seen the look on my face and asked me if everything is okay. I told her no. I explained what I witnessed and asked her why they did that. She said they don’t want to serve food that tastes bad. I told her that grossed me out.
She said something to the other waitress then they all went in the kitchen and we had to call one of them out in order to finish paying our bill because they left us standing there for a while.
I was going to say something to management but decided against it because it’s their policy to taste food.
So, am I unreasonable? I don’t think so. If it grosses me out, then I’m guessing there are other people out there who don’t want it done to them either.
I don’t want people chewing candy, gum or food while they are waiting on me. I don’t want them having conversations, singing or whistling over my food. Be happy, but not over my food.
Okay, that covers my review of restaurant policies (for now) concerning staff eating food. I don’t like it. That’s why we have a break room, a hand sink, and a policy to not talk over the food or eat while you are working unless it’s in the break room.
By Colleen, on May 17th, 2012
I am so out of my comfort zone right now. We are on the 4th floor of a hotel room in Baltimore. The contract we’re working on requires us to stay in Baltimore and let me tell you something….this is NOT the cute little Clinton, TN!
Sirens sirens sirens.
Street noise.
Tall buildings everywhere.
Traffic.
Did I fail to mention traffic?
Traffic.
One way streets.
It’s hard to sleep at night because there is so much noise. I suppose you get use to it, but I don’t want to get use to it. I’m not a big city girl at all. Two of my sisters are in New York City right now, intending to spend a few days there. One of them called last night and said they are leaving early. They are not big city girls either.
We circled the hotel several times last night after work just trying to figure out how to get into their parking lot. Turns out, they don’t have a parking lot. Yeah, really! No parking lot. It’s an additional $30 per night if you want to park. Apparently, parking spaces in Baltimore are prime real estate.
We had to find an empty spot and park on the street because we are here to earn money so we can open our coffee house. Parking spaces would eat into our capital!
We have a really nice hotel though. It came as part of the contract, so we are not spending our capital by being here in Baltimore.
S. Charles G. Seivers Blvd gets an occasional siren. Baltimore gets an occasional moment of silence. I miss you Clinton!
By Colleen, on May 11th, 2012
Such is life in business. The quotes you get, and base your capital on, aren’t always going to work out.
Yesterday was one of those days where you do a double-take and wonder if you heard things correctly. It will take $1,500 to put a public bathroom in. That’s not in our budget!
Apparently, the air conditioning duct is taking up so much space underneath the house, where we needed to put the bathroom, that the pipe won’t fit. It’s the only location it could have gone on that end of the house. That means it has to go on the front end of the house which means starting from scratch. $1,500 is just the labor for plumbing. Granite, it also includes the plumbing for the 3-vat sink, but it doesn’t include all the material needed and it doesn’t include the walls that have to be built by another contractor.
I asked my husband if he just wanted to get a loan and get this over with, but I’m blessed to have a husband who keeps me on track. The mission we set out to complete is to have our dream but pay for it as we go.
We had already set our grand opening for June 15th before we learned our original plans to meet zoning requirements were not going to work, and that’s what I want to stick to. Unfortunately, our four weeks lead with the health inspection is going to be down to two weeks. They require two weeks and that leaves no room for error. We have to pass the inspection the first time in order to open by June 15th.
We’re going back to Maryland on Tuesday to raise more money. So, a boo boo was made in costing out a requirement by the health department, but that’s life. We’ll earn the money, come back, and stay focused.
I have to look on the bright side of this set back. We weren’t going to get a handicap bathroom until we build the addition. However, since we are starting from scratch, we can now build the public bathroom with handicap specifications.
I feel like we are in some kind of race to complete a project and we can see the finish line, but we trip. Funny though, it was Wesley and me who set the finish line. I suppose it can be us who changes where the line is.
By Colleen, on May 7th, 2012
We have been without Internet access since last Thursday, so now I have some catching up to do on updates.
First off, we thought for sure we wouldn’t get access to our sites for a while because AT&T had trouble getting service to us, and we couldn’t find anyone else. We didn’t want Comcast because it’s a shared cable and they said there were about 15 people sharing the line we would be connected to. On top of that, we wouldn’t have wi-fi for the coffee house come June.
AT&T got all the wires, boxes, cables, gadgets, gizmos and whatchamacallits hooked up, only to tell us we can’t have service because the coffee house sits too far back from the road where their service is. They made an appointment for today to come and take back all their gadgets.
This morning, we see four trucks roll up. FOUR! The guy who said we couldn’t get service proudly walked up the drive and greeted us, and said he brought some friends. He wasn’t ready to give up.
Before long, we got hooked up with some very fast Internet speed, and come June, they will hook us up with wi-fi services for our coffee house guests.
That brings me to our trip on Saturday, to Jonesborough. What a beautiful drive! As you know, we’ve been looking for a three section sink and we saw one for sale in Craigslist. Wesley and I drove up to look at it and I told him if he can fit it in the truck, we’ll get it. Wouldn’t you know it…he and the seller got it in the truck. It stuck out a bit, but we toted it back to the coffee house. On our way, we had stopped at a red light (cause if you don’t, another red light shows up behind you) and someone next to us rolled their window down and hollered out, asking if the sink was for sale.
Um…no. We just bought it.
They wanted it for their church. It took us a while to find one at the price we paid!
We get the sink to the coffee house and guess what!? No, really, I want you to guess.
It doesn’t fit down our hall!
Well, houses are not built to have 10 feet worth of stainless steel going through their narrow doors. So, we had to do some fancy thinking. We need a new plan for the dish room because we are keeping this sink! Our plumber will be out this week to help us make a happy ending to our lovely sink find.
For the past two days we have been painting trim. Lots of it.
We are also changing one of our cupcakes. Why have two cupcakes that have carrots in them? We are now working on creating a recipe for caramel praline and we will replace the carrot caramel with that one.
And now…I saved the best news for last.
WE HAVE HUMMINGBIRDS!!!!!
Okay, that’s all for now. Be blessed, and stop in and see us some time. Even if we aren’t open yet, you can visit and have a look around at what we’re doing. I promise we won’t ask you to help us paint.
By Colleen, on April 28th, 2012 We return home tomorrow then beginning Monday, we get back to work on the coffee house.
I am subscribed to the Coffee Groot blog and what arrives in my email this morning? “20 Reasons Why You Must Quit Your Day Job To Open A Coffee House”
I have to admit, Wesley and I are guilty of depending on our day job to keep cash flowing. Partly out of common sense that we have to pay bills, and the coffee house needs capital to work. But also, partly out of fear. We know when the zoning requirements are met, we will open for business and that’s scary.
For more than a year now we’ve spent so much time in Maryland working to raise capital than we have spent in Tennessee. We now have enough money to finish the dish room and put in a temporary parking lot (until we can pave it). We have a concrete company who will be meeting with zoning people; and we have a plumber who will be setting up our dish room.
That only leaves us with painting the rooms we didn’t get to yet; getting inspected; getting supplies; and *gasp* opening for business.
I still find myself wanting to hang on to the job I’m most comfortable with, because I know what to expect. However, we are committed and when we return tomorrow, the only job we will have left is our commitment to the coffee house.
In a manner of time, being at the coffee house will be comfortable, just like having the jobs we have now, which ends today at 6 PM, never to look back again because tomorrow we have our coffee house to commit to.
By Colleen, on April 28th, 2012
A Tennessee tax guy called while I’m still in Maryland. It appears I missed a very important step in planning a coffee house. Sales tax set up. Oooooooops!
I knew it had to be done but we’ve been in Maryland more than in Tennessee but I didn’t know they would actually call you about filing business taxes. They go by the business licenses you have. Apparently, they match business licenses with tax returns and if they don’t match up, you get a call.
When we get back to Tennessee that’s going to be second on our to do list. The first thing on our list is to have dinner with Mom.
By Admin, on April 19th, 2012 I can’t stop thinking about the logistics of serving breakfast to the public from a small house; however, Mom and I have been brainstorming and we think we have the solution.
Since zoning will only allow us to seat 15 people until we build the addition, we will have carry out with outdoor seating. We have two couches, a chair and space for one or two tables. We can set up part of the dining room catering style. We’ll put up our tables and people can select their choices and either dine outside or to go. We will eventually have an entertainment deck out front so we can have a band. Some will be covered, like a gazebo, and some open.
Obviously, we need to practice making our breakfast foods so we can be efficient and have everything taste great. That means subscribers will get invited for taste tests.
We think we have a supplier for grass fed, no drugs beef and chicken. We are going to roast our own meat for corned beef hash. Basically, our theme is “A Home Away From Home” and when you go in someone’s home, you eat what’s available. For us, that means what’s ready in our garden and the Farmer’s market! If Anderson County lets us have a mini homestead, we will have our own eggs, too. If not, we find farm fresh eggs.
So, here is our tentative menu. Everything will be homemade. No prepackaged anything. When our garden comes in, whatever is available for harvest will be added to the Chef’s Choice menu and we’ll cook up some seasonal entrees and sides for you.
Yogurt Trifle
Cinnamon Roll
Sausage Biscuit
(Scrambled egg with beef sausage & cheese)
Omelet Sandwich
(Scrambled egg with choice of meat, cheese, bread and veggies)
Bread: Whole Wheat Roll, Bagel, Herb Onion or Biscuit
Meat: Turkey, Chicken, Beef Sausage
Veggies: Green Pepper, Onion, Jalapeños, Tomato
Cheese: Cheddar, Provolone, Swiss
Philly Omelet Sandwich
Seasoned beef, green peppers, onions and Provolone cheese blended with egg and served on a grilled French bread roll
BUILD YOUR OWN BREAKFAST
All of the following items are priced a la carte so you can mix and match according to your taste and appetite.
ENTREES
Quiche
Biscuits & Gravy
Corned Beef Hash
French Toast
Buttermilk Pancakes
Chef’s Choice (We’ll see what the chef comes up with)
SIDE ITEMS
2 Eggs
Baked Oatmeal
Grits
Fruit Cup
Country Fries
BREADS
(Served with honey, cream cheese or jam and butter)
Biscuit
Toast
Bagel
Muffin
Quick Bread
By Colleen, on April 17th, 2012
It’s been a long trip and I’m very homesick.
Our business journey has been filled with a lot of lessons but right now, our main focus is financial lessons. When starting a business, capital (or lack thereof) is important. Money is a tool as much as a Kitchenaid is. I hear about businesses that fail because of poor planning or poor money management or no capital to work with.
Wesley and I have taken more than a month away from the coffee house to raise money. It isn’t a matter of just raising $3,000 for the changes we have to make, and for the zoning requirements. Were it that simple, we would be done. Instead, we have to raise an additional $3,000 and still pay for the commercial rates of electricity, water and all the other bills that go along with business. That’s why it’s taking so long. We have to pay March, April and May bills AND come up with capital for the dish room and parking lot.
Some times I wish the Lord would just give people an easy way to get from point A to point B.
I want this coffee house and homestead really bad. I can’t imagine doing anything else, and for that, I have so many lessons to learn. Wesley has a music ministry he is working on and both of our dreams compliment each other. However long it takes, wherever we have to go to earn capital, and however many lessons the Lord has to teach, we are so willing to keep going.
Still in Maryland. I wish we could find work in Tennessee so we don’t have to travel so far away from home but we are blessed to have work. We are working in Waldorf tomorrow then we head to a D.C. suburb until Sunday, then as far as we know, we head home.
Almost home to work on the parking lot.
By Colleen, on April 6th, 2012 …But you already knew that because the parking lot isn’t in yet.
We are still working in Maryland but hope to be back next Sunday. In the meantime, my mother and my sister are baking the cupcakes while we’re away.
 I’m not a camera happy person and will avoid them at all costs, but look what my sister put on her Facebook page! They have more guts than I do.
We are big on cleanliness and not so much fashion, as you can tell. There is nothing fashionable out there to keep hair back (but I’m going to search) so here’s some silly hair nets for you.
Mom and Janeen aren’t camera shy and neither is my husband. Who knows what to expect at the coffee house, but hopefully no candid shots of me will end up on Facebook. LOL
I really have to stop putting deadlines on myself that I think will happen but don’t, because we missed a business step or couldn’t find things we need. For instance, we needed a three compartment sink and I didn’t know how hard it is to find one on our budget!
The cheapest I could find was $650!!
Oy!
Note to coffee house dreamers: Restaurant equipment is expensive!
On another note…Mom says the bushes in the yard are beautiful! I have yet to see the yard for spring appearance but she took pictures. It’s hard to tell what the yard will look like when it’s winter. I can’t wait to get home and start a garden and of course, the hummingbird garden.
Well, that’s all the updates I have for now. It’s hard to update on the coffee house progress when we are out of state. Wesley and I have been so busy in Maryland that I don’t get a chance to write much here. He’s had his guitar packed in the car the whole time we’ve been gone and hasn’t practiced. Not good!
Life on the road is tiring. I want to be working on the homestead but first things first. We can’t quit our jobs yet until we have the basics in place at the coffee house.
By Colleen, on March 25th, 2012
Ever had one of those nights where you go to bed early (11 pm is early for me) but you have so much on your mind that you lay awake worrying? That was last night for me.
I worry about things concerning the coffee house and when I’m given a solution, I regret worrying. What kept me up all night last night was the breakfast menu. Seriously. I fretted over what to do about breakfast. We are such a small coffee house and limited on space that I don’t see how we can have a full menu like other restaurants have the luxury of having.
So, here is how my conversation goes before the Lord, as I lay there staring into space, trying to figure things out.
Lord, we can’t afford to be a coffee house right now. We were just supposed to be doing cupcakes to raise money. I’m worried that we can’t afford equipment. No, I know we can’t afford equipment.
I’m good at telling the Lord everything I worry about, but never really giving Him the chance to answer.
I go on thinking about what to serve our guests, compared to what other places serve. I even thought about what you would get at a fast food place so I can see if we can afford the equipment, the employees, the inventory space and everything else I could think about to worry over. Things like not wanting people to be hungry. What will we serve things in? Will people mind that we have a small space to work with? How much do we charge? Oh that parking lot! That parking lot isn’t done yet.
All night I worry. I look at the clock and it’s 4 am. From 11 pm to 4 am, I stay awake trying to figure out the logistics of things.
Then the answer came to me.
We aren’t a regular restaurant. We are a homestead. Stop trying to be what we aren’t.
Well, where did that come from Lord?
Our menu is different because we are different. We are a home away from home and our ministry is to serve people. We don’t have to have a regular menu with tons of inventory and employees. We just have to be ourselves and serve a hearty breakfast that people can afford.
More concerns go through my mind. People have different tastes and if we have one meal, what if people are disappointed because we don’t have a big menu?
Ah, the simple life that the Lord shows me is beautiful. We are inviting people to share our homestead with us. Sit on the swings and relax. Walk through the gardens. Shop from our front porch stand with fresh berries and veggies in season. Be our guests, but not really our guests because it’s more like coming to our home as friends.
My Northern heart has softened over the years and the more I live in the South, the more I get it. I get why strangers wave to each other. I get why they sit on porches and watch people go by. I get why they sit for a long time just talking and sipping tea. I get why I fell in love with Tennessee and I want to grow roots here and share my homestead with anyone who wants to visit.
We will share the bounty of our gardens, and of the gardens and products of small local farms we team with. We will serve a breakfast where guests can build their own breakfast based on the bounty we put out on the table to serve. Things like fresh baked muffins. Biscuits. Gravy. Fruit. Pancakes. Baked oatmeal. Homemade bread for toast and French toast. Various entrees to choose from based on what’s available in season.
We will have two or three entrees to choose from each morning that will change so we have a variety each day. Then guests can add the various sides they want to accompany their meal, along with a beverage. All for one price. Simple.
Until we build our dining deck, we can have take out orders.
And finally I can sleep.
Last I looked, it was 4:30 am and I don’t remember anything after that until I woke up and remembered we are building a homestead in the city, just like one of my favorite homesteads where I get inspiration from.
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OPEN SOURCE This is a documentary and journal of Wesley & Colleen Crawford's coffee house dream. We want to see what happens when a person just has a dream, but no means to achieve it, except the burning desire that makes them press on.
Feel free to use our business model. Edit it, distribute it, with or without credits back to us. We just hope our journey helps others.
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