May 17 will mark 4 months since we opened our doors on Burnet Ave – here’s the scoop on what we’re working on behind the scenes at 443:
Ch-ch-ch-changes
If you’ve visited us before, you may have noticed the large high top tables we have in the back of the cafe.
The tables came with the room, and with “free” being the right price for a bootstrapping startup, we decided to use them. I painted and stenciled the tops, added purse/coat hooks and called it good.
The problem with the tables is that they are twice as big as they need to be and they suck up too much real estate. Also, the overhang is only a few inches, so sitting at them is awkward – you can’t get your legs under the table top.
Aside from being wildly uncomfortable, we need more flexibility to handle both day time cafe business and live performances. I don’t want to lose our eclectic living room areas in the front because they have so much personality, but there is definitely room for improvement in the back.
We are switching out all the seating from the stage to the back door in the next couple of weeks. The small living room next to the stage will go away, along with the 3 high top tables and bar stools. I’m replacing them with 24″ square, regular height tables and chairs which can be pushed together to accommodate larger groups or used individually for one or two guests. On show nights we’ll just put both chairs on one side of the table facing the stage. This arrangement has the added bonus of making it easier to eat and balance drinks during a show plus it’s less furniture for us to move for ticketed events. The table bases have arrived, and we should have the tops in our hands early next week.
Since we are keeping our funky 1970s-esqe living rooms, we added a few sets of vintage TV tray tables.
The tray tables make it easier to manage food if you’re sitting on one of the couches and they fit right in with the decor. Our friend Becky picked up a few at an estate sale for us, and I found 2 sets at the Curator of Cool in Baldwinsville. We started using them last week and our guests love them! Thanks to our bartender Ally B for the clever idea.
Total A/C Replacement…seriously?
When we began working on this space 2 years ago, we were told the A/C unit worked, it just needed to be charged. Because we were funneling money into so many other things, we ended up putting the project off. We opened in January, so obviously it wasn’t a big issue right out of the gate.
With warmer weather on the horizon, we scheduled our HVAC contractor a few weeks ago to come in and get it going. He repaired the leak, filled the unit up and tried to fire it up. Weirdly, there wasn’t any power going to the A/C, and when he traced the lines into the basement, he discovered that the wires weren’t connected to anything – they were cut and stuffed into the rafters.
Who does this??!?
Not good…not good at all.
We had the sinking feeling that the repair was going to be a bigger project than we anticipated, and sure enough, it was. Once our contractor got the juice hooked up again, we discovered that the compressor was shot. The A/C was an old R-22 unit, so replacing it was not an option. As I’m typing this post, the whole system is being replaced.
Luckily, we’ve only had a few really warm nights, so we’ve made do with pedestal fans and open doors. We appreciate everyone’s patience while we get everything sorted out, and when the weather warms up again we’ll have a fully functional cooling system. Hooray!
Menus
We finally got our drink menus together! We now have our wine, spirits, specialty cocktail, coffee and N/A drink lists all one place.
Our wine list got an update for spring and we’ve got our outdoing labels priced to move – so wine drinkers can take advantage of some great deals for the next few weeks.
On the food side, we recently figured out how to manage salads with our limited prep space.
The salads have been selling great, and we’re thrilled to have more vegetarian and gluten-free options for our guests.
After a lot of experimentation, we’ve settled on what we can reasonably offer on our daily menu: 3 wraps, 3 paninis, 2 salads and soup during the day, then at night we drop the soup and add a charcuterie board, cheese plate and hummus platter.
Will Work for Storage
One of our biggest challenges for this business is inadequate storage. Right now we have a 10′ wide swath on one end of the basement and we are limping along with a residential fridge plus a freestanding upright freezer. There is a small liquor room and a non-working walk-in cooler down there from the bar that used to occupy the building, but our landlord is currently using both for storage.
We knew going into it that the limited space would be a challenge, but we didn’t anticipate how much it would impact the day to day operations. We burn through a ton of labor shopping every day and moving things around constantly, and we can’t purchase anything in bulk, which means our costs are higher than they should be on all fronts. We pay for a storage container on the side of the building, but it’s not practical for anything other than dry goods – things like paper towels and napkins.
We are pretty good at coming up with creative ways to store things, but the walk-in cooler has become a make or break issue. We are hoping to negotiate the use of it and get it back in working order as soon as possible.
Have you picked a name yet???
So…the name thing…yep, that’s still an issue.
You can read the whole story HERE
We have not rushed into choosing a new name, and one of the main reasons is because we are evolving as we go along..and we have realized that taking “Listening Room” out of our name is probably a blessing in disguise.
We never intended for all of our shows to be listening room style events, but having it in our name has given people the idea that’s all we do. We’re trying to come up with something that tells our story a bit better, but The Kick-Ass Coffee Shop, Funky Cafe & Groovy Live Music Lounge seems a bit wordy, you know? 😉
Business Model + New Revenue Streams
One thing that has become clear over the last few months is that we can’t continue to offer live music without a paid ticket or cover charge if we want to keep our doors open. On a “good” night (full house, everyone eating and drinking) we are paying 20-30% of our GROSS sales to the band and sound tech right off the top, which just isn’t sustainable.
We aren’t the kind of place that packs people in asses to elbows, sells endless rounds of Fireball shots and encourages guests to get completely plastered. That’s a good thing, and it’s definitely by design, but it effectively caps what we’re able to do in sales.
We suspected this would be the case before we even opened our doors, but wanted to keep most of our local shows free for a few months so people could check out what we’re doing and hopefully recognize the value in what we’ve created. We have experimented with a $5 cover for a few shows, and it truly makes all the difference – even when it doesn’t cover 100% of our entertainment costs. There is no question that we need to implement this sooner rather than later, but it’s a terrifying proposition – will it discourage people from coming in?
I am old enough to remember when there was a nominal cover charge to get into just about anywhere, even without live entertainment and I’m not sure why it stopped being a common practice. There are very real costs associated with offering live music, and training patrons to expect everything for free is a short-sighted strategy that hurts everyone in the end.
Another idea I’m working on implementing is a VIP Patron program.
In my online search for other rooms with similar names, I stumbled on The Roasting Room Lounge and Listening Room in Bluffton, SC. They appear to be slightly smaller than us, located on the second floor of a coffee shop, but their model is very similar – they feature live original music with both local and national touring acts and they have a killer bourbon list. But what really caught my attention is their Patron and Partner programs.
Their Partner program offers individual music fans a way to support the Roasting Room’s mission and receive some fun perks in return. Here at 443 we have a lot of friends and fans who have really gone above and beyond to support what we do here, and I love the idea of having a formal program to reward them. The Partner program is for area businesses who share the room’s commitment to bringing world-class entertainment to Bluffton, and they also offer the option of sponsoring an individual show.
I’m crafting the perk package for individual patrons right now and hope to officially launch the program sometime in June. I’m super-excited!
Our daytime coffee and cafe business have been the most challenging to develop, so last week we began hitting the streets in our neighborhood with marketing materials, free coffee vouchers and homemade cookies. We’ll be continuing that project for the next several weeks, and we’re looking forward to meeting more of our neighbors.
We appreciate the encouragement of everyone in the community and we are working our asses off to make 443 the very best little live music venue/coffee house/bar it can be.
If you believe in what we are doing and want to support, stop by for a cup of coffee (it’s really good!) or a cocktail. Schedule a meeting in one of our living room areas (we’re happy to reserve them), or buy tickets to a show. Sharing our stuff on social media is super awesome, but grabbing a friend and visiting us in person is even better.
See you soon!
