This concept for the Listening Room at 443 has definitely evolved over the past year. We started out planning to be an event space for live acoustic music, community events and grassroots political activism. My partner in the venture changed. We switched gears from a beer and wine only license to plans for a full liquor license. Midway through, we added coffee to the mix.
We never intended coffee to be the main focus, though. Our original idea was to carry a good, high octane brew and limit our offerings to regular coffee and cold brew – no latte or cappuccino. Basically, no-bullshit, highly caffeinated, rock & roll coffee in a friendly and fun atmosphere.
The idea of dealing with orders along the lines of “I’ll have a latte with half non-fat, half soy, one half-caf shot, one decaf shot, double cupped with one Splenda and one Equal” makes both of us want to throw ourselves into traffic.
But – at some point, I began questioning this decision.
While it was still exhausting to think about these absurd orders, my conversations with friends and acquaintances were turning up evidence that there are A TON of latte drinkers out there.
“Oh, your new place sounds so cool! I can’t wait to stop in and have a latte. “
Um…
I started surveying my coffee drinking friends. Even the folks who personally drank plain black coffee (which was most of them) thought it wasn’t going to be feasible to skip the latte, espresso and cappuccino options. It put me into a bit of a panic and I started to investigate how we could acquire a machine without blowing our already tight budget.
About this time, my Red Shoes Black Bag partner Joanna ran into Cindy Seymour at an event. Cindy and her wife Laura are the powerhouse duo behind Laci’s Tapas Bar. Laci’s is a favorite restaurant of ours and coincidently they are located right around the corner from the Listening Room.
Cindy asked Joanna how things were going with our project and then said,”Hey, let her know we have an espresso machine for her”.
Whaaaaaaaat?
Sometimes when you put something out into the universe, it comes back like a freaking boomerang.
Laura and Cindy had a gorgeous Rancilio Classe 10 espresso machine in great condition in storage that they weren’t using anymore and insisted we take it.
Isn’t she fabulous?!?
One of the (many things) I adore about these women is their generosity of spirit. They routinely go out of their way to help other business owners and they work tirelessly to make our community a better place. They recognize that the more people we have succeeding in small businesses, the better our little city will be for everyone. We are overwhelmed with gratitude.
The business is making another shift…and I see barista training in our future.
