In just 7 years, Onyx Coffee Lab has become one of the industry’s most recognizable, respected, and progressive coffee companies. Whether you know them from their championship performances on the barista, brewers, or roasting competition stage – their multiple Good Food Awards and Golden Bean coffees – or their effort in transparency and exquisite retail shops, Onyx Coffee Lab …
Opening a pop-shop is one of a number of great ways to get started in specialty coffee retail. It is a lower start up cost, you get to test the concept, and you get to know your community (and they, you) in the process. Today’s guest, Nikki Outlaw, has just wrapped up her first year running her pop-up coffee shop, …
Ignore your baristas, but listen to podcasters. Ignore your staff, but listen to authors. It is too easy for us to immediately turn to outside resources and , in the process, discount and overlook the resources we have under our very noses. Today we…
Growing and learning from the experiences of others is what this show is all about. A lot of growth and learning happened this past weekend in Tacoma during the Coffee FestPNW trade show where I was able to record three interviews with people I met during my seminars. In order of appearance we will be hearing from: Scott Palmer …
Managers are looked to all day long as agents of clarity. Questions are a constant and this aspect of management is core to being able to drive results in creating a great culture and a successful bar. That said, it can be frustrating since you don’t…
One of the world’s most compelling cafes is also run by one of the world most iconic and trusted espresso machine companies. Located in the lobby of KEXP, the La Marzocco Cafein Seattle, WA has been operating for almost 4 years. Every 4-6 weeks the cafe is taken over by different world-renowned roasting companies who design a full experience that …
Creating a new role in a coffee shop is often done when we face the prospect of losing on of our key staff members. We scramble and promise the world if they would just stay. This is missing the mark in several ways and today we will be chatting about…
Running a successful business is all about the quality of your decisions. Whether large or small, each one plays a part in shaping the company and either strengthening or compromising it. To help give us a frame-work and foundation for making quality decisions we welcome back to the show, Dave Stachowiak. Dave is the host and founder of Coaching for Leaders, …
This is a truly scary reality that so many cafe employees have had to deal with. Symptoms of getting bit by these bosses looks like overloaded schedules, no boundaries, burnout, stress, and unhealthy self-sacrifice to “prove” yourself to the…
Creating a coffee bar and working in retail all boils down to practicing hospitality. We want to practice this on behalf of our guests and our staff but without taking a critical look at how and who we welcome in, we are not really showing hospitality. We need to look at our thoughts, behaviors, and actions critically in order to …
