Peppermint Mocha

We just started our peppermint mocha today. Five minutes after we finally got our supplies in, we sold 2 and then 20 minutes later we sold one more and then we sold two more a while after that.

We have cool gift cards available in $5 increments. We've sold four this past week.

We're cutting a new commercial this week. Holly, a fabulous girl at 97.1 FM is going to do our commercial for us to run on their sister station Hot Ticket 700.

We've been with Hot Ticket 700 for about a month now. They are the best sports-talk station in Utah and the Official voice of the Utes.
Matt Thomas does a weekly live spot for us, and it's going so well, we added another one.
We also have numerous 30 second spots running four days a week.
They are pimping us pretty good at the station today, so "props" to them.

The word is getting out more and more every day. We consistently have people say, "This is the best _____ I've ever had." We are the best at what we do because we have a passion for espresso and tea, and just good drinks in general. I can't understand how someone can open a caffe or a coffee house or an espresso bar and not seek perfection in every drink. We say, "It's what's in the cup that matters." and we really believe that. I spend hours making sure our machine is tuned and that the temperature of the water is right and the cups are always preheated, and we always fresh grind... and that's only the most basic things.

It's trying to snow outside. Let's see if it sticks.
We're closed on the 24th and 25th for the holiday, but we'll be ready to rock on Sunday.

Computer Down

The computer at the caffe crashed today. We couldn't take orders on the lovely touch screen, nor could we take credit cards automatically. We have been taking orders by hand and it's not fun. John's best friend Terry and his wife Shelli are in town. They are so nice as to just fly in and see us! Terry, the computer genius, is going to try to fix the computer for us. We'll see if it will work by the end of the day.

We're also giving out the premiere passes for the movie "Oceans Twelve" from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. tonight. We'll see how that goes.

Our Sign

John, after getting tired of waiting for people to get things done for another few weeks, finally decided to go out and buy a more powerful transformer for the neon sign and hooked and wired up everything himself. It worked! We now have the caffe d'bolla logo sign in steel with orange powder coating and blue neon with on it. It's really cool!

Neon

Ryan brought the neons for our sign this afternoon. Now we're waiting for John's electrician friend John R. to come and connect and set up everything before we can have it lit and be all cool and pretty! I will make sure I post a few pics of it when it's all done.

Steel Sign Up

Ryan came this afternoon to install our powder-coated, laser cut, giant logo sign up above the caffe's front door. Ryan coordinated everything for us, and he made steel brackets to hold up the sign as well. We now have a "real sign!" It took Ryan longer on this project because it had been raining for quite a few days this past couple of weeks and he needed dry weather to paint the sign and coat it. But here it is! I can't wait to see the completely complete version of our sign-- it's going to be so cool!

Chai Day

People are going crazy for our Chai Latte at the caffe today. The weather has been a bit weird recently. One day the sky will be as blue as the sea, and the other it will be pale and cloudy. We have noticed people's appetite for drinks change from more bubble tea drinks to espresso drinks. Today is definitely a Chai Latte day. Other than that we use the best ever chai, I think the windy day helps as well.

Local Artists

Keltin has been doing a mural painting for us on the wall in our "loungy area" at the caffe. He is so talented! People ask about him and his work all the time! We are also "giving" him a wall to put his other art work on. Several local artists have talked to us about displaying their paintings at the caffe, and possibly selling them. Two of them came by today to show us more of their paintings and they are going to frame the ones they want to display at the caffe and bring them over to hang on our walls.

We have noticed how lively the caffe is after Keltin started painting the mural and we brought the plants. That's why we really want to have local artists' works around the caffe so the caffe will have its very own strong personality!

Keltin is a few hours away from finishing the mural. It's going to be so cool! We can't wait to see it!

Weather Change

It got pretty chilly last night and it also started raining a bit. The weather changed completely this morning. The sky was cloudy and the temperature dropped significantly. We have noticed that as the temperature drops, more people choose coffee over tea. Hot coffee that is. A lot of people ordered mocha this morning... I guess everyone needed some sweetness to lighten up their days! We made a couple of mochas for ourselves as well. Hot and rich mocha is just so good for a cold and rainy day.

The sun started to shine in the afternoon, and people started coming in for bubble teas. I'm so glad that we have both really good hot and iced drinks to offer our customers so everyone can find something that suits the weather, their taste, and their mood!

I wonder how the weather will be later tonight.

New Goals!

We have been slowly picking up at the caffe. We see new people every day and almost everyone has been super nice and compliment on our drinks and they keep coming back!

Nate came by the other day and told me that he used to only let one of his friends who works at Starbucks to make coffee for him, but now he's happy to let me make it for him because my coffee is so good! :) He also told me that the friend (and we know by now that his name is Joe) also thinks we have great coffee! Joe came by a couple of times and wanted soy latte. I didn't know he was Nate's friend then, but just thought he was weird because he stared at me while I steamed the soy... and he would comment, "Wow, that looks great!" Thanks Nate, and thanks Joe.

I think it's little things people say to me that keep me going. Many times it's frustrating for us because it's either slow or dead at the caffe, but I always remember the encouraging words our customers tell us and that makes me want to work harder and make them proud!

We have a new goal, a new number, that we want to reach by the end of the month. It's not a super gigantic number, but it's our short-term goal. John has some "strategies" that he's using to help us reach the goal, and we are all going to work hard for our customers, our caffe, and ourselves! We will make it!

Great Afternoon

Usually things slow down quite a bit during the afternoon hours at the caffe, but we were busy this afternoon! I had to cook the chewy pearls three times before 4 p.m.! We cook our chewy pearls in small batches but frequently throughout the day, so each batch of chewy pearls will be fresh, chewy, and tasty. A lot of people used their BOGO bubble tea coupons this afternoon so we made a lot of bubble teas!

Being busy is a good thing, and that keeps us productive. Even though my arms and feet were hurting after the big rush in the afternoon, I love being busy at the caffe!

Labor Day

It's Labor Day today. A lot of businesses are closed for the holiday. We thought of taking the day off and spend time with our dogs and cats at home, but we realized that we are a new business and we need to let people know that we are open for the holidays and that they can count on having us as a fun and great place to go to on the holidays.

So we are open today. We thought there might not be many people who would come today, since even the TRAX system is closed for the day. We were surprised to have a lot of new customers today! Some people came by to study, others came to have small meetings, and still others came by just to enjoy some espresso drinks or teas.

We've been steady to busy throughout the day. The afternoon was suprisingly great. A couple of customers who came from San Francisco loved the caffe latte and Americano I made them and they kept praising me and that made me feel so flattered. That reminded me when a lady came yesterday and praised me because not only because the caffe latte was "the best" but also because I fresh ground the espresso beans to order. Isn't fresh griding for each order a must in coffee shops? Well I was still very happy they loved their drinks.

Many people also called to see if we were open today. They all sounded excited when we told them we were! Staying open on holidays can be rewarding! Since it's pretty much just John and I who run the caffe now, we feel tired once in a while (from being at the caffe 16 hours on weekdays and 12-13 hours on weekends!) but we are definitely having a great time in our lives.

SLUG magazine things

We got some new copies of SLUG (Salt Lake Under Ground) magazine today and we were mentioned in it. Camilla Taylor from SLUG interviewed Less People More Robots at the caffe a couple of weeks ago. The caffe's name was spelled wrong we were "CafE De Bolla" in the magazine. But it's all good. We are happy the name is in there.

The bass player Rusty from Less People More Robots has been in a few times. I specifically remember him because he usually wants 3 or 4 shots in his 16 oz. iced latte, and I usually ask him if he's sure. Rusty came in tonight and asked if I knew the caffe is mentioned in SLUG. I said, "Yeah, but they spelled our name wrong, and that's fine because it was nice of them to mention us." He was surprised to hear that and went to check our banner and remember exactly how "caffe d'bolla" was supposed to be spelled. Thanks Rusty!

We had a steady day today. We were actually wondering if we would get any business because many people go out of town for the long Labor Day weekend. We were glad to see that people still come in and have tasty drinks!

No More Homeless Pets in Utah Newsletter

John was checking the No More Homelss Pets in Utah web site and found that he and Mocha was in the September 1st newsletter ! There are always wonderful rescue and adoption stories, or fundraising and special events featured in the newsletters and we really enjoy reading about them.

Here's a copy of the story about the caffe and Mocha:

Drink a Cup, Help a Homeless Pup

Something was brewing recently at the Grand Opening of caffé d'bolla, in Salt Lake City. All proceeds from the weekend, more than $500, were donated to No More Homeless Pets in Utah. Employees and management of caffé d'bolla donated their time for the event.

To kick off the fundraiser and to draw out the media, homeless dogs Earl Grey and Mocha threw their very own doggy tea party. The two pups of honor took seats at a table outside the café, lapped up some dog-friendly brew, tried out some delicious pawnini sandwiches, and feasted on giant, drool-worthy dog biscuits baked just for them. The tea party drew much attention, and Mocha was adopted by a fellow patron of the café.

Punch Cards

Our punch cards finally arrived! We made a little mistake on the cards-- the cards say "Receive a Free drink of choice when all 10 cups and teapots are properly punched" even though our customers only need to have 9 punched and they can get the 10th one completely free. Well we'll see if anyone noticed the little mistake. :D

Tyler was here at the caffe when the punch cards arrived. He got his favorite Taro bubble milk tea and we gave him our very first punch card with a cool cup punch on it! We hope people will use their punch cards often!

Better Day Time

We had a pretty good day time traffic today. We've been having better evenings for the past few weeks and we've been hoping that we can generate more day time traffic and it happened today! We've also notice the increasing numbers of bubble tea orders in the days.

One of our only two employees didn't show up to work today. We were a little surprised but sort of sensed it coming. She called and left a message Friday and said she couldn't come in because she was too tired. She got another job at a local bakery and was feeling overwhelmed and tired. John has been strict about espresso making and milk steaming techniques and so do I. We don't allow flawed drinks to go to the customers. She might have misunderstood us when we corrected her drink making techniques. We understand her situation with the bakery but was not happy with the fact that she decided to not show up and did not call to inform us. We have to let her go and hope she can focus on her other work well.

A lot of Taiwanese students came this evening. They gathered and talked, and played Chinese checker. It was fun to watch people enjoy our drinks and have fun!

Bulletin Board

Many people have been coming to the caffe wanting to post information about their bands, new concerts, etc.. We used to have them leave their flyers or coupons on the chrome rack where we put newspapers and magazines. It was getting a little bit cluttered with all the flyers, so John decided to put up a bulletin board right above the chrome racks.

The bulletin board has a silver metal rim around it and we think it looks wonderful in the caffe. We'll see when people will start using it.

Premier Passes for "Vanity Fair"

Burke from CityWeekly dropped by yesterday to give us movie premier passes for the Reese Witherspoon new movie, "Vanity Fair". "People will come and line up for these passes," he said. Indeed people started coming around 9 a.m. Most of the first people were older ladies and gentlemen. We felt bad they had to wait until 10 to pick up the passes, but when they sat around the store for an hour and talked loud without even looking at us it scared me a little. We didn't want to be rude and chase them out the store (even though Burke said sometimes you just have to tell the non-customer people to line up outside), but they were all gathered at the "loungy area" at the store and didn't seem to notice us. :(

One guy came in and had an Americano. He then saw that we had bubble tea and asked if our bubble tea is "Taiwanese style" bubble tea. Of course it is! He said he taught English in Tainan, Taiwan for a couple of months and he loved it there. He was fun to talk to!

The passes were gone pretty quickly. Many people asked for more than one pass, but according to the paper and Burke, each person can only have one pass. I was surprised when people seemed to be mad when we told them that they could only get one pass (and each pass admits 2.) Those are free passes, but people do get personal about them. We will know more about how to handle these sort of situations next time we have passes again!

It's been a pretty steady day, and we got to meet some new and fun people. It's been great!

Gift Certificate

Today a boy came by the caffe and redeemed his $15 gift certificate from us. We gave X96 some gift certificate to give to their audience during their programmings last week as a way to promote our caffe's grand opening event to help the pets. The boy and his friends got a hot chocolate, 2 bubble teas, and 2 caramel lattes. They loved the drinks and said they would be back!

This was the first gift certificate redemption! We are glad more people are noticing we are here!

Deseret News took this picture of Mocha, a St. Bernard mix, enjoying a special panini during our grand opening event to benefit No More Homeless Pets in Utah.

This was in Deseret News on the front page of "Utah" section on August 22nd. Mocha is the sweetest puppy! He is mellow yet playful, and he is really smart! Someone will adopt him very soon.

Helping the Homeless Pets

After counting the money we made this past weekend, we had about $460 to give to help the dogs and cats. A lady from No More Homelss Pets in Utah came and picked up the check and the donations in the doggie jar. She said, "Wow, you ARE donating everything you made this past weekend!" We are very glad that we got to contribute to the community and to help the animals.

We want to keep being involved with the organization as well as continue helping the pets.

Our Official Grand Opening Day!

It is our official grand opening! We got up early this morning to prepare for the event that was scheduled for 1 p.m. this afternoon. I made two giant cookie bones for the dogs that were coming to the caffe today. Both John and No More Homelss Pets in Utah sent out our press release to the media and we were both hoping some media people will show up and help us get more people to come to the caffe so we can raise more money for the animals.

The Deseret News photographer came with his little girls. He got an Americano for himself and a hot chocolate for his daughters. I steamed the milk with the chocolate so everything blended very well, and I shaked some ground chocolate on top of the drink as well. The girls' eyes brightened up when they saw the ceremic cup and of course, the giant red saucer. They were all smiling.

Fox 13 came and filmed John. They asked why he wanted to donate all proceeds to the animals. John said the two organizations that cannot help themselves are the children and the pets, and we want to help them and do things for them both. Pets are the first ones we can help. The camera guy then came into the store where I was helping several customers. I was making bubble teas. He was really interested and I think he filmed the sealer machine, yeah that cool sealer machine, while I explained what bubble teas were.

People have been very generous. They came and they wanted to help the homeless pets as well. In Utah alone, about 90 healthy and adoptable cats and dogs are euthanized everyday because the shelters cannot afford keeping them all. People need to be responsible and neuter/spay their pets so there won't be as many innocent little lives being killed daily. No More Homeless Pets in Utah's goal is to end pet euthanization within a 5- year program period. We really appreciate what No More Homeless Pets is doing and we want to continue working with them.

A few people called later today and asked John about the caffe and the charity event because they saw him on the news! We're so glad people are caring about the community and the homeless pets!

We had a good day at work. People were kind and the pets were special. Hopefully tomorrow we can do as well or better for the animals.

Two Days Before Our Grand Opening!

It's two days before our grand opening! We're all really excited here at the caffe! No More Homeless Pets in Utah sent us a draft of the press release they are sending out to the media. It looks great! We're all thinking of ways to bring more people to the caffe so we can raise more money for the animals. We are going to donate all proceeds during this weekend to them.

We've been thinking about adding a couple of food items. Many people suggested bagels. We like bagels so we think it's a pretty good idea to have bagels on the menu. Oh, and someone brought us the best baklava. It is the most amazing baklava ever! The company make them fresh to order, unlike the others who make a bunch and then freeze them for later. We can really taste the difference!

People start to notice the ad John put out in City Weekly. They bring in the coupons and want tasty bubble teas! Yay! We're glad that people like the Chewy Pearls. I've been busy cooking them constantly. It's good to cook those chewy stuff in smaller amount and frequently, I believe. The Chewy Pearls' texture and flavor are so much better when they are fresh.