Specialty Coffee Retailer is a publication for owners, managers and employees of retail outlets that sell specialty coffee. Its scope includes best sales practices, supplies, business trends and anything else to assist the small coffee retailer.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/52159
pan demetrakakes, editor B Coffee and cake or death? ritish comedian Eddie Izzard has a routine he calls "Cake or Death?" Th ere's no way to capture its surreal hilarity in print, but basically, it involves posing that choice to a series of people and getting the predictable answer. (Punchline: "We're going to run out of cake at this rate.") But for most coff eehouse owners, the choice of Cake or Death is very real and distinctly unfunny. It's hard to fi nd a coff eehouse that doesn't serve some kind of food, and there's a reason for that. Many people simply don't drink coff ee without also having a bite to eat. It's also a question of volume. Yes, the profi t margin on coff ee is far higher than on food, but few customers drink more than two cups per visit (unless they're camping out with their laptops writing the Great American Novel, which presents its own problems). Th e right food menu can push the average ticket up to levels that spell long-term profi tability. But food is tricky. Most coff eehouses have limited space and equipment; installing, say, a full-size oven, much less a fryer or grill with a hood, isn't an option. Food also can be labor-intensive, especially if you try to prepare sandwiches or other items to order. A staff that's already stretched to the limit turning out espresso-based drinks may not be able to handle the demands of an extensive food menu. Th ere are some shortcuts. Th e most obvious is premade food, ready to serve when it arrives (or aſt er a simple step like thawing). Th is works better for some items than others. Many baked goods either freeze well or can be packaged for adequate shelf life. Sandwiches made 12 hours or more in advance, on the other hand, are mostly better avoided. Th ere are some ways to work around the labor challenges. For instance, you can't really make sandwiches the night before, but you can make them in the slack time aſt er the morning rush. If you have a good handle on daily demand, a well-trained staff should be able to have enough on hand when the lunch crowd arrives and put together a few more on the spot if they run out. Chains fortunate enough to have the resources can do a centralized operation, where food is started in a large kitchen and fi nished (or warmed up) in the individual shops. One of the biggest challenges is determining how far you should go with food. If you're not careful, it's easy for the food menu to overwhelm the coff ee menu, to the point where your shop morphs from a coff eehouse into a restaurant. In our cover feature this issue, one owner recounts how she stopped serving lunch for just this reason. Even though she warned her patrons six months in advance, for a long time aſt erward she still had people coming in looking for lunch. Th e bottom line: Keep your food fresh and interesting, concentrate on a narrow range of items, but keep the focus on coff ee. Hey, no one said it would be easy. 4 | January 2012 • www.specialty-coffee.com EDITORIAL OFFICE 1030 W. Higgins Road, Suite 230 Park Ridge, IL 60068 • (847) 720-5600 Visit us online: www.specialty-coff ee.com E-mail: specialtycoffee@m2media360.com EDITORIAL STAFF Editor PRODUCTION STAFF Art Director Production Manager CIRCULATION STAFF Vice President of Circulation & Collateral Services SALES STAFF Sales Manager List Rental & Reprint Services EXECUTIVE STAFF Group Publisher CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Ed Avis, Jack Groot, Maura Keller, Caroline Rath, Alan Richman, Brenda Russell, Peter Surkowski EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Jason Burton, lab5702 Desiree Farden, Big Train, Inc. Jack Groot, JP's Coff ee And Espresso Bar Wes Herman, Th e Woods Coff ee Meghan Hubbs, Equal Exchange Rob Jeffries, North Atlantic Specialty Bag Craig Min, LAMIL Coff ee Lon LaFlamme, Dillanos Coff ee Roasters Kate LaPoint, Sound Provisions, Inc. Joe Monaghan, La Marzocco Tom Palm, Design & Layout Services Steve Schnitzler, Port City Java® Andi C. Trindle, Atlantic Specialty Coff ee Bill Waddington, TeaSource Corporate Offi ce: 1030 W. Higgins Road, Suite 230 Park Ridge, IL 60068 PRESIDENT/CEO VP FINANCE & OPERATIONS VP OF CIRCULATION & COLLATERAL SERVICES PRODUCTION & OPERATIONS DIRECTOR SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION AND REQUESTS Phone (845) 856-2229 Marion Minor Gerald Winkel Joanne Juda-Prainito Mary Jo Tomei Fax (845) 856-5822 Subscriptions: $39 for one year, $61 for two years, U.S.; $48 for one year, $72 for two years, Canada; $110 for one year, all other countries (includes airmail postage). Single copies $10 each; Annual Buyers Guide $25. Payable in U.S. funds only. Customer Service: (847) 763-9565 PRESS RELEASES: Press releases on supplies, services and new products are welcomed and encouraged. Direct them to Specialty Coff ee Retailer. Color print photography is preferred, slides and transparencies are accepted. Specialty Coff ee Retailer reserves the right to edit all submissions. Pan Demetrakakes pan@m2media360.com Britt Menendez Madeline Minor Joanne Juda-Prainito Brian Grau (314) 487-6568 Cheryl Naughton (678) 292-6054 Charlie Forman cforman@m2media360.com Membership applied for July 2010 Specialty Coff ee Retailer (ISSN 1077-3460) is published monthly by Bev-Al Communications, 1030 W. Higgins Road, Suite 230, Park Ridge, IL 60068. Copyright© 2012 by Bev-Al Communications Inc. Postmaster please send address corrections to: Specialty Coff ee Retailer, P.O. Box 4290, Port Jervis, NY 12771. Periodicals postage paid at Port Jervis, NY and additional mailing offi ces.