steady on

gearing up for the coming weekend, an annual event here called the great train weekend. we're told that plenty of folks are in the village for it, anywhere from a hundred or two (local shops) or thousands (event organisers), depending of course on who you speak to. but we're expecting something along the lines of what we experienced over easter.

so we'll be staffed up, stocked up, and hopefully all the equipment will work. we've now moved to the new menu too. I'm sure our regulars will be sad to see the burgers go, but as stated in the last post, it's all about keeping the doors open.

luck o' the irish

the fabulous fergusson elliott performed on sunday:

if only there were a few more people here to see him and his amazing irish bouzouki prowess.

we're settling on what will be the new direction. for the past couple of weeks, we'd been considering whether it would be best to close shop, perhaps to relocate to somewhere more viable. we've got a couple of plan b alternatives on the table at present, but each will need plenty of time and money to implement.

meanwhile... we're both frustrated with the struggle to keep the place open. we've attracted plenty of great reviews, our regulars seem happy and everything's in place for a long, steady growth curve. except more customers. and it's not just us, everybody around seems to be feeling the massive downturn in regular trade.

so we're considering an option that will allow us to remain trading, but with much ramping back. we'll reduce the menu to soups, focaccias and other light meals only. this will mean we won't have to rely on (and spend big $$ repairing) the stoves, gas lines, fryer, walk-in refrigeration etc. readers who remember our first place up the coast will recall the menu there, this one may be very similar.

we'll save on gas, electricity, staff, stock and nerves. we can focus on our core profitable products such as coffee. and we can hang in for the winter season.

we'd also be cutting out our live music calendar, which saddens me. however, after six months we still haven't developed any kind of regular support. it's heartbreaking watching these incredibly talented artists like fergusson play to a half dozen people. or less. it's a sad state, everyone wants live music and sounds all excited, but when it's made available.... there's so many people around who supported the idea, but have never set foot in our place during a music session. guess they're all too busy watching football.

stay tuned, things are unfolding...

join the club

not much to blog about, just bizness as what appears to be usual. we haven't suffered any major equipment failures or other infrastructure related problems, and have just been coasting along.

from last week's specials board - chicken club sandwich, with avocado, cos lettuce, tomato on a triple decker organic spelt loaf:

we'll have a rather big announcement sometime next week.