It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: A Tribute

Attention: In honor of one of this season's undeniable classics, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, this Saturday's sweet bread pudding special is......Pumpkin French Toast Bread Pudding. We just couldn't help ourselves. Not to be outdone, Drinking Chocolate is making a special appearance on this weekend's menu. Sunday's savory bread pudding is also in the works and I promise you this: You. Will. Not. Be. Disappointed. Period.

Which brings me to my second point, an update of sorts. However, like all good updates this one come with a preface. The other day Jo politely said to me, "I like reading your blog about the cafe. You make it sound so cheery. I mean, it's not like it's not, it's just so funny the way you write about it. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's interesting to gain your perspective on things."

Responding to this caused me pause. How was it possible that Jo wasn't aware of my perspective on cafe life given that we see each other 32 hours of the week at the very cafe in question? Was it possible that we weren't communicating well? Or was it that I'm aimply not as "cheery" in real life as I am in the blogosphere? With some thought I came to the following conclusion. Jo was right. We don't really talk work at work. (E and I feel we have enough work on the brain as is). No, we basically talk about three things at work: we gossip (aka: "WTF Brit-Brit? Get it together, Girlfriend" or "What do you think Cheney is doing right now. No, like right at this very moment?"; we talk about our histories (aka: "I have a sister named Alli, but her full name is Allison so she's spells it differently," or "I used to play baseball in college but when I left Iowa I left baseball"); and we talk shop (aka: "How's the decaf pouring?" or "How's the grind working out for you?" or "Do we need to make more tempeh salad because it's been selling REALLY well.") Yes, this is the dialogue that consumes our day here at the LRBC. And to be honest it kinda makes me sad. Because I wish I could share with all of our "employees" (quotations marks utilized not because of their lack of status but because in reality these people are all our friends we basically pay to hang out with us) just how happy we really are here. Thus far into the adventure the cafe has proved to be everything and nothing like we always imagined it would be and I wouldn't want it any other way. Without the assistance from these fine individuals it would cease to exist and my only concern is that we have not done a good enough job expressing that to the most important people in the equation: Them.

Jo's comment has weighed heavy on my mind. The reason being I don't want this blog to be anything but an honest account of everything we're doing and how we're feeling. Evan and I made a point to not utilize the blog as a tool to focus on any of the bumps we've hit along the way. Not just because we have no desire to promote or contribute to the excessive negativity already plaguing in this world, but because we ourselves don't wish to reflect upon the bad. Our blog is our journal, (albeit an online journal read by a few people) and we ourselves possess little desire to reflect or hold on to any of the bruises. Besides, the ones that really hurt left a mark and recalling them when necessary shouldn't be a problem.

However, that alone is my only explanation to Jo's quandary. No, it's not that everything here is peaches and cream daily but to be honest it ani't all that bad either. Sure, we have stressful days. Days when I've got nothing left to give but tears dug up from somewhere I don't even want to know exists, days when yolks break, when the alarm clock doesn't go off when "scheduled," when entire sheets of bacon are burned and ruined beyond repair, when the decaf inexplicably runs out (but really-who knew N. Portlanders loved decaf SO much) or when you have to run out to IKEA to replace 13 chairs because the ones you bought previous to completely failed you, and replacements are needed STAT.

But there are a lot better days than those. More often than not there are days when Dekin and Jo kick so much synchronized a$$ is the kitchen that I can remove myself from the endless rush of tickets piling up to attend to the favorable act of coming up with flavours for ice cream batter and bread pudding makings. More often than not there are days when Lindsey's undeniably saturating charm knocks people off their feet and literally makes their day. More often than not there are days when Tim goes out of his way to make sure the coffee he's pouring is the best coffee experience people can recall to memory. More often than not there are days when E takes the portafilter in hand and the smile across his face stretches from ear to ear and I know he's experiencing nothing short of his "bliss." In short, we're pretty darn happy.

Yeah, good sh*t is happening at the cafe daily. Really good, inspiring stuff. Like Jo's blossoming raw chocolate business, Chocolate Rabbit:

And having the tenacity to embrace fall with open arms by taking this:

And making Gingerbread Ice Cream

And feeling inspired by the season's changes to make weekday Blueplate Specials like Mac n' Cheese done the LRBC way:

And a Garden Vegetable Fritatta with Hashbrown Gratin and Organic Mixed Greens:
So yeah, if you are lacking a little "cheer" in your life,float on down to the LRBC and we can see if we can sort you out. But if you're unable to get here we graciously invite you to keep reading and then maybe, just maybe you can catch the infectious waves via the blogosphere...