How the Cafe Got its Groove Back

Ali Does Heidi:
Raw Honey Ice Cream w/ Vanilla Bean
(served in our new espresso cups...ain't they cute?)

A few of you have inquired about whether or not things have returned to normal at the LRBC. Well, the answer to that question is yes and no. A few hours later than scheduled we did have a new compressor installed in our refer this past Tuesday. We were able to return to regular business hours Wednesday, which turned out to be a pretty slow day at the cafe. Today was much busier...like twice as busy as yesterday...literally, and we found ourselves sold out of ciabatta bread at exactly 12:00pm. Once again we are scratching our heads, trying to figure out just what "normal" really is.

Business has been extremely inconsistent these past few weeks and it has proven difficult to anticipate just how much product we are going to go through on a given day. While we prefer to be busy enough that we are running out of certain items, it is never good to be completely out of anything before the lunch rush. Still, it makes us happy to have the cafe open again, and we are trying to embrace the notion told to us by many of our customers, that running out of product is "a good problem to have." Yeah, just tell that to the couple who are visiting our cafe for the very first time and both want egg sandwiches that are normally served on ciabatta.

In more exciting news, tomorrow will be the first day that we receive a produce delivery from Jean Ann. We first received an email from Jean Ann a few weeks back, and had the great pleasure of being able to meet with her in person late last week. Minutes after sitting down and learning about her newest endeavor, we were both feeling lucky to be able to work with a very talented gardener turned farmer who will be supplying the cafe with a great deal of produce in the coming months. Expect to read a lot of posts about Jean Ann. We can't even begin to express how excited we are to be able to work directly with one of our produce suppliers, and literally watch the food that we will be cooking with as it grows from seed to harvest. Back when we were Green & Green Salad Company, one of the greatest benefits to our business was that we were able to sell our food at the same place we bought it: the farmers market. Now that most our days find us working hard at the cafe, we anticipate that we won't be able to casually roam the market like we used to. Being able to work with someone like Jean Ann will once again afford us an opportunity to cook with the freshest specialty produce. If you would like to learn more about what she is doing be sure to check out her amazing blog.

So to summarize, yes, we are open again. And I guess things are back to "normal" if one considers that there really is no such thing as normal in this industry. Most importantly however is the fact that we're back, and how happy we are to be so. Thanks for hanging with us, we love you for that.