Appendix E-J

I don’t even like Jimmy Buffet, but I think of what will be different on Monday morning at Everyday Joe’s and the song just enters my head.

At Everyday Joe’s, we constantly look for ways to increase opportunities to talk to you, improve quality, and be a better business. A few things coming up will breach all three of these fronts, so let’s chat about them.

TALKING TO YOU

For 7.5 years now, we’ve brewed the majority of our coffee using the french press. This is not changing. What is changing is how we serve that coffee to you.

The brew has always resided in an airpot, and we’ve always handed you a cup so you can go and serve yourself. A bit ago, we thought “Hang on here! Why are we sending our dear friends away from us when we could see them more??!!!??!?!?”

Enter these slick things:

That is a picture of our new thermal carafes. The carafes we will SERVE you your french press coffee from. It is more time with you. It also eliminates the disappointing “bottom of the airpot” experience we all dread and loathe. This, then brings us to our next topic…

QUALITY

Airpots are convenient. A nice invention, even. But, that initial burst of air it takes to get the coffee from the pot, out the spout, and into your cup can really kill the brew’s most wonderful tastes. Now, we just pour it into your mug and you enjoy.

This change in process accompanies some changes in our menu layout & offerings as well. We hope the new layout will make it easier to find what you want to drink, and we hope the change in offerings will do the same. You’ll have to come in and say hi to see those changes, though (wink wink nudge nudge).

Continuing on the quality front. Check this out with thine eyeballs:

That’s our new syrup selection…and our new syrups!

We made the decision a while ago to switch brands to our new friends at Sweetbird. We believe the quality of these syrups better matches up with the quality of coffee and milk we use. And -- for those who are into it -- they are vegan. And the raspberry tastes like raspberries. And the schnozberries taste like schnozberries. And in the cup, they look like syrup instead of sugar water.

“But wait! There are so few! Why! Why! WHHHHYYYYYYYYYY!?!?!???!”

Glad you asked.

BUSINESS TIME

We have the desire to be good stewards of our resources: this building, our volunteers, our community, and our funds. Having 10 bottles of syrup sitting out in case someone might want that flavor sometime is not good stewardship. It is money sitting on the shelves. The syrups go bad and have to be thrown away. We thought long and hard about this and surveyed folks. This step reduces costs and waste….and they taste so good I want to try a flavored latte for the first time in 2 years.

The Sweetbird syrups do cost a tiny bit more, though. That -- along with a rise in our milk prices -- have necessitated a price increase. It isn’t much (about 20 cents), but it should help around here. We also believe the new prices reflect the quality of beverages we are making, without gouging your pocketbook. We worked hard on this as well: checking out the nationwide coffee house prices as well as local ones, talking with folks who have been in this business for a LOOOOOOOONG time, and straining our eyes and brains while obsessing over spreadsheets of costs and percentages.

Everyday Joe’s is about serving you and creating a place where we can be a benefit to the community. Thank you for being with us through the journey. It is a fun one, even when it involves spreadsheets. Everyday Joe’s loves you very, very much.

And now, Jimmy Buffet:

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Who loves art? Who loves fairs? Who loves art fairs? Wowzers, look at all those hands in the air. You can put them down now.

Our dear friends at Ruminate Magazine will be kindly invading 144 S. Mason tomorrow (November 20) and setting up the 4th annual Ruminate Art Fair.

The fair has two sessions: 10 am -5 pm and 6 pm – 8 pm. Of course, you could have distilled that information by reading the lovely flier below that the Ruminators (clever!) sent over.

I’m not really into blog posting at this moment, so I’ll let said flier do the rest of the talking. Bye Bye.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Strumpel sounds like something you’d eat at Christmas dinner. A strumpel loaf. Strumpelcake. Yum.

Aaron Strumpel is not something you eat at Christmas dinner, but a man who makes fine, fine music. This time around, it’s renditions of your three favorite Christmas tunes. How’d Aaron know they were your favorite? We told him. How’d we know? We have ways we’ll tell you about when you’re older.

Listen to the EP below and download if you please (via Bandcamp). You may be thinking it’s too early for these tunes…but hey, the department stores start with the Christmas merch in June.

Popularity: 12% [?]

For the past couple o’ months, we (Everyday Joe’s & Timberline Oldtown) have been trying our hand at creating a podcast. From the beginning, it was dubbed the Kitchen Table. It is not just a clever name…it is recorded at the vintage 1950s kitchen table at Everyday Joe’s. Clever names are for those without vintage kitchen tables.

From the Timberline Oldtown website:

The Concept: Sit around the kitchen table at 144 S Mason with a big microphone and record for 30 minutes including anyone and everyone that stops by.

This idea is new and unpolished but we are hitting the ground running. Pastor Darren Fred, Executive Director Chris Hess, and Shepherd Daryle Dickens fired up the mic and just started rambling. We do not know what to expect or how exactly each episode will go.

We’ve not pointed many folks towards the podcast, as it is still birthing and growing and figuring out what it is. A couple weeks ago, we took the metaphorical kitchen table to the Novo Coffee roastery and sat with Herb Brodsky: Novo co-founder and father figure, and emanator of the Woo Heard ‘Round The World.  We think that the conversation that followed may have given future episodes more direction. What we know is that we love Herb and we love Novo…and if you listen and do some distilling you may find the heart of Timberline Oldtown and Everyday Joe’s sitting on the table in front of you, beating excitedly.

Listen below, or head over to the Oldtown site to download the episode and listen to others.

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Popularity: 10% [?]

We’re a week into our second No Words November. We’ve deleted music with words from the Everyday Joe’s music computer. We’ve added more without words. The first No Words November was great. This one is shaping up to be. It’s a month of maybe keeping the jumble out of your head and listening to what you might hear. And from there…well who knows.

Really, it’s a month to encourage and get in the practice of the act of listening. When we listen, we might be led places or we might lead places. Or to things or from things.

And here is what’s interesting:

On November 1st, Derek Webb (we think his music is nice) released Feedback. It is an entirely instrumental/electronic album with each track based on a section of the Lord’s prayer. An interesting concept regardless of what you believe, as it is an interpretation. From Webb’s official site:

Worship is a complicated idea.  Arguably, it’s what we all do, 24 hours a day (regardless of what we’re worshipping).  And I’m aware of a lot of “worship product” in the marketplace I sometimes occupy.  So I was cautious when I first started receiving the coordinates that would lead me to make ‘Feedback’.  It was immediately conceptual and ambitious, so much so that I genuinely wasn’t sure I could do it.  But this seemed to be the perfect posture in which to create something worthy of being called a “worshipful” piece of art.  So I studied, meditated, struggled and prayed my way through this creative process, and it’s easily the most challenging thing I’ve done in my career. But I believe it’s been worth it, even just for the ways it’s stretched both my creative process and my faith as a follower of the Way.

Interesting…this talk of receiving coordinates.

It looks like a film based on the album based on the Lord’s prayer is also coming down the pipes. There are also companion paintings. You can see the preview for the film below, and the paintings at the album purchase page. We’ll be playing the album in the shop this month…if you want to hear it just let us know.

Popularity: 12% [?]