A Visit from Our Bosses and an Unexpected Trial Run with Espa

The LB team’s bosses from Cafe Antonio-Dumaguete, Kuya Rayvin and Kuya Rochris Pinero, came to visit the branch to help prepare for the opening of the cafe on April 14, Monday. They did an "extreme makeover" the other day and yesterday with the LB team’s contractor Kuya Boy, an electrician, and Jabez’s mom. They went to IRRI for lunch and bought some stuff at Robinsons and some preliminary experimental ingredients in preparation for a trial run for “some” friends in the afternoon. Nica texted some of friends to come over and sample free lattes, caffe mocha, and brewed coffee. To their surprise, their friends from the espaleklek fraternity came instead of those they texted.

There were around 10 of them including one of their batchmates from Rural, Vinci. Most of them ordered café mochas which the barista, Jabez, made with Hershey’s Lite Choco Syrup and several kinds of milk they bought to experiment on (the café will be using Torani Sauces for regular operations). The ever hyper barista made the mochas with Gloria Estefan’s Congga playing in the background and the spotlight shining on him. After having drunk about 4 espressos that day and with the excitement of making coffee again with an actual espresso machine after 4 months in front of many people, poor Jabez made a mess and spilled some choco syrup on his friend Fidel and made crappy etching designs with his shaking, caffeine-controlled hands. Tsk tsk. Redemption came when Joyce’s friend, Karl, came and ordered a café mocha. Jabez finally did something right, thank goodness.

It was really tiring and pressure-packed. But it was fun and exciting too. It gave the LB team a preview of things to come. Thanks guys, your presence was a blessing in disguise. Sige para sikat kayo, nandun si Ged, Fidel, Chino, Benny, Mac, Gideon, Javs, Rex, Pecs, Rudden, and Al. May kulang ba? Dagdag nyo nalang sa comment box. Hehe. Joyce and Jabez’s families also came later that night to sample the free coffee.

The LB team and the Dumaguete team concluded the day with a meeting while eating takeout KFC grub at the café. One of the café’s investors, Pastor Chito together with his wife, came before the meeting started and they ended the night with a heartfelt prayer from each one.

This was a very productive two days for the team even though Nica only had an hour’s worth of sleep due to the death of her grandfather and the events that followed; Joyce had slits for eyes due to lack of sleep; and Jabez palpitating due to over-consumption of coffee. They got things done despite all odds and they thank the Lord for giving them the heart to do all these things and for proving once again that His timing is always right and certainly the best.

God bless you all!