Barista Goes Down with Injury, Reserves Unveil Talents

First of all, Entrepreneur Magazine posted a correction regarding our e-mail address on their January 2009 issue. Yes, if you haven't noticed the email address was wrong, so go ahead and check.Thanks to the writer, Ate Cindy, and the staff of the magazine, the cafe once again had free publicity. Hehe.

A lot of stuff happened last week. Unfortunately I wasn't there for 2 days (Friday and Saturday) because of an infected right thumb which made my hand immobile and unable to grab or push anything. Thanks to my loyal barista, Neil, and talented barista-in-training, Tracy, the cafe was able to haul the most number of customers in Cafe Antonio recorded history. Friday alone received 113 people and the cafe had a total of exactly 500 for the week. The two baristas told me it was crazy in the kitchen and that they now understand how hard it is to be a barista. Well, that's a good experience for you guys, congratulations!

We patterned the Cafe Antonio LB branch organization after the structure of UPLB student orgs. We have committees and committee heads, an exec, and so on. As some of you have probably seen or witnessed, we have been having our General Assembly or GA every Wednesday when there are few or no customers.

We interviewed Dan for the "cook" position since Padeys will be having a regular job starting February. Remember Dan? He's the long-haired photographer who has shades on regardless of location or time. He will be Tracy's reliever as cook since Tracy's been busy with school and play rehearsals. Dan will officially start on February. We welcome you back, Dan the Japanese Man.

And now that we have five-man crew, we will be having alternating crews starting February. So sometimes Neil will be the barista all day, sometimes I will be the cashier, and sometimes Retz will not be able to greet you at the counter. We did this so we can have day-offs, it's important for us to take care of our health and get some rest.

Ah yes, the Loyalty Mugs! We had 3 customers complete their Loyalty Cards in one day! It would have been 4 if Jomar bought one more drink. But he got his the next day. Your pictures are available at http://cafeantonioelbi.multiply.com/photos/album/119/Akong_Cafe_Antonio_Loyalty_Mug_Holders. We dump all our pix there. Loyalty Mug perks begin after the Loyalty Program, the last day is on February 28. So by March you can watch out for an insane promo. Better start buying coffee to get your mugs!

Multiply.com friends, our Choco Banana Nut Frothiccino is doing very well! We had 23 orders last week, it only ranks second to the monster hit Brownie Fudge Frothiccino in number of orders. As for our other new products, the Granita Blush was ordered 24 times last week while the pizza-like Tuna Melt was served an amazing 53 times! The Tuna Melt got an upgrade last Saturday, we're now serving it on a Baguette instead of a sesame bread slice. Try it with extra cheese and cayenne pepper, it will blow you away (for only 30 pesos?!?! Add 10 for the cheese and the cayenne is free)!

That's it for now folks, I'll be at the cafe on Monday but Neil and Tracy will be taking care of the barista duties. I'm just waiting for my thumb to heal. Oh yes, we have a MultiCab! It will be arriving on Wednesday. It will be our service van aside from Manong Retz's American Era jeep. Thanks to my Pop, I owe him a fortune. But he's giving me a lifetime to pay it back. Haha!

We thank God for keeping us focused and cohesive as a business, as a family, and as friends. It is because of Him that the Cafe Antonio story continues to be a miracle. Continue to pray for our small group as we prepare for our first full year this 2009.

We would like to thank and appreciate all the new friends we met along the way. You guys are an integral part of the cafe. Thanks for your concern and suggestions. And here's a shoutout to all the Ruralites out there: THANKS FOR SUPPORTING YOUR ALUMNI!

See you guys this week! (that was a long entry...)