Loyalty Mug Perks

This week is your last chance to get your Loyalty Mugs! So start buying coffee! Here's our first promo for you Loyalty Mug holders (watch the video at http://cafeantonioeli.multiply.com and click the "Videos" tab):

PROMO MECHANICS

// Bring your Akon'g Cafe Antonio Loyalty Mug (or ask for it at the counter)

// Bring at least three (3) of your friends*

//Your friends must order at least 70 pesos worth of drinks and/or food

// This entitles you to get any drink (hot or cold) worth 75 pesos and below for free (or you can get 75 pesos off on premium frothiccinos and FoMs).


// Your FREE drink will be served in your 12 oz. Loyalty Mug (either hot or cold)

Promo runs from March 2 to May 30, 2009

Love in the Time of Stress

Hello loyal Cantonnites! I'm sorry I didn't get to blog last week, we were super busy and a lot of things happened these past two weeks. As you have noticed our Blogspot, Facebook, Friensdter, and MySpace have been inactive for quite a while. However, our Multiply site's been getting pictures thanks to Dan the Japanese Man.

CAFE NEWS

* I've just received a text message from Ate Vivian, our janitress, she said she'll be coming back to work tomorrow.

For the past two weeks, Retz and I have been the janitors of the cafe. We've been waking up at 10 or 11 am everyday cleaning for 2 to 3 hours and waiting for the ice truck. Thank God, to prevent further ranting, Ate Vivian's text message came just in time. This means we don't have to wake up early tomorrow. And I don't have to tell you again how hard it is to clean in the morning and work until 1 am.

NEW CREW

Last Tuesday, our 2 cooks, Tracy and Dan, have decided to leave the cafe to pursue other interests and opportunities. Although they're no longer part of the staff, they will always be part of the Cafe Antonio family.

Replacing Dan and Tracy is BS Bio student (2005), Bessy Espina. Bessy's been hanging out with us for quite some time now and thankfully she's available to work at the cafe for at least a year. She started training last week. To help her out at the kitchen is Marc Angeles, he's an HRM student from the University of Perpetual Help-Calamba. He'll be be working with us until March to finish his OJT. So you'll be seeing new faces when you visit the cafe this week.

I would also like to thank my org, the UPLB Navigators. Bessy's my orgmate with the Navs and Marc is my sis's boyfriend. So if it weren't for the Navs I wouldn't have known these people. Thanks! You've helped save the cafe!

BIRTHDAY

Manong Retz celebrated his 22nd birthday last Wednesday. Imagine that, Manong is only 22 years old! Amazing isn't it? We had a huge celebration at our apartment after work. Food and drinks courtesy of Padeys and the Bonita household.

FEB FAIR

I didn't go to the fair this year. But I think that's ok. As expected, the fair took away some of our customers for the first few days. We thought the cafe wouldn't get any love that week. But to our surprise, Friday packed in 109 customers giving us our 3rd highest sales in a single day. Our loyal customer, Eric, even texted me that they couldn't get in anymore. Sorry Eric
and Ise, drop by next time! But thanks UPLB! That's what you call support!

FOOD AND DRINKS

We're sorry but the Choco Banana Nut Frothiccino is not our FoM for February. So order the White Strawberry Frothiccino instead, it has all the good stuff in it for only 150 pesos. Watch the commercial at http://cafeantonioelbi.multiply.com/.

Also try our Choco Cupcakes by Yummings (aka Sweet Indulgence) for only 30 pesos (http://yummings.multiply.com/)

FUTURE PROJECTS

In the near future, we will be putting up a Cafe Antonio Online Store at Multiply reaching both the Los Banos and Dumaguete clientele. You can buy Cafe Antonio merchandise like shirts, polo shirts, mugs, tumblers, lanyards, coffee beans, and other stuff through the Internet. Right now we're still in the process of conceptualizing it. If you have any ideas just send us an e-mail at cafeantonio_elbi@yahoo.com.

PRAYER ITEM

Please continue praying for the recovery of Tita Rene, our bosses' mother. She's still in St. Lukes Hospital.

That's it for now, this week's another week for all of us and a new week for the new Canton Crew. See you soon!

Welcome February!

Hello Cantonnites! Sorry for the late entry, we've been busy with some projects these past few days.

10th Annual Young Entrepreneurs Convention

A lot of you were asking how my speech went last Monday. It went well, thank God. I was the first speaker and I had a lot of fun sharing the Cafe Antonio story to the high school and college students present at the event. In fact, I had so much fun I spoke for an hour, even though I was allotted only 45 minutes, hehe. It's been awhile since I've spoken in front of a crowd, the last time was my thesis presentation. I really hope they learned a lot from our story and I hope I represented the cafe well and what we believe in.

For those of you who missed the event, you can watch the full speech taken by Dan the Japanese Man: Photography-han at Kapihan. He will post the video next week at Multiply and Youtube. Watch out for it.

I would like to thank my friend, high school batchmate, and fellow San Pablo Boy, Mark Race (president of the UP Circle of Entrepreneurs) and the rest of the organization for inviting us to the event. It was really a good opprotunity for us to share our story. Thanks guys!!!

NEW ON THE MENU

Finally! The Pasta Antonio is available! It's our veggie alternative to Pasta Bolognese. It's made with fresh tomatoes and its taste is reminiscent of a Putanesca. Add cayenne pepper for an extra kick! Only 50 pesos.

FLAVOR OF THE MONTH (FOM)

This month's FOM was quite challenging to make. We needed something that tastes romantic but at the same time not adhering to Valentines Day cliches like using chocolate and the color red. Our first idea was the Caramel Apple flavor. We achieved the taste but it didn't feel like "love". It felt more like Halloween. Then I thought of a choco-strawberry variety. We tried it but it looked like a normal Strawberry Frothiccino, it even tastes like it too. I was getting disappointed. My taste-tester, Tracy, also didn't like the presentation, it looked simple compared to the blockbusters like Brownie Fudge Frothiccino and Overload Frothiccino. So I went to the supermarket and picked up a bottle of MAGIC ELIXIR. I dumped and blended a few ingredients, added a "capful" of the MAGIC ELIXIR, then topped the whole drink with the combined powers of whipped cream and ice cream. Boom! The WHITE STRAWBERRY was born. It's an oxymoron, like Vertical Horizon or O.J. Mayo.

For only 150 pesos, you can enjoy this drink for the rest of the romatic month of February. Yesterday we already made 11 orders, not bad for a rookie.

NEW VIDEO

This morning, I made the commercial for our FOM. We used the song Always by Erasure. Remember your elementary days? It's our first commercial where we used major participation from our customers and friends. In the video, you'll see Eliezer the espasol boy, Drew the Koinonia.com boy, the delegates of the YEC in UP Diliman, plus many others! Watch it at http://youtube.com/cafeantonioelbi.


LOYALTY PROGRAM UPDATE

It's been raining coffee at Cafe Antonio! Loyalty mugs are given almost everyday as customers hurry to complete their Loyalty cards before February 28. Special mention to round 2 winners (those who already have two mugs), Al of Espaleklek, Chris Belison, and Jeg delos Reyes. Mga adik kayo! Congrats! View the pictures at http://cafeantonioelbi.multiply.com.


PRAYER ITEM

Please pray for our Dumaguete family. Our bosses' mother, Rene Piñero, is in St. Lukes Hospital right now, she has fluid in her lungs. Please pray for her speedy recovery.

That's it for now, God bless everybody!