1st Year Anniversary Teaser

We're open from 11 am to 2 am on April 14!

11 am - Free Mocha Frothiccino (75 pesos) and any pasta (50 pesos) for the first 10 (ten) groups to arrive (ang group ay 2 people and above, so kahit ilan man kayo isang meal at drink lang ang libre. Kilala namin kayo kaya walang dayaan ha!)

3 pm - Free Bowl of Chips for the first 5 (five) customers to arrive at this time.

7 pm - Free Iced Tea (regular) for the first 5 (five) customers to arrive at this time.

10 pm - Free Blueberry Cheesecake for the first 3 (three) customers to arrive at this time.

1 am - Free Flavor of the Month for the FIRST customer to arrive!!!

Summer Lag

The school year is almost over and that means we won't be seeing a lot of people this week. Last week wasn't really THAT exciting. I'm still getting used to my job as manager, it's a bit boring right now though since it's not the same work as being a barista. A barista is always on the move, staying active making drinks the whole day. A manager sits down the whole day and thinks of stuff to do. Then I'll get fat.

Starting this week, Neil will be working Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. Kuya Ramhil will be taking over the rest of the week. I will be your cashier on Thursdays and your cook on Fridays. But what I enjoy most since hiring Kuya Ramhil are our "coffee sessions". It's part of the day where I will blabber about all things coffee, teaching Kuya Ramhil my tricks and techniques, plus stuff that I read from the Barista Techniques Guide I got from Phil Ho and Highlander Coffee. Bessy also joins our sessions because she enjoys the free drinks we're trying. Hehe. And now that I have more time than ever before, I can now obsessively clean the espresso machine every now and then. Since coming back from Singapore I've become paranoid about bitter coffee. You can't mask bitterness with milk or water. So I test the espresso every once in a while to check. A clean machine is one of the factors for a great-tasting cup of coffee. It's not the sole factor, ok? Only one of the important factors, only one.

I've been online all day. This Globe Tattoo contraption is doing wonders for me. It's not that fast but it has a strong signal at our apartment. And I'm from the "dial-up" generation, who am I to say what's fast and what's not? I survived with PLDT Vibe for years, I'm used to a slow connection. I made web pages on Geocities using a Vibe card, so this Globe Tattoo thing is a huge upgrade. I've finished the Anniversary AVP but I haven't uploaded it yet. Yes, it is because of the slow connection. But at least I can blog and check my e-mail at this speed. I've tried some stuff on Facebook too. I haven't really explored the features of Facebook so I spent time on it today.

This summer Cafe Antonio and Azzul Grapika will be teaming up to put up the Cafe Antonio Online Store on Multiply.com (we're not yet sure what to call it yet, you're welcome to offer suggestions). Through that store, we'll be selling Cafe Antonio merchandise like shirts, mugs, tumblers, coasters, and other stuff. We'll also be selling our Houseblend Beans through that store. We'll be posting our designs on Multiply as soon as we can.

Please suggest what other merchandise you would like us to sell. We'll appreciate your ideas, thanks!

Hey blog readers, I hope you could hangout at the cafe this week, if you haven't been there for a while, this week is perfect. Not much traffic. But that's what I think. Again, we can never predict stuff in business.

New Look Crew (once again)

Our new menu board



Store Supervisor, Manong Retz (center), leading the new crew: (L-R)Bessy, Marc (OJT), Neil (guwapo), and Kuya Ramhil



Our newest barista, Ramhil Malabanan

Almost a year has passed. Let’s see how many crew lineup changes we’ve made during our first eleven months (for the sake of nostalgia):

1.) Cashier – Nica; Barista – Jabez; Cook – Joyce
2.) Cashier – Retz; Barista – Jabez/Julius; Cook – Dan
3.) Cashier – Retz; Barista – Jabez/Neil; Cook – Dan
4.) Cashier – Retz/Majals; Barista – Jabez/Neil; Cook – Tracy/Padeys
5.) Cashier – Retz/Padeys; Barista – Jabez/Neil/Tracy; Cook – Tracy/Dan
6.) Cashier – Retz; Barista – Jabez/Neil; Cook – Bessy/Marc
7.) Cashier – Retz; Barista – Neil/Ramhil; Cook – Bessy


Honorable mentions include Yell, our volunteer barista last summer, and Tonio, our first OJT busboy.

A lot has changed; most have moved on and pursued different careers apart from the café. And some have gone back to school to focus on their studies. It’s refreshing for us to remember and give props to those who have helped us get through it all during the course of this amazing year. We always thank our customers on our blogs but we seldom give kudos to those people on the “inside”. These people, no matter how long they’ve worked at the café and whatever position they’ve held, have made history by being one of those who have brought the café to where it stands today.

We’re turning 1 next month, and we couldn’t have done it without you! Thank you very much, Nica, Dan, Tonio, Majals, Tracy, Padeys, and Julius. Saka ka na Marc, isang linggo ka pa magtatarabaho dito, hehe.

Cafe Tour and Coffee Class
Last Thursday, the cafe conducted its very first coffee class. There were 16 HRM students from STI College-Calamba who attended. Special thanks to Sir Fercival for giving us an opportunity to share our knowledge and conduct the class at our cafe. The students learned about the basic fundamentals of coffee brewing and some of them experienced extracting espresso, steaming milk, and free-pouring.

If your school is interested in having a cafe tour and/or conducting a basic coffee appreciation class, our cafe is available upon your request. For more questions and further inquiries, contact Jabez Flores (0917-3406945). We will try to arrange something for you.

Upgrading, Rebuilding, Improvising - Welcome to Our World

I was still in Singapore the last time I wrote a blog entry. That was early in the morning in our room at the YMCA. Since then a lot has happened.

I went to Singapore for the sole purpose of upgrading my skills as a barista. I knew that it would be beneficial for both our cafe and myself. When I came back last, last Saturday I went straight to the cafe and immediately taught Neil (our barista) the things I learned. Coming back to Highlander after 2 years got me inspired to work again at our cafe with renewed excitement and a revived passion for what I do and what I like. When things get dull and routine takes over your life, it's good to take a step back and get a bird's eye view of your whole life. Then you will tell yourself, "So this is what I'm living for, I haven't seen it this way for a long time."







I would like to thank my instructors at Highlander, Phil and Cedric Ho, and their very talented barista, Li. Thanks guys, hope we could come up with something here soon.

We've been working at the cafe for almost a year now, next month will be our 1st year anniversary (April 14). And it's really an achievement that we've been able to maintain an establishment for that long. We're kids with big dreams, and getting stuck in a hole doing the same thing everyday is really quite challenging. But what's good is that we're learning to persevere believing that everthing we have sacrificed will be all worth it in the end.

NEWS
The cafe's been doing very well this March. We had back-to-back 11k Fridays for the past two weeks (117 and 113 customers respectively). That's something new to us and we're very thankful for the support of our customers despite the "hell month".

Neil and I are training a new barista to replace me full-time in the near future. You might have seen him last week helping us out, his name is Kuya Ramhil. I decided to hire him and really concentrate on developing him as a barista so that I could focus fully on managing the cafe.

The MOCHACCINO DIABLO is becoming very popular thanks to its exotic spicy flavor. It's still available until the end of March.

Yummings (http://yummings.multiply.com) has new creations for sale at the cafe: blueberry cheesecake and chocolate mousse, both only 35 pesos each.

DISCLAIMER
If you've noticed we had smaller cups last week, and our frothiccinos tasted a little different. That's because we ran out of supplies last week, we had to improvise a little. But don't worry, our supplies came yesterday so everything's back to normal. We apologize for the inconvenience. I apologize to my friend, Kim, he didn't get to order his white mocha frothiccino.

Cafe Antonio Crew bonding at Starbucks, Petron, SLEX

Early Morning Updates from Singapore

Yesterday I attended my workshop at the Highlander Academy of Coffee here in Singapore. I arrived there at 9 in the morning then went home at eleven in the evening. It was really fun and I learned a lot of cool stuff. But I had too much coffee to drink, the espresso was so good I think I downed about 8 shots. I'm really quite ready and excited to go back home now and teach the techniques I learned here to our staff. It would really help the cafe a lot. Plus I'm really excited about the Red Jumpsuit mall tour. Hehe. Jason Mraz is here, he performed last night but I didn't get to watch.

Dan and I are staying at the YMCA. It's really quite nice, we've got cable, flat screen TV, and WiFi. Very convenient. We'll be having our buffet breakfast after I take a bath then we'll head back to my school to get my certificate and practice a little. I'm planning to stay at our room for most of the day just to rest and watch TV.

For Joyce and the cafe staff, I didn't get you guys anything, anything personal at least. Dan and I ended up spending a fortune on our first day here, long story. We paid a lot of additional fees that was not in our budget. But I will get a JBL speaker for the cafe to replace Dan's speakers. It's a small round iPod speaker and it has excellent sound. It's amazing. It's so small but the sound beats the quality of the larger Sony speakers we tested. JBL's a good brand. I think I'll put the speaker in the bookshelf so that people won't figure out where the music is coming from. Really cool.

Ok see you guys on Saturday, it's very cool here, especially if you like toys, gadgets, and stuff, but I really miss our hill billy lifestyle back in ELBI. God bless!

March On March!

It's time to use those Loyalty Mugs! Now that the Loyalty Program is over (that means you can no longer get those cards signed, sorry!), you can now use your mugs to get insane discounts! You can start bringing your friends on Monday to get your free drinks.

Our FoM for March is the MOCHACINNO DIABLO. A drink inspired by the month of March being the "hell month" for students. For the first time, we didn't use our signature frothiccino mix for this drink. Instead, we used the sheeeer powerrrrr of our houseblend espresso. For those looking for a kick for that extra energy to stay awake, this drink is definitely for you. Try it starting Monday, March 2, for only 120 pesos.

We've been having multi-cab adventures for the past few days, just to try something different. Last Friday, the staff and a few of our friends played charades at the Jollibee parking lot in Paseo de Sta. Rosa. The next day we went to Burger King in Calamba and then passed the time at Starbucks at Petron, SLEX.

This week, Dan and I will be in Singapore. I'll be attending a workshop in the same school I went to 2 years ago, the Highlander Academy of Coffee. Dan will be applying in a photography workshop. So you won't be seeing me for quite a while.

Please pray for my trip, see you soon!

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!

We Need Umbrellas on the Inside...

For those of you who don't know yet, we closed early last Friday (1/23/09) due to a leaky ceiling. Here's the full story (for the sake of blogging):

I woke up late that day knowing that I didn't have to go to the cafe because I had to leave for Med City the following morning. My sister's having her first baby and I was really excited to witness the event. But when I got up from bed I saw my iPod Nano on the table. We needed the Nano at the cafe to play music and I thought Retz forgot to bring it. Padeys texted me that the cafe was full of people and that we already made 2k in just 1 hour. So I took a bath, changed my clothes and delivered the Nano. The cafe was insanely full. I mean really full of people, mostly Ruralites.

I decided to hang-out for a while and help around. I also reviewed our budget for next month's activities and jotted down quotes for my lecture at Diliman on February 2. But it came to a point that helping was not helping at all. I only took up space especially when Yell's cousin, Gelo, and his batchmates from Rural invaded the cafe and took over all the possible leg room the shop can offer. I went to Koinonia to get some air and surfed for a few minutes. When I got back the cafe was still full. It was nearing 7 pm and our sales already surpassed the Monday sales. I was sitting at the bathroom entrance because there wasn't enough space. And it was raining very hard outisde, no one could get out.

Boom. The couch area was leaking, showering Gelo and his friends. Then the trellis started leaking too, spraying the BLD group. It came to a point when the leaks turned into streams of flowing water. I called Joyce and told her that the leaks were uncontrollable and that we had to close the shop. I also called Kuya Boy, our contractor, to fix the problem. In a few minutes the cafe turned into a scene reminiscent of the sinking of the Titanic. The lights were turned off, the books and games were put in garbage bags, all the customers were huddled near the counter, the sofas were transfered to the kitchen and CR, while I was calling people on my celphone like hell while I sat on the toilet bowl. Take note, the cafe was still full of people. Someone even ordered a cookie despite the predicament. Hehe.

It was crazy. Everyone was shouting. Therese, Majals and her sister, were there to assist the evacuation. I called Kuya Rome, Joyce's cousin, and told him to bring a vehicle so we can evacuate the equipment. His parents came with the DMax and put the espresso machine there. Then we transferred all our stuff at our apartment.

Everyone was wet. Gelo and his friends were happy. We were still speechless, unable to believe what just happened. But we were still grateful that no one was hurt and nothing was damaged.

Kuya Boy came and revealed the trash that's been blocking our gutter on the roof. The gutter overflowed and the water crept in our roof. Joyce also came to help after her duty at the hospital in Calamba.

We temporarily dried up the place then closed the night in prayer, thanking God that despite being open for only three hours, we were able to rake in 5k. It was a good team-building exercise for all of us. It's a good bonding experience for the staff too. AND it's also good material for my speech.*

It's in moments like these where you feel happy that you continue to do what you're doing. Despite the odds, the challenges, the obstacles, you move on, persevere, and just be a hard-working, self-employed, minimum wage-earning young entrepreneur.

It doesn't matter if it's a person, a thing, or your job, in all cases your love and your passion will always be tested. And in this case, we passed the test.

Thank you Lord for moments like these.

*On February 2, I was invited by the UP Circle of Entrepreneurs to speak in their 2-day Young Entrepreneurs Convention with the theme Starting UP: EntrePinoy where 300 delegates from different high schools in Metro Manila will be attending. Please pray that I will be able to deliver a good speech and seize the opprotunity to be a good example to these young people.