It's Founder Friday! Today we get to talk with Mario Jimenez one of the owners of Banana Dang Coffee in Oceanside, California!
Mario and his wife, Thanh-Thanh Dang started Banana Dang back in 2007 in Rincon, Puerto Rico before eventually relocating to Oceanside, California. Back on the island, they served Puerto Rican coffee and homegrown bananas in all their smoothies. Dubbed the “World’s First ALL Banana Smoothie and Specialty Coffee Bar,” Banana Dang became an institution in the Caribbean surf town. After selling the property in Rincon in 2014, they returned to California and opened the second Banana Dang shop in Oceanside in 2015.
Banana Dang is lovely and unique business in the specialty retail space with a simple mission and a lot to teach us. In today's interview we will be exploring the founding and evolution of Banana Dang in depth with Mario and learning all about the heart behind it and the insights gain from over 13 years of operation.
You will learn about:
Links:
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The BEST in commercial coffee equipment
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It is easy for us to be consumed with work. Especially if you are passionate about it and desire to achieve great things, to move the needle in the company, and to help those you lead. Trouble is hough, we tend to blur the lines between work and home and end up burning out for lack of clear borders. Today we will talk about three tactics that will help bring balance and ultimately keep you healthy and thriving at work and at home.
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Coffee and the coffee shop have an amazing history. From the Ottoman Empire to your favorite 3rd wave coffee bar, there have been many evolutions and critical pints in time that have led us to where we are today. In order to move forward well, we need to be well informed of our industry's past. To help us in this effort we are chatting with coffee historian, Prof. Jonathan Morris
Jonathan Morris is a Research Professor in History at the University of Hertfordshire, specializing in the history of coffee. His latest book Coffee: A Global History explains how coffee became popular the world over, and why tastes in coffee differ all over the world. Jonathan was the European Editor of Coffee: A Comprehensive Guide to the Bean, the Beverage, and the Industry (2013) and directed the Cappuccino Conquests research project which traced the history of Italian-style coffee from the origins of espresso through to the global coffee shop chains of today.
In this episode we are talking with Prof. Morris about some key points in the evolution of the coffee shop that impact us today.
We will discuss:
Links:
prof.jonathan.morris@gmail.com
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On bar, things get stressful. We are not just managing the physical space but we are also managing and navigating our emotions. It's all too easy to let our pride keep us from asking for help when we most desperate need it. In this shift break I talk about a recent experience I had that inspired the episode and we dive into vulnerability, team support, communication, and ultimately allowing ourselves and others to be humans at work.
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Links:
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It's tech time! Equipment breaks, that is just a fact of life. How and why it breaks depends on the way we maintain (or don't maintain) it over the corse of its life. right now there are thousands of bars working on machines that are either about to break or are well on their way because of improper care. Today we are talking with Counter Culture Coffee NYC equipment tech extraordinaire, Melissa Vaiden. The goal of our conversation? To help us avoid an untimely demise for the equipment we depend on.
Melissa Vaiden is a service technician for Counter Culture Coffee in the NYC region. After working as a barista for years, she found a tech internship at Boxcar Coffee that sparked her love for fixing coffee equipment. She speaks on panels sharing her experience as one of the few women working in the technical field. She also is a stage manager for the Coffee Champ's Cup Tasters competition.
In this conversation e cover a LOT of information and best practices for your brewers, grinders, espresso machines and filtration. If you follow Melissa's advice here you will be sure to save yourself a world of suffering form needless maintenance issues.
We cover:
Links:
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Got questions, comments, feedback? Want to work with KTTS Consulting? Chris@keystotheshop.com
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How do you inspire people? This was a question I was asked recently while conducting a day-long workshop for a group of cafe managers. The answer is easy to give, but hard to live. You can think of this also as policy -vs- relationship.
Today we are going to talk about our tendency to try and force inspiration, why it falls short, and what to do instead.
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Learning about consumer trends and preferences keeps us sharp and relevant. How well our shops do will have a huge impact on everyone in the value stream of coffee and in order to do our best work we need to be paying attention to what the research says as well as doing our own research locally. Thankfully the SCA has been doing intensive consumer and retail research for over a decade and what they have found may shift the way you view your customers and your business.
To discuss the data with us today we are talking with the great Peter Giuliano, Chief Research Officer of the SCA and the Director of The Coffee Science Foundation. Peter has been in specialty coffee for over 30 years. In his long and illustrious career he has occupied almost every role both in the retail shop and roastery. You might also know him as being the former Director of Coffee and Co-Owner of Counter Culture Coffee. He has been deeply involved in SCA training programs, serving as Training Committee Chair from 2005-2007 and has been a volunteer for the Coffee Corps and other CQI programs.
Peter has always been a champion for coffee science and is truly thriving in his current role helping connect scientists, economists, sociologist, etc. with the coffee community to produce robust analytics to inform our moves into the future.
In this conversation we will dive into some of their findings from the consumer and retail research and discuss how it applies to what we do in the shop.
I hope you enjoy!
You will learn about:
Find out more information here:
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Designing the guest Experience w/ Dr. Lisa Waxman
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Got questions, comments, feedback? Want to work with KTTS Consulting? Chris@keystotheshop.com
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It's easy to create an environment in the coffee shop where staff feel they are bound by tight rules and restrictions. In this environment we don't get to see much creative hospitality in the form of solving problems for customers. Today we are chatting about the need to empower your staff to make calls on the bar that reinforce the the values and spirit of the organization.
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Getting your local coffee community to come together can be a powerful way to build networks, friendships, and careers. This is what today’s guests have made their mission.
Javier Alvarez and Joseph W. Gonzalez are long time professional baristas who founded Espresso State of Mind in 2017 to give their fellow baristas a platform to showcase talents, meet one another, and excel in their careers. Besides consulting, content creation, and catering, their main focus is on hosting latte art throw downs.
In our discussion today we are going to get an inside look into Espresso State of Mind and walk away motivated by the lessons they have learned, the advice they give for starting something in your own community, and the passion and drive they express for just going out and making your dreams a reality.
Enjoy!
Links:
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Interested in Keys to the Shop Consulting services? Let's talk Chris@keystotheshop.com
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The hardest part about building a team is building trust. It does not happen overnight and requires patience, but more than that, it requires consistency in small and big ways. Today we are going to talk about how you can cultivate trust in your staff by building your "Trust-credit".
In the New Year there will be many goals you set for yourself and your business. It is my hope that the message in this episode will help you see those goals come to pass.
Happy New Year!
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