And the winner is… Ms Hernandez!

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Toby’s Estate was 2007s winner of the ‘how long is my $1 coffee queue competition’ but they had their ass kicked this year by Cafe Hernandez, enhorabuena! Why do people wait 20 mins for a coffee? Addiction? Not really it was everywhere… Good coffee? Yeah and coolness.

Not big brand hype. Word of mouth & coolness have worked for the Hernandez family and their 24 hour coffee shop… Gentrification of the Potts Point location has helped.

Build a brand in the cafe industry, on cool, quality & word of mouth. Certainly not on glamorous logos, I struggled to find an example at the stall to take a photo & snapped this from the top of a menu card.

Cafe Hernandez

The coffee scene is like clubbing. Make yourself cool by having a long queue of agitated customers full of buzz, someone out of the scene won’t know what it’s about and is likely to queue up. And like the Hernandez queue, when you get to the front you must be rewarded.

2008 Aroma Festival. Where did all the brands go?

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The buzz you’d expect at a caffine party, big buzz, not so much hype though… Why would people get out there & spread their gear without giving their brand any… ‘jujjjjj’?

The Rocks was decked out with stalls all shaded with the same tacky plastic non-descript white blankness. From a distance they looked the same. Punters have to walk right up to a tent to work out what it was for. Isn’t this the big event for the year, the big chance to big-up your crew’s brew?

2008 aroma festival tents

Is it an all pull marketing industry? Craft a delicious product then hang out and wait til its demanded? We know that’s not true although brands that play like that were noticeably absent (Starbucks and McCafe come to mind) .

Mission: dig up some kind of visual representation of the brands hidden under those white plastic generic display tents, take a snap and stick on flickr.

A coffee in Sydney is $2.50

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So a couple of people commented that $3.00 is a bit much for a coffee in the city although i’m sticking by that call for Annandale. Quick scout around cafe’s at Ultimo and agree that $2.50 is closer to the mark.

Cafe Columbia: $2.20
Corner Cafe: $2.50
Cafe Fusion: $2.20
Cafe Q: $2.80
Bourke St Bakery: $3.00

Cafe Fusion do four different sizes of coffee add an extra shot as you go up – all the way to a ‘Quad’, four shots in an extra large.

How much is a coffee in Sydney?

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Three bucks seems to be the norm for most reputable places, although break the $3.00 mark we’ll start asking questions. Gallery Cafe in Annandale have just put the price up to $3.20. Just down the road, Hopscotch cafe tried raising their price to to $3.20 only to find it killed their business, it’s back down to $3.00 now. Not to far away at Bar Sirocco you pay $2.50 for an average coffee. Round the corner Vicini do a bonza coffee for the right price – $3.oo.

The best value (price & quality) cup of coffee is served up by a Bulgarian, Australian operator at the Cockle Bay Kiosk on the City side of the Pyrmont Bridge walkway. He’ll do you up a hit for $2.20 (takeaway only). Some of his more close-fisted clients will still share a long black.

The best value (price & quality) cup of coffee is served up by a Bulgarian, Australian operator at the Cockle Bay Kiosk on the City side of the Pyrmont Bridge walkway. He’ll do you up a hit for $2.20 (takeaway only). Some of his more close-fisted clients will still share a long black.

Implementing online ordering at Scotty’s Brewhouse

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An interview on runningrestaurants.com with Scott Wise from Scotty’s Brewhouse gives insight into why and how he took his business online:

  • More orders are received online than on the phone.
  • Online ordering is easier to up-sell and its not forgotten by wait staff
  • Integrated with the POS system
  • “couple of thousand” US dollars to set up
  • %5 of each order goes to his online ordering platform provider
  • More accurate orders – reduces chance of human error
  • Perfect for the college kids (mobile internet ready)
  • Remembers orders so the second time is quicker
  • Pre-ordering (order on Sunday for Thursday when you pick the kids up after school)
  • Office administrator uses an invite to send a link around the office – each person does the order themselves. Because the job of the administrative assistant becomes easier, more likely to keep their business because of a competitive advantage.
  • Integrated with call centre so people miles away process the order online  (Eliminates labour costs). Scott mentions this didn’t work very well the people who took the orders were rude and didn’t know the menu well.
  • People are not left on hold so don’t go elsewhere.
  • How to spread the word of online… Within the four walls because the captive audience are your customers. Put up a signs. Email to all people on the DB. Some radio, no print or TV. Use the website.
  • Press releases
  • Capturing customers information in much more depth than in the past; name, email, order history, great for marketing. Scotty uses birthday and anniversary, birthday person brings friends who pay and may become repeat customers.
  • Find out geographic location of patrons. How long since they haven’t ordered, get in touch to ask why…
  • Makes reporting on customers a lot easier.
  • Helps you know who your top 50 – 100 customers are

Why should you not get into online ordering? Small operators who are not interested in growth. Those interested should understand that setup can take a long time. If you want to stay how you are then fine – if you want to try and be more successful then explore new technologies.

www.scottysbrewhouse.com or MyFace & Spacebook

The interview also mentions the great Australian restaurant chain (No, wait its American!) Outback for its super easy to use online ordering system. Though when I checked the Outback system was down.

Camarao na moranga – Prawn in a pumpkin

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Hollow out a pumpkin and fill it full of seafood broth and warm creamy cheese – undoubtedly one of the richest dishes ever to pass my lips. A spectacular looking thing; resting on your table, large soup ladle hanging off the pumpkin rim. This feast happens at a restaurant called Bate Ponto in Sambaqui, Florianopolis. We couldn’t finish the dish which may have been because of the dozen oysters and pastel de caramarao (prawn pastel) we started with.

camarao na moranga

If your’e ever in Florianopolis hunting foodie delights, get on down for a lunch by the water at Bate Ponto in Sambaqui then wash it all down with an ice cold Antartica Original. Bem geladao (really ice cold). Do it.

The 8 Best Pastels in Rio de Janeiro

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This is a snippet (my translation) from an article on the Brazilian news site OGlobo. The only pastel I’ve tried from the list is the Pastel de carne from BB Lanches in Leblon, and it is not from this world.

1- Pastel de feijão (beans) from ‘Mineiro’, in Santa Teresa

2 – Pastel de camarão (prawns) with catupiry (cream cheese) from ‘Bar da Portuguesa’, in Ramos

3 – Pastel de camarão (prawns) from ‘Bira’, in Guaratiba (o Bira não é pé-sujo, nem é barato, mas o pastel é irresistível) Bira is not a stand up style bar and nor is it cheap but the pastel is irresistible.

4 – Pastel de presunto cru (raw ham) with gorgonzola from ‘Bar do Adão’, in Grajaú or in Botafogo

5 – Pastel de carne com ovo do BB Lanches, no Leblon (described in the post below)

Pastel de Carne

6 – Pastel de camarão (prawn) from ‘Bar do Abel’, in Niterói

7 – Pastel de queijo (cheese) from Bigode, at the street market on ‘General Glicério’, in Laranjeiras (only on Saturdays)

Back from food on the beach in Brazil

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I’ve just arrived back from Brazil… The food is addictive. A pastel de Carne from BB Lanches in Leblon, Rio is the greatest snack on earth (is it?). Hot oven baked pastry filled with perfectly cooked saucy mince beef, nestled into the meaty warmth is a small quail egg. Washing it down with an acai is the way to round off a day on the beach around posto 12 Ipanema/ Leblon. Though, the beach won’t leave punters hungry. A constant stream of prawn sellers, haloumi cheese grillers, biscoito globo pimpers, and empanada dealers bring it all to your chair on the sand.

A day at the beach in Salvador has a different vibe and was considerably cheaper than Rio. Hanging out under our barraca drinking ice cold beer eating acaraje and small fried fish for the whole day set us back 15 Reais each. Approx $10 AUD/ USD.

Brazil is famous for its coffee beans, but they don’t seem to have embraced the espresso machine as much as one would expect. Home made coffee or ‘cafezinho‘ (little coffee) is filtered through a stocking into a thermos. Its served in small quantities, usually black and always super sweet. 1 cafezinho in Rio is about 50 centavos, or .35 USD/ AUD.