Water + Our Equipment + Freezing Temperatures = Not Good

We have had our first potentially bad situation since "going into business" 6 or so months ago. Yes, we all know that Cafe Evoke ran into it's share of hardships along the way but nothing like this. The equation is above in the title of this post and it is somewhat of my worst nightmare. We arrived at a weekly event last night and the collar around the sink faucet was cracked and I could see that one of the gaskets seemed to be showing. I thought everything would be alright but then we plugged the cart in. Remember as a kid when you would watch cartoons and the character would be shot up into the air by some geyser (maybe oil or water?) Have you ever been to Yellowstone to see Old Faithful? If yes, you know what we were looking at last night. The faucet shot straight up into the air and water was spilling everywhere. Not good. We tried several things but the only thing that worked was unhooking it and plugging the line so that the pump did not shot water all over the place. I was then very nervous about our machine. Did the boiler freeze? Are we going to have problems with these water lines as well? I know one thing -- the temperature and pressure gauge were off because it said it was half way to hot before we even turned on the machine and the pressure gauge seemed to be stuck at 0 bars. I turned it on and it sounded ok. I checked the water as it got hotter and everything seemed to be fine -- we were getting to 9 bars, etc. The problem was that the temperature gauge was going into the red and I did not want to ruin anything that was not already in trouble so we shut it down. I think the gauge just needs to be re-collaborated (at least I hope). Now, in the midst of trying to get all of our advertising in control, I have to make arrangements to get a new assembly for the sink and also get someone out here to service our machine. I also have to figure out what to do with our equipment in the cold Bozeman winter. My options are to rent a heated storage space and take it there after each event or by a heater for my garage and cover the cart with a blanket. I am leaning towards number 2 as our overhead is getting pretty high compared with our revenues. I am trying to stay positive about this because I do not have time to stress and freak out. So, I am calling the manufactures of my cart today to find out what the cost is for the assembly and will be calling the two people I know that service machines to see when they can come out (of have me bring the cart to them) to get this squared away. I guess I should have called our "employees" here in Bozeman and asked them to bring the cart in from the trailer and cover it in my garage. We -- my wife and friend from Bozeman -- were just talking about freezing machines and what we were going to need to do with our stuff while we were in Seattle. Should have known.. ..be bold Tagged: cafe evoke, coffee catering, coffee, espresso, tea, bozeman, montana, boiler, winter