Evoke in Oklahoma City?

Anything is possible. Jenni and I spent some time yesterday with Aimee of Banta Realty to talk about one of their new projects that is going on downtown. I hate to call it just a project as it is mostly an urban renewal program - $80 million worth - to a falling apart (but up and coming) downtown area. The area is called MidTown and will play host to many chic businesses. There are already some great places opening in the area which Evoke would fit in nicely with. There are two locations that we talked about yesterday - one in the picture and one that we were not able to get photos of. The one in the picture is a cool stand-alone site with large modern windows. It should produce great evening foot traffic from all of the other businesses there. There is also an old warehouse that is in the process of being restored. The great thing about this building is that the interior will be concrete, tall ceilings, large pictures windows, and the option of having a loft space. While we have not done much market research on the area, what we have found is that this could be a great place to start looking. With businesses that are already there and ones that are hoping to open, Evoke should fit right in. I will talk more about Midtown and also Downtown Oklahoma City in the next few days. ...be bold Tagged: cafe evoke, coffee catering, coffee, espresso, tea, midtown, oklahoma city The Global Exchange Fair Trade Store is your Online Source for Socially Conscious Gifts

Oklahoma City | Day 2

Yesterday ended up being a pretty good day for us. We had a chance to get settled in a bit, unload what we needed to from our trailer and car, and get a few things done. We did get to meet for coffee with our family and developers to talk more about commercial space for Cafe Evoke if we decide to make the move to OKC and got some great leads. I will talk more about them in the next few days when I have a chance to go to each area with a camera and notebook. We are having some problems accessing the files we need to get our information kits completed. We are using GoToMyPC.com while we are gone so that we could get into QuickBooks and other applications we would need while here. Well, it is not working. I was told by the guys at GoToMyPC.com that there is something wrong with the host computer and that someone would need to be at that computer to fix it. Great. I am going to have to find someone to go over and figure it out for me. That should be fun. Today is another day of meetings and scouting. We are meeting with The Wedding Belle this morning which will be our first of hopefully many meetings with wedding/event planners in the area. Our goal here, really, to to get to know them, introduce Cafe Evoke Catering, and find out how we can work together if/when we move. This will be our first taste of what people in the wedding industry think about our services. I also plan to head to some coffee around town today. Yesterday, we visited the downtown location of Java Dave's - a huge place with food and drinks, loose leaf tea, espresso drinks, and a large retail area. While we were there, their espresso machine "broke" and the service was not friendly. Other than that, their brewed coffee was fine and it served well as a place to sit and talk for a bit. More to come later with pictures, etc. Sorry for all of the type! Be good.. ...be bold Tagged: cafe evoke, coffee catering, coffee, espresso, tea, oklahoma city, oklahoma The Global Exchange Fair Trade Store is your Online Source for Socially Conscious Gifts

Oklahoma City | Day 1

Ok, so we made it to Oklahoma City in about 20 hours - slower than MapQuest said it would be. What they should do is have a button that says "Click here if you are pulling a trailer and will need to stop for gas every two hours" for those who's situation it would apply. At any rate, no problems on the trip so far. So, day 1. Today will be a bit of a "break in" day for us. We have to get our "ducks in a row" (I really hate that saying) and be sure that everything made it in one piece. We are also going to be laying the foundation for the rest of our trip - paper work in order, information kits completed and stuffed, etc. I do have a meeting today with the guys at Block 42 to discuss their open house they are having for their residence on December 7th but the rest will just be preparing for meetings and scouting missions. Being a new city is both excited and eye opening. I think this trip, more than ever, is a bit more stressful than normal. Maybe this would be a good example of it: You are standing way back in your senior year of high school with the assignment to apply to 5 different colleges or universities in front of you. You know you will apply to the near by state schools but also think it may be good to apply to that one school WAY over on the other side of the world (or so it seems although it is only a few states away). A few months later, you begin to get letters back from these schools and the one so far away says, "YES! Come and check us out!." You think, "I was afraid of that." So you pack up your bags and jump into the family mini van for the trip. You get there and you are both excited at the new place to live, the cool apartments you could see yourself in, the nightlife, the coffee, whatever. Then you think, "I really love being at home - close to friends, comfort, mountains, snow, and trees and I don't want to move. See what I'm saying? That is what we are dealing with. We are now prepared to make the best decision possible with Cafe Evoke Catering and the future Cafe Evoke. If OKC is the place, then we need to make the move. If not, we need to look elsewhere. We both (my wife Jenni) want to get it done. We love our idea and think that it is not "if" it will fit somewhere but "when" it fits somewhere. We don't know where "somewhere" is yet but that is why we are here - to rule out Oklahoma City (or not) as a place for us and Evoke. We are excited. We are ready for action. We are here. ...be bold Tagged: cafe evoke, coffee catering, coffee, espresso, block 42, oklahoma city, oklahoma

1,391.26 Miles | 19 hours and 46 minutes

It has been a trip that we have been planning for months now. Well, the time has finally come for us to pack up the trailer and make our way towards Oklahoma. We have our map thanks to MapQuest.com and are ready to go. This was a good time for us to go but we did not really plan on the weather. It has been reaching negative degrees here in Bozeman at nights over the past week or so and the high has been under 20 degrees. So, we had to do some moving around of our equipment so that we don't have the same problem we had last winter. Not a huge deal though. We figured it all out - we think. So, into the 8 degree morning Bozeman has landed us. We will be in Denver tonight, Oklahoma City tomorrow night. I hope to actually have pictures this time of the entire trip - start to finish - to share with you. I am also creating our own Flickr page to document Cafe Evoke Catering and all we do. Have a nice weekend. ...be bold Tagged: cafe evoke, coffee catering, coffee, espresso, tea, bozeman, montana The Global Exchange Fair Trade Store is your Online Source for Socially Conscious Gifts

Coffee Fest Seattle | Don't Blink...

...or you may miss it. So, my plan was to write everyday from Coffee Fest and even try to do some "live blogging" from the showroom floor. The next thing I know, we are driving back from Seattle and turning in to Bozeman. Wow. It was here and then it was gone. That is a good thing though as it means the show went very well. It is amazing how much information you can take in even if you are not looking for it. New equipment, new pastry companies, new accessories, new roasters, making deals, meeting new friends, seeing old friends, walking around the city, cafe hopping, and barista competitions put you on overload I assure you. We did get all of our work done which was nice and we were able to enjoy ourselves at a leisurely pace. As soon as I get the pictures of the camera, I will put some up. I did not get many from Seattle unfortunately but I will share what I have. Interested in barista competitions? Make sure you read Barista Magazine's report from the show. There are some great images from some of the comps that were taking place there. Enjoy your day. Photos tomorrow. Mexican Chiapas in the press now. ...be bold Tagged: cafe evoke, coffee catering, coffee, espresso, tea, bozeman, montana The Global Exchange Fair Trade Store is your Online Source for Socially Conscious Gifts

Coffee Fest Seattle | Day 1

Before I begin, these updates are going to be image-less as I do not have a cord for the camera that plays house to all of our pictures. That being said, I will post a picture recap of the weekend as soon as we return to Bozeman. CoffeeFest has proven again to be a huge success already. The floor was packed and people are buzzing around having a blast with new products and services and old friends. Our day started off nicely. We decided to stroll around Seattle for a few hours early this morning. We headed down to have our first coffee of the day at Cafe D'arte which, as always, started us off on the right foot. We then went down to the Pike Place Market which was just getting started for the day. Tomorrow is when it will really be kicking so we may just have to head back that direction. Ok, we had to do it. We then walked down and had a look at the Space Needle. Crazy to think, we have been here three times and have never made it down that direction. No, we did not pay to go to the top. Should we have? We then headed to the show. We ran into our friends from Bellissimo at the doors to the convention center and had a chance to catch up a bit before "getting to work" if that is what you can call it. We headed up to the 4th floor and began our tour. We ran into our Bozeman friends from The Daily Coffee Bar right away and had a chat before going our separate ways. We actually got to work pretty quickly and talked syrups, coffee mugs, cups and saucers, steaming pitchers, chocolate, blenders, paper goods and other fun new stuff. I was going to tell about all of the details but that would make this post much to long. I will talk more about that when we get back to Bozeman. All in all, this was a great first day - probably the best we have had so far. More tomorrow from Seattle. Until then... ...be bold Tagged: cafe evoke, coffee catering, coffee, espresso, coffeefest, seattle, washington

A Short "Work" Week

It is Tuesday, only a few days before we head to Seattle for Coffee Fest. This is always one of those weeks for us - somewhat like it felt to wait for Christmas as a kid. We have begun making plans for the trip both as a vacation and as a time to get some stuff done. I talked briefly about the classes I was looking forward to while we are their but it also seems that I will have some work to do on the floor as well. Here is my to do list for while we are there. Look for new coffee roaster (one close to Oklahoma City just in case we need it) 12oz cups and saucers for Cafe Evoke Catering Espresso cups and saucers for Cafe Evoke Catering (either 2oz or 3 oz) Blender packages New travel mugs Small parts - little things that we use often The reason I am going to try and get much of what we need while in Seattle is that you can typically get deals while at the trade show. These are great places to go when you are trying to outfit new equipment or find a roaster because of the incentives each company comes up with before each show. If we do end up making a move to Oklahoma City (or any other city for that matter) we will need to find a new roaster. I like to use someone local if possible but if that is not available, we need someone that is close enough to get us coffee at a reasonable shipping rate. We have been renting our cups and sauces from a local party rental store for the past year and we have decided to go ahead and get a few of our own for small parties. The ones we have been using were fine but not really the style that we had hopped for. So, we are going to see what we can get at the show and hopefully save some money in the long run. We are also interested in adding a blender station to our list of services. We did add Granita to our line up last summer but think that adding a blender station will allow us to serve even more people. I am not quite sure what it all looks like yet but that will come in the next few months. The good thing about Bozeman is that it is somewhat chilly in the winter and blender sales go down - come visit and you will figure out what I mean. I think it is important to give a gift to our clients - something to remember us by. We have been using travel mugs printed with Evoke's logo and people love them. We are out now and this will be a great time to get a new order in. We will take a file with our logo to the show and hopefully get a few on order. Again, in hopes to save a few bucks. It is crazy to call what we do work. It is excited and new each time we go and we are looking forward to it. I will blog each day from Seattle and give you an idea of what has been going on. ...be bold Tagged: cafe evoke, coffee catering, coffee, espresso, coffee fest, seattle, tradeshow The Global Exchange Fair Trade Store is your Online Source for Socially Conscious Gifts

Why Oklahoma City?

So, out of the many places we could go to start a new Cafe Evoke Catering, why choose Oklahoma City? There is a lot going on in the capital city of Oklahoma these days. The town is rebuilding and while it is not an Austin, TX or Nashville, TN - it is well on it's way. If you head downtown, you will find yourself in a community that is budding. The area is known as Bricktown and is where new trendy clubs, galleries, restaurants, and event centers are going in. You can check out their website and click the photo gallery page for images of life in Bricktown. I am not sure if this is the official site but it is way better than the one label offical. At Cafe Evoke, we have always dreamed of being on the edge - being one of those businesses that helps get the wheels turning in a community. One that can make an impact like I talked about yesterday. We fell that we are doing that in Bozeman - being a company owned by a young couple doing something that has not been done very many times before. We had a window in Bozeman to open our cafe and it has just not been able to get off the ground. The great thing about Oklahoma City is that this cafe could very well be opened in a time frame that we are happy with. Here are some things we are excited about: Young Coffee Community: Oklahoma City has a young coffee community. While there, I was able to find a handful of places that served coffee and only a few of those were worth anything. I don't think this is going to stay this way for long but the town is ready and waiting for quality coffee that Cafe Evoke and Cafe Evoke Catering can cater to. This is an interesting point because Tulsa, OK (about 100 miles from OKC) has a great coffee scene. It has just not made it to Oklahoma City - yet. Changing City Scene: I have said it before - this city is changing. Check out the new water taxi that moves on the Bricktown Canal. There are LEEDS Certified devolopements going in like Block 42 and much more. It seems that everytime I talk to someone from Oklahoma City, there is something new going on - NBA Basketball, huge concerts, arts, and other community events that are making this a city on the verge of something new. Deep Network: I am from Oklahoma. My network is deep in this city which can only help our efforts to get Cafe Evoke Catering up and going in the capacity we are looking for. We are hoping that by volume alone we will hit that monthly breakeven point to let us operate at least at cost. That is why we are going, however, in a few weeks. We are going to try and build a professional network that can help us make this decision. We will be catering events while we are there, meeting with wedding and event planners, and looking around the city. Location: Ok, hear me clearly. Mountains are our home. I have had a great time here and being in this part of the country is where I feel the most comfortable. But, we have big plans for Cafe Evoke Catering and being centrally located would probably help our future plans. We are also close to other big cities including Dallas and Fort Worth which could help. I am not so excited to be back in OK weather but that just comes with the territory. Most of our decision rides on how our trip goes after Thanksgiving. We do not know how people will take us, if they will want to hire us, and if it can be sustained. The good thing is that there is another coffee caterer in the city who keeps very busy. We are different enough that it will be fine for both of us but it gives us some hope. We still have quite a bit of work to do in order to make this decision and I am working daily on paperwork and planning for our future. We want to make an educated guess as to where to be. I will keep you updated. More about the Bozeman market in my next post. ...be bold Tagged: cafe evoke, coffee catering, coffee, espresso, oklahoma, bricktown, oklahoma city The Global Exchange Fair Trade Store is your Online Source for Socially Conscious Gifts