We learn, We adapt

Well, it is a warm 1 degree here yesterday in Bozeman with snow all over the place. It is nice that winter has finally hit us. It also forced us to figure out our situation and how we plan to keep our equipment from freezing. Well, I'm happy to say that we have solved that problem. Some friends of mine have allowed me to pull our trailer into the extra garage bay at their offices. What is great about this is that the garage is actually part of the office so it is heated to room temp. This will not only allow us to keep the trailer off the side of the road -- where it has been since we purchased it -- we will be able to leave it loaded with our equipment and syrups and not have to worry about freezing. I do still have concerns about our equipment however. How long does it take for the water in the lines to freeze at, say, 5 degrees? We catered an event last night and I loaded it and just booked it over so that we could quickly get the cart out of the trailer and inside. How far can I drive before it freezes? Any science people out there who know about freezing water? Let me know. ..be bold Tagged: cafe evoke, coffee catering, coffee, espresso, tea, bozeman, montana, boiler, winter

"2" Is The Lucky Number

Well, it took two tries but we got the machine working again. After taking the machine apart, we found that there was no boiler damage which was good and that everything seemed to check out fine once the gauge was replaced. We reset the shot volume and the guy packed it up and left. An hour or so later, I was testing some shots and the volume was way off and it did not seem right. The boiler pressure was very low (pulling about 5 bars while extracting and static at about 2) and I new something was going on. I called and the guy said as long as it was "in the green" on the gauge, I should be fine. I said he was wrong. What made me mad was that he was telling me that the reason the timing was off was because my grind was way to coarse. Please. I told him that it was only pulling about 5 bars and it needed to be 9. He tried to just tell me how to fix it myself but I told him that I had already paid him to do it so he should get back here and he did -- the next morning. At any rate, we are up and going (I think) and we were only out about about $500.00 when all was said and done. Here are some pictures... ..machine without casing ..broken water line to sink ...darn broken faucet ...I told him it was the boiler pressure ..pesky faucet again (that faucet could be taken apart into about 5 difference piece it was so broken How do you pick your maintenance man? Service? Knowledge? Coolness? I think this is grounds for a future post as I have my own thoughts. ..be bold Tagged: cafe evoke, coffee catering, coffee, espresso, tea, bozeman, montana, boiler, winter

A Big Day

It is a nice crisp morning in Bozeman today and I am sipping some coffee and waiting for the guy to come and take our machine apart. He was supposed to be here yesterday but he had some car problems (I'm glad we are not a cafe waiting on him!). He will be looking for any damage from freezing but also will be taking the risers off because the machine is to tall and it moves around a lot while we are transporting it. Because we move around so much, it will be important for us to get on a scheduled and consistent maintenance schedule for our machine to be sure we are not losing quality and hurting our equipment. We will be talking about this while he is here. I also ordered the sink assembly earlier this week and it, too, should be here today. I will then have to install it which should not take much time -- I hope. I am a bit anxious for today as I really do not want to deal with a ruined machine. I will update this post after he leaves today. Hold your breath.. ..be bold Tagged: cafe evoke, coffee catering, coffee, espresso, tea, bozeman, montana, boiler, winter

Equipment Update

OK, for those that were up late last night wondering what in the world was going to happen with Cafe Evoke Catering after yesterday's discovery of damaged equipment, here is your answer. We are going to have it all fixed! I talked with Bridge Industries yesterday who built the cart and they are going to send me a new faucet assembly (under $30.00) and our maintenance guy for our espresso machine is coming out with a new gauge and will take the thing apart to clean it and check all the seals and boiler to be sure that is OK. This is a nice outcome to a very bad situation. I have learned from this however -- if your gut says to have someone bring your machine in so it does not freeze, listen to it. The cart looks a bit sad with the faucet missing and drip trays off the machine but it will get fixed. We will be out of commission for the next week or so but that should not put us behind any. I have some more paper work and "admin" stuff to work on and this will give me a chance to get that done. ...be bold Tagged: cafe evoke, coffee catering, coffee, espresso, tea, bozeman, montana, boiler, winter, bridge industries