Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders

The coffee shop is a can be a stressful place. There are no shortage of challenges big and small that confront us daily whether you are a barista of cafe owner. The trouble we run into is when our confirmation bias kicks in with every challenges and our emotions run away with us and we start telling ourselves a story about what is happening that may not be true but certainly feels true in the mome...

Some interviews we have on the show touch on so many deep, important, and impactful subjects that it is hard to stop the conversation. This was one of those. I wanted to talk about our guests' career and then see where it led us and indeed we ended up discussing an assortment of issues that are sure to inspire and spark curiosity in you as you listen. Today we sit down with the great mat North! A...

I am so happy to share with you this Founder Friday episode that takes a hard look at what is possible when you want to offer excellence at scale in a cafe setting. I am joined by the founder of the iconic and standard setting company, WatchHouse, Roland Horne. Roland  founded WatchHouse in 2014 after extensive experience running small-to-medium-size businesses, including luxury aquarium design co...

It is that time of year where cafes are all but expected to have the ubiquitous PSL in their menus. But there is so much more. Beyond this staple drink specialty cafes around the world have developed both wonderful signature creations and others that don't really resonate.  Today on shift break we will be chatting about signature drinks and I will be offering some tips on how to approach curating...

Should you open a coffee shop? How hard could it be anyway? Thousands of people around the globe have a dream to open a cafe. Once open however that dream can quickly become a nightmare. I am thrilled to have been able to collaborate with fellow podcasters over at the Adventures in Coffee podcast to put together an episode that deals with this subject head on.  In this episode you will hear from s...

How long should you let your coffee age after roast? Is freshest always best? How can we ensure our customers get the coffee at its peak? These are some of the questions that we explore around the topic of ideal resting times for roasted coffee, the myths around freshness, and the best practices for managing your coffee's flavor life cycle. In this episode of RoR from Roast Magazine we are explori...

The work of running a cafe seems to never be quite complete. While we know that chasing " perfection" is not the goal, we would do well to embrace the idea of dial in and refinement in our work. Today on Shift Break we will be talking about what a summer woodworking project from years ago taught me about refining what we do in our cafes.   Related episodes: Higher Degrees of Imperfection 373 : The...

The coffee shop is made up various tasks and roles that all work together to create something magical. Wen those roles are not clear or followed through on then the we lose the magic and gain frustration. No role in the cafe is as important than that of the owner (arguably managers but that's another topic), yet we rarely see owners having job descriptions let alone a schedule organized according...

Finally. It is time to get meta and have a Shift Break conversation about...shift breaks.  We all go to work with a finite amount of energy to use on that days tasks and responsibilities. Trouble is that we also tend to work well beyond the point at which we have used up our energy and subsist on coffee and fumes. The shift break is supposed to be something that allows for some respite in the mids...

Every day on bars across the globe baristas are using milk to create amazing drinks. For almost as long as coffee has been served in coffee shops, milk has been a staple ingredient. Yet, in spite of its ubiquity in coffee culture, we tend to focus (understandably) more on understanding and crafting coffee than we do the milk that today makes up such a. large portion of our menus.  Today you are in...

I got a great question in from a listener. "How should managers be appraising staff?" I love it because it gets beyond the trope of the holy trinity of delegation (Schedule + Inventory/ordering + Shift coverage) and assumes correctly that a manager should be involved in the development of their team.  So today on Shift Break we will be talking about the how of apprising staff as manager as well as...

We all are susceptible to the siren song of trying to fix a place or a person to our own detriment. In the moment it seems like the right move and there is a sense higher calling an nobility pushing us forward. The reality though is that for certain cafes and bosses, there is no reformation only resistance and a dedication to the ways that will eventually drive you into the ground.  On today's epi...

I am excited to present to you another great interview with an inspirational founder! This time we get to hear the story of the founding an development of a business that has long been a pillar of specialty coffee in the U.S.. We are talking with Tony Dreyfuss, Co-Founder of the award winning Metropolis Coffee Company!  Tony started Metropolis Coffee with his Father Jeff Dreyfuss in 2003 and they...

One of the top questions I get asked is about how to improve employee morale. As someone who has conducted and sat through his fair share of meetings designed around this issue,  I can tell you with a fair degree of certainty what does not work.  On todays Shift Break we will be talking about the wrong way to improve employee morale as well as the right way to begin truly fixing the problem instea...

It goes without saying, but I will say it anyway - first impressions matter a lot! When a customer enters your business the person that sets the tone for them is usually the barista working the cash register. With this fact in mind you'd think most bars would then invest heavily in training and equipping their staff to work this station with the same or even greater finesse than a barista. But you...

There is always a general sense of anxiety present when it comes to running a coffeehouse. Part of the reason for that is that problems are always popping up and we need to then deal with them. The other reason for why this anxiety seems perpetual has to do with the fact that for most operators, problems are not specific enough to do anything about.  On today's Shift break we will be exploring how...

We have a problem. There are plenty of people in leadership positions but many of them are afraid to step into their role and opt instead to try to avoid the difficulty by being friends with everyone. I'll bet you know a manager or owner like this and I'll also bet it was not necessarily an endearing quality.  In an environment where community, teamwork, and close quarters are constants, it is nat...

When we promise our customers a specialty experience in our shops they would logically assume that promise of quality might extend to the bathroom. Alas, it is not so. Not at least for many shops.  On today's Shift Break we are going to be talking about how the way you care for you cafe bathroom is a direct reflection of how you care for you guests and why we need to hold ourselves to a higher sta...

It goes without saying that most of us want our shops to be a place that attracts and fosters community. The question though is how exactly to we intentionally build our spaces to accomplish that. If we are honest, probably not as much thought or effort get put into setting up a space to purposely create community as is necessary. Well you are in luck! Today we are talking with returning guest and...

It is critical to pay baristas and staff from a place of generosity. We like to say "Pay what you can, not what you can get away with". In many cases though there is a lack of knowledge of how to manage income once it is paid. If we want to pay our staff a living wage then I believe we should also help provide some help on how to manage it.  On today's shift break we will be talking about the issu...

We all want leadership and cafe culture that inspires. Through  personal and professional development we can learn how to create an environments where our values and core beliefs are lived out in real time. In spite of the inevitable challenges, set backs, and failures that come with entrepreneurship and leadership, when we bring our true selves to work in good faith with others, magic happens. Th...

There has been a lot of publicity around the phrase "Quiet Quitting" in the last few weeks. In short this is explained as employees doing bare minimum and as giving up on their jobs without explicitly quitting. It would be easy to chalk this up to some generational quirk or attribute of the modern age but what is really happening may be deeper.  Today on Shift Break we will discuss quiet quitting,...

Coffee is more than just a drink. It is an expression of cultural values and a vehicle through which we experience many different facets of this rich life. No matter where you are from, it is easy to think only of the our own way of enjoying coffee and then to never really explore how deeply rooted and significant coffee is around the world in cultures different from our own.  Well today we are go...

I am so excited for this month's Founder Friday! Today we are talking with someone who has not only taken a passion and turned it into a thriving business that serves her community and culture with excellence, but has done so in the face of cultural challenges that, as a woman in Saudi Arabia, forced her to be creative in this pursuit. We are talking with the founder of Hjeen Coffee, in Saudi Arab...

One of the most common complaints I hear from owners and managers is related to staff not following policies of the shop. In many cases it is not just a simple mistake but a habitual ignoring of directives. Obviously this kind of thing spreads to other staff and you wind up with a situation where now the culture is combative and try as you might to give chances and show understanding, nothing seem...