CAFE

A cafe can be a kickin' four letter word.

When I was in tenth grade, I took a business class in... well... actually, I don't remember what the class was supposed to be about.  They all kinda blur together at this point.  One of the assignments, however, was to invent a product and then go over the business plan for it.  I teamed up with my good friend, Schloss, to market a software program we had worked on.  We had joked around for years about starting a company together, but this was the first time we did anything approaching real - the software program did actually exist.  He drew some advertising.  I came up with packaging.  We talked about how we would market it and what our costs were.  When we presented it to the class, it got a good reception.  The teacher was surprised to see that it was a real product.

Schloss and I reminisced about it this weekend as we talked about the new venture he was starting, a donut and coffee cafe he would be opening in Nyack, NY called Gypsy Donut.

What a donut looks like on my plate.

This worried me a great deal.  I'm a sucker for donuts.  Real bad.  I'm pretty bad with junk food in general, but donuts are really my weakness.  So I knew every time I'd be down there visiting I would have to get myself a donut.  Or two.  Or more.  Especially when they describe them as "artisan donuts" crafted with care using organic products.  Who could turn that down?  I know I won't be able to.

Fortunately for me (perhaps not for him... but...) I dislike coffee.  As much as I like donuts, I dislike coffee.  Oh, I love the smell of it roasting and brewing, but the flavor of it has never matched up with the smell.  I've been known to get coffee just to smell it, but I really can't stomach the taste of it.  (And the caffeine never seemed to have done anything for me - so it was doubly worthless to me.)  Even so, I have to give them credit for offering high quality stuff, with attention to sustainability issues surrounding the production and disposal of their product.

Schloss and his partners in cafe have a kickstarter project to get them going.  And while I looked at my budget and I don't think there will be a donut named after me (not to mention that I'm not sure what a donut named "The Prisoner" would conjure up), I'm certainly going to be contributing what I can (and I encourage you to do so too!).  I think this is a great idea - it bring in neighbors and friends to help create a neighborhood cafe, full of friends, invested in the success of a local eating establishment dedicated to good food and good coffee.

I can't believe I wrote "good coffee", but I have no doubts that it will be.