Flying high and keeping your costs down

When you go to Coffeehouse Northwest (on West Burnside) and look at the menu board, you might choke a little bit when you see that an espresso costs $3. I know I did the first time I saw it. Even with the run up in coffee prices over the last year, most cafés still charge between $2.00-$2.50 for an espresso, so $3 seemed spendy. However, there is a way to get around the lofty price, by ordering a “flight,” something you won’t find on the menu. A flight is a pair of espressos, one of each of the two types of coffee on grind (my guess is that calling it a “flight” has something to do with how you feel if you drink them too fast). CHNW keeps two different espressos available, usually from Sterling and often both single-origin coffees. Today’s offerings were from Ethiopia and El Salvador, respectively.

If you order the flight, they only charge you $4.00 total for both of them. If you plan to spend more than an hour there, this is a good deal. Coffeehouse’s baristas know what they are doing, and they pull good shots. They will also let you spread out your espressos so that you don’t get buzzed too quickly.

That’s your bargain-hunting tip for the day.

On a side note, while I was sitting in the café today, I overheard an interesting conversation about stripping (I just report what I hear, okay?). Three women at the next table were having a very open conversation about how to make good money working at a strip club. It sounded like the most important rule is that you sell the customers without letting them know they are being sold. According to the most experienced of the three, between “acts” you get down off the stage and work the crowd—talk to the customers, shake their hands, ask how they are doing, etc. The more social you are, the better, because creating a connection with the customers pays dividends.

I’m sure there’s a business lesson in there somewhere…

Freelancing at the ‘Coffice’

Where do you go to get work done? Do you go to the same place every day, or do you work from different places? Does the place you choose to work affect how much you get done?

One of the challenges about being a freelancer is that you don’t have a regular schedule to keep you on task. Another is finding the right workspace. Some freelancers who work at home have enough space in their houses to make a separate workspace or office. This might be a spare room. a large walk-in closet or a converted garage—whatever it is, it is a space dedicated solely to working where there won’t be as many distractions.

Many people dream about staying at home and working in their pajamas, but the reality of doing so is not the panacea you might think. Even if you do have a good home office, it can be challenging to work from  home and be productive. There can be too many distractions calling out for your attention (e.g., cleaning, kids, cooking, home improvement projects, etc.). In addition, if you always work from home, you begin to feel isolated from the rest of the world, which can be a bit depressing if it goes on for long enough. Sometimes you need the energy that having other people nearby helps generate.

Fortunately, many cafes welcome people to stop in and work. Here are some criteria that make a cafe a good “coffice” (coffee shop + office—not my idea--I borrowed it from somewhere):

  1. Wi-Fi – Most cafes have Wi-Fi these days. The internet can be a distraction, but for most freelancers it is a necessary part of work, for researching and for contacting clients. It is unfortunate that offering Wi-Fi has turned a lot of cafes into mini-Laptopistans, but that is the nature of work in 2011. I plead guilty.
  2. Electric outlets – While some laptops have batteries that will last all day, most don’t, and you don’t want your computer to quit in the middle of a project. It’s hard enough to keep the momentum going on certain projects, and you don’t want to have to pack up and move during the middle of it.
  3. Good coffee – Would you want to spend all day drinking bad coffee? No, thanks. Then again, if the coffee is excellent, you might have a hard time managing your caffeine intake. Be careful with that. It’s hard to type when your hands are shaking.
  4. Space (size matters) – If you go to a cafe and it only has a few tables, unless you plan to buy lots of drinks and food during the day, you are taking up too much valuable real estate. Also, look for a cafe that is big enough so that you don’t have to sit right by the front door. If people are constantly coming in and out of the cafe right next to you, it is hard to keep focused on your work.
  5. Comfortable chairs – You might not think about this one, but if you are going to spend all day sitting in a cafe, you want your chair to be comfortable. It’s hard enough to sit down the whole day—it’s even less fun if your backside hurts. A lot of cafes have plain wooden chairs, which are durable and easy to clean, but they aren’t much fun to sit in. Look for a place with padded chairs if you plan on staying for a while.
  6. Not too loud – When a cafe is rocking out, it’s hard to concentrate. Sure, you can put your headphones in and turn up the classical music, but if you have to turn it up too loud to drown out conversations or the loud music playing in the cafe, it will still be hard to stay focused on what you are doing. Some cafes tend to turn the music up in the afternoons, so it can be more of a challenge to find someplace to work after lunch (The cafe I am sitting in right now, for example, has much louder music than when I came in two hours ago. It was a good place to work when I got here, not so much now).
  7. Location (close to home and/or other cafes)– Long commutes are  essentially wasted time. For freelancers, this time is extra valuable. If you can find a good place that is close to home, you won’t have to spend an hour on the bus each way just going to and from where you work. Also, it’s good to have another place nearby to go, in case you get tired of the shop you are in.

The ideal coffice would have all of these things, though most don’t.  Like everything else in life, you have to do the best with what you have. I’m looking for suggestions about which cafes are good places to work. Any suggestions?

Starbucks' new concept

The other evening, after stopping for sushi with fellow MIM alumnus Cory Klatik, we were looking for some coffee down in the Pearl District. It was about 7pm, which meant that our choices for finding coffee close by were limited. We walked over to Caffè Umbria thinking it would be open until eight, but they now close at seven Monday through Wednesday.

Stymied in that effort, we decided to try the new Starbucks across from Powell’s Books. Cory knew it was open until 11pm, and since I hadn’t been there to check it out yet, I agreed.

If you haven’t heard, in an effort to increase late afternoon and evening sales, Starbucks has opened a few new concept stores where they sell beer and wine. The new Starbucks in the Pearl is the first of this type of store outside the Seattle area. The store’s interior design is quite a bit different than a typical Starbucks, with more wood paneling and lounge-style furniture. It has a nice ambience. Nonetheless, it is not so different that you forget you’re in a Starbucks.

More elegant, but still very familiar

For the first time ever, I tried a single-origin espresso at Starbucks—in addition to the regular espresso, they were also serving the Kenya. It was the first time I had ever seen a single-origin espresso available there, so I couldn’t help but try it. My first impression: if you are really craving a single-origin in the evening and Starbucks is your only option, pony up and spend the $9.00 for the single-origin Pinot Noir instead of espresso. Your money will be better spent. Trust me.

Another option would be to cross the street and go to the World Cup Coffee in Powell’s, also open until 11pm. You won’t find any single-origin espresso or comfortable chairs, but you will get better coffee. 

This week's links: July 29

It was a quiet week for coffee news, but nevertheless, here are a few links:

Coffee drinkers worried about high coffee prices may get some relief in the future. It looks like Brazil is set to have record coffee crop in 2012. link Ghana is also set to increase its production over the next several years. link

Need a caffeine jolt? An entrepreneur from Berkeley is selling a cold vacuum-brewed coffee concentrate with 40 times the amount of caffeine that regular coffee has. That’s right—40 times. I hope it comes with a warning label. link

Apparently, specialty coffee is unique enough to make it onto Bizarre Foods, a Travel Channel show. link

I already gave some of my thoughts on Dunkin’ Donuts’ IPO earlier this week, and CNBC has an interview with the company’s CEO about what he thought. One interesting fact in the article was that the only DD on the West Coast is located in Portland. link

Wait! That might not be true. I tried to find out which Portland neighborhood was lucky enough to have the store, but according to Google Maps, all three former locations are closed. Aww, too bad… link

Here’s a “Portland” photo for the week:

Enjoy your weekend!