I ain't lion, it's in like a lamb

Welcome, March! Welcome, rainy, temperate days!

Perfect coffee days, these—except I spent yesterday afternoon in Hell's Kitchen, no good coffee to be found. A shame, really, that I spent all of a fine Friday being fueled by two lousy cups of diner coffee I choked down before reporting for a shift on the copy desk of a magazine 'round these parts.



So in my off time, what did I do? I made java-related lists, I wrote down all my plans for the next three weeks' worth of staff-motivating and quality checkpoints and competition preparations. And I daydreamed about macchiatos. Naturally.

I'm getting ready (slowly) and getting excited (steadily). We'll see.

In other news, the other day I attempted to get my staff as geeked out as I am by hosting an Advanced Latte Art session. My thought was that they would be re-energized by learning new designs, by feeling more like crafstmen than "just baristas."

Probably would have been awesome, if anybody came. Well, Anne came! She came, she saw, she conquered:



I'm sure it's a struggle for all management-level coffeeshop employees to keep morale up and connect staff to their craft and the art of making coffee. In a high volume shop like Joe, it's easy to see why baristas might be disconnected at the end of the day. It's my job, then, to turn them around and get them back involved, excited, and eager to learn new skills. It may have seemed like a good idea, but it didn't pan out.

That's ok, it's just the first stop on the road to Awesome. I've got a couple more things up my proverbial sleeves.



Grr!