Week one

So it has been a crazy week. We had no idea what to expect in terms of traffic and when we opened on Monday we had only a few people wonder by when they saw the doors opened. As the day went by we got more and more traffic. All the feedback ws awesome, people loved everything about it. As the week progressed we got more and more traffic and a lot of regulars. They love the coffee, and pretty much everything is a big hit. Everyone loves the smoothies and we introduce Huckleberry Lemonade and have a hard time keeping up. By the time Friday rolled around we were crazy busy and had a line up for like 2 hours! Saturday was even busier and we ran out of coffee filters and Shawna drove to Calgary to pick some up for us. We made a few mistakes and had to eat crow a few times and hand out some free coffee coupons but people loved us anyways. Tammy has been helping all week too. Xander has been helping before and after school and Jesse every other day. Abby has been a huge help also as a runner and handing out food and wiping tables. Sunday was a little quiet but we had all our friends come and hangout. Ed and Carmen have been by everyday and have been big supporters (and errand runs too!). We have had many regulars ( sometimes 2 or 3 times a day!) and have been tweeted about and even have had a blog done, all in the first week. I even had the Mayor come and shake my hand and tell me he was very happy to have us downtown. We also got permission to use the upstairs which was a huge relief. We have had many people fighting for us which is awesome. Chester, who owns Chester Chips, runs besides us and his wife Richelle runs a commercial kitchen and bakes us fresh cakes and muffins every other day. We are also going Open a homemade icecream sandwich shop in the building. Richelle will make 5 or 6 kinds of cookies and we will make ice cream sandwiches. That should cover all our expenses ( we hope).

I've included some links of our news worthy venture!


http://www.downtownreddeer.com/news/all-news/2011/05/18/cool-beans-red-deer-s-newest-coffee-shop/

http://www.reddeerdirectory.com/blog/food/double-decker-coffee-bus-is-brewing-up-customers-in-red-deer/

http://twitpic.com/4yjg2z







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Coffee Anyone!!

I can't believe it's finally ready! 2 years of work and it's all come together.
We will be open at noon on Monday to start as the plumber needs to finish a couple of things then it's crazy time. We have a met an awesome couple (Richelle and Chester) who own a commercial kitchen across the street and a chip truck are going to park the chip truck beside the bus and will bake all our fresh baking everyday. It looks like we may be opening an ice cream sandwich shop in the building to compliment the business. Richelle will make fresh cookies, 6 different kinds, and you can have different kinds of ice cream in the middle. Low overhead and super easy.
Here are some pics of the patio.





We put a big fan upstairs in the front as it gets a little hot









This last pic is for you Mom. I was thinking about dad today :)




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Almost There

So today we failed all our inspections!! No fear, just small things that need to be remedied. The major thng we needed to do was to build a deck so it was handicapped accessible. Xander and I pounded it out in about 4 hours. Just a little bit to do with a ramp and all but looks great! Just add patio sets














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Getting a Flow

So far so good.... We have the bus sitting in a downtown lot for a week and have nobody smash a window! We are slowing figure out how to be the most efficient in the little amount of space we have and it's going to be tough. As you can see it's a little crowded

We also had our menu sign made up and it looks awesome!

We also decorated the bathroom. Just remember #thesearenotintendedtobefactualpictures

Next we have all the City inspections, yikes!

Now we begin the arduous journey of City approval. lots of inspections and reports before coffee gets served. Today the plumber finished plumbing in the bus and water pressure is awesome. Tomorrow, the electrician wires it in and we have lift off! Jesse and I spent the day cleaning theback of the building which was crazy dirty bevause ithad been empty for 2 years. We managed to fill 16 bags of leaves and garbage. Xander and Jonathon painted the building to match the bus and it looks great. Also a friend, Joe and I planted some great Cedars in funky pots to green up the place a bit.

Moving Day

It's been a long road to get to this point but we have finally arrived. After a long and exhausting year we have finally put the bus back on the map. Many things had to happen to get to this point like Inspections, Municipal Planning, Insurance, Find a spot, etc, etc, etc! So here is the lowdown, we found a spot in downtown Red Deer beside Mr. Lube. it;sa great spot and has an empty building so we have a space to store our stock, etc. The bus passed an inspection with no issues and we have insurance, registration and plates. On April 30, we drove the bus and parked it downtown where we hope to make 1-2 million per year, LOL. As always the reaction has been very positive so we are hoping that generates into business. I put security cameras in the building so I wouldn't get stressed!

The bus runs awesome so moving through town was a breeze. It was a little surreal knowing we are close

to starting and also makes me want to barf!

We arrived safe and sound and high fives all around!

2010

I realize that it’s been a while with a post but unfortunately I had to put the bus on the back burner for now. In April my mom was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Not sure what the short term future holds but I felt the bus would be a huge investment in time that I didn’t have right now. So in the mean time I am still scouting out a place for the bus but just as time allows. I will definitely let you all know when and where but for now .......

Kevin