See you all in the Spring of 2014!!

Cool Beans Menu

Here is an online copy of our menu. if you click the link below it will be a nice reading size and no squinting required. You can download the menu or print and share with all your hungry friends.

Cheers

Kevin

Cool Beans Menu

Even though we closed today because of the -38 wind chill! Yikes! but are very excited for the spring. This will be our very first summer in our new spot at 4740-50th St and its going to be great! We are very excited to have Peppermint Andy's parked beside us this year serving up the best gourmet ice cream around. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook

We are also excited to start our Food Truck Wednesdays. We will hopefully have several local unique food trucks parked on our lot every Wednesday from 11-2. In the last year or so with the food truck craze there are several that have popped up around Red Deer. 

     We expect to have Chester Chip's, who makes an amazing Poutine Dog! Also Model T Dogs and this amazing truck.....  The Stache.

The most awesome Pulled Pork Tacos Ever!!

                                                 

So we look forward to an exciting season and hope to see you on the patio!

If you are looking for more info on anything we offer, hours, or just anything in general, you can check our Facebook Page, our Tumblr Page (for cool fan photos) or follow us on Twitter

With Christmas and New Years behind us we  move into familiar territory. Last winter, being our first in a new small business, we were naive to the fact of life that and business slows down. It's winter, it's cold and it's just plain difficult to move around. that being said it can be a difficult financial time for any business, especially downtown as we are always trying to motivate people to shop local (and there are lots of local business's that are outside of downtown). I am just as guilty as the next guy (or girl) and spent my shopping life in the big box store and through my drive thru window. it's just easier, especially in the winter. But the common factor every time is quality and service. the 2 things that we want almost every time we go somewhere. Blah, Blah, Blah, we've heard it all before, so I'll just move on and give you a tiny list of small locally owned business's that would love some support, especially in January and February.

Keeping in mind that this list could be a mile long but i will keep it short so you get a sample of the enthusiastic owners who bring their passion and creativity, not to mention that most small business owners are crazy and live on the edge everyday!


Chocolates by Bernard Callebaut - At first glance you would think this is a chain store (it is not) because we all know Bernard, but just go in sometime and meet B.J. and you will never buy chocolate anywhere else again. Honestly I don't buy chocolate very often, much to my wife's disappointment, but I really wouldn't go anywhere else. B.J. , or Cocolady, as she's known, is crazy ambitious, super friendly and just plain good at what she does. never mind the hours she puts into her shop puts me to shame. Check her out at Cocolady.ca








Alberta Art and Drafting - I love going into this store because I'm kind of a Stationary/Art supplies addict, even though I can't draw to save my life. The quality of the products they have are awesome and who doesn't love to buy an awesome new pen or Journal. My son Jesse just bought an awesome journal!  Check them out at Albertaart.com









There are many coffee shops downtown including City Roast, Cafe Noir, Quenched just to name a few. The newest member downtown, besides us, is Dose Coffee and Love. Besides great coffee they have a really funky lunch menu and soon they will have their own storefront. I haven't been in yet but the pics on Facebook look great. Besides, who doesn't love a locally owned coffee shop?  Can you imagine that in your first year you move to a new location and renovate twice!?  You can imagine that Rolland and Alison are passionate about coffee and obviously a little crazy, like the rest of us :-)

 Check them out at www.facebook.com/DOSEcoffee





Everyday I meet a new small business owner and I am reassured that it can be done and be successful.
Now I just have to figure out a way to put a bus on every corner in town...... Nah!


Kevin

So for those of you who actually check my website ( and me not being one of them) I thought I'd better post an update.

We have finally settled into our new spot at 4740-50th Street right beside Gaetz United Church. This site is fantastic for us as it lowers our rent cost and allows us to be a little more ( and stay in business). We totally wanted to go for a Canmore/Banff appeal with the sidewalk menu and planters. We also plan on a big skating rink!

Our new hours are as follows:

Mon to Fri. 7-6
Sat 9-5
Sun 10-3

We will be open all winter just like every other normal coffeeshop ( although we are far from normal)

If you have any questions about hours, private parties, birthdays, wedding pictures or anything else please give us a call at 403-392-6076.

Thanks and we hope you enjoy
Kevin and Becky Traptow

Moving

So it's looks like we will be making a temporary move to the Collicutt Centre. About a month ago the Collicutt contacted us and asked if we would be willing to drive the bus up and park it for a 3 month period. The food provider in the rec centre is leaving and the new provider doesn't come in until July, so as of March 17th we will be slinging coffee at the Collicutt until mid June, just in time to be back downtown for the summer.



As exciting as this sounds, it is also a little overwhelming. We will be going from regular hours to overdrive and extra staff all in two weeks. Yikes! We are also planning a charity fun run called "Beat the Bus to the Collicutt" for the 16th. As many of you know the bus is quite slow and actually beating the bus to the Collicutt is a real possibility! If you are interested stop by the bus for details.

Its been a busy month but I thought I would take some time a give a little bit of a back story of this crazy bus. Back in 2008 after we had spent a year living in the Philippines we came home not knowing what to do with ourselves. We knew that we wanted to do something as a family, i.e. Family business but didn't know what. We had been living down in Oregon for a while and there was a coffee shop on every corner ( not like Tim's) but just a shack that served coffee and baking. They also had a double decker bus that we would go to every morning for coffee and thought it was such a great idea.
Fast forward a year later and the seed was planted. I started looking around for a bus and spent 6 months researching the idea, put together a business plan and then got funding. One day I happen to see this " running double decker" on Ebay and jumped at it. I won it in the last 10 seconds outbidding another guy from Florida. At this point it was no turning back and I had to make this thing work. My wife has thought and still thinks We are insane!! I spent about a year and a half slowly renovating and Voila! Cool Beans was born.
Here are some before and after pics















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Thanks to all those who have come out and supported us as a family, we are very grateful

We are pushing 3 weeks in business and the feed back has been awesome! We are actually having a lot of fun despite working long hours. Even in spite of the fact that we were broken into on the 30th. You must be thinking that we are really upset and stressed that we were broken into but somehow it feels like we should milk it for all it's worth. So basically this guy showed up at the bus at about 9:30pm and began to survey the area. First he tried to pull the main doors open but realizing they were locked he moved on to the sliding window. Now I am no genius when it comes to bus security and definitley not an expert at locking a sliding window. He managed to pull hard enough that the sliding window slid right open ( since remedied). Pulled himself in and moved right to the back of the bus where the fridges are and began to spend about 2 minutes working at something. Then he came back to the sliding window and scooted out with what looked like a take-out container. Meanwhile passing all the tip money and Abby's jar of money she has earned. Never mind all the things he could have taken. Here we have a thief that breaks into our bus and steals a Panini! I have included some pics from the video footage which I have included on our fanpage on Facebook and Twitter. I am thinking this would make a great Campaign!

In he goes







Out he comes with his sandwich


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Priceless!!!


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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