Re: Sitting in a field numero something


"Danny" <danny@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:3mcgi0F16c2asU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Haven't sat in many fields this year. Only 5 or 6 since I fell out
> with one of the guys that bids for the catering rights at these
> events - he said my coffee was too good. There are usually two people who
> tender for the rights to place the catering outlets at events - Steve from
> Steves' Ice creams, and Jack Trickett, an old fairground owner who I've
> talked about before. I phoned Jack at Easter to enquire about the coming
> seasons events, only to be told that he wouldn't be needing me this year.
>
> Saddened and somewhat surprised, I asked why. He told me that his
> sons were basically running the show now, and they wanted to do decent
> coffee themselves, so they didn't have to lose any income to me. I
> pointed out that my customers weren't theirs and most wouldn't buy a
> coffee from a burger van piled high with fried onions and the like.
> And anyway, he would be better off just taking the rent from me. He
> agreed after a fashion and said he would have a word with his sons.
>
> I called back after a few days and was told I could attend their
> events this year, at a cost of a minimum of £100 per day. I declined.
>
> That left Steve's ice creams. At least I've got him trained. I give
> 15% (20% max) of my income at an event as a fee, and Steve knows this.
> This meant that I only had 6 or 7 events this year. I can trade 7
> days a week in Portsmouth anyway, so I'm not bothered. I do enjoy
> sitting in a field, especially as we are always praised for the
> quality of our coffee and get to meet new people. It's also much
> easier, since I don't get the china out, and don't do any hot food, so
> no washing up or prep.
>
> I've considered adding one killer food item, but can't decide on what.
> People have mentioned Salt beef on rye more than once, so I'm
> looking at that. Trouble is, I would want to do it as well as I do
> the coffee, so I need to get it right. That means getting the rye
> bread from Golders Green or elsewhere in London, and also finding a
> good recipe I can give to a butcher for the salting process. Work in
> progress.
>
> Work routine in the market has settled down to the usual stream of
> regulars, with a slight change during the last month since there were
> many outsiders in town for the Festival of the Sea and Trafalgar
> celebrations.
>
> I'm impressed with the maintenance-free aspect of the lever machines.
> A daily scrub of the PF's and showerhead rinse sorts that. We clean
> the wands regularly through the day (after each use), so thats OK, but
> they are cheap wands and fittings we are getting these days, so steam
> knobs and wands haven't lasted more that six months or so.
>
> Apart from the major descaling job a few weeks ago, after a small leak
> turned into a major stripdown. Luckily a large hammer and some rope
> got the elements out and a large soft hammer got all the scale out.
> Time to investigate new anti-scale solutions....
>
> Since then the water debit on the left group reduced to almost a trickle.
> I'd never taken a complete group off so I was a little nervous. A quick
> call to the parts place and the next morning a jiffy bag of gaskets,
> gicleurs and o-rings arrived, along with more showerscreens etc to make
> the postage worthwhile...I now have a nice collection of spares.
>
> I had bravely removed the group the night before in anticipation and just
> found some minor scale. Sat in the garden with a container of formic
> acid, sloshing the feed pipe to the group and all was clean. Reassembled
> and normal service was resumed ready for work the next day. I noticed
> that I could peer in the boiler with the group removed and that there is
> already a thin layer of scale on the boiler wall, despite my fitting a new
> scale cartridge two weeks ago...
>
> I also noticed that the hole into the boiler from the group is large, with
> a small take up pipe that dips into the water. This would seem to allow
> steam to penetrate the rear of the group, where there are two small holes.
> This may be active group heating or something...
>
>
> As I mentioned in another post, I weighed the group on it's own - 7kg.
> That explains why I'm happy with the temperature stability where many
> other people don't understand how a 16 litre single boiler machine at 1.2
> bar doesn't overcook the brew water.
>
> Annoushka, my saturday girl, has left, enticed by variable hours at McDs -
> she wanted to work some evenings etc, something I can't offer. Enter
> Connie. Connie is a very nice girl - switched on and interesting from the
> customer perspective - she's a bit "Goth" - OK, quite a bit Goth, with
> piercings etc and a strange choice in dress. We had spoken earlier when
> she was going up and down the road trying to get a job in a shop, but
> didn't understand why her appearance was costing her even the application
> form. I explained that some people wouldn't want her in a customer facing
> role, and to prove the point I asked one of the regulars - a local shop
> manager - if he would give her an intervies - he declined, due to her
> dress and piercings. I said Connie could work with me, since I would be
> more concerned with her customer service attitude than her presentation,
> as long as the latter was clean.
>
> Connie has done well and I will start teaching her to pull shots this
> week. I couldn't start before since the uneven water debits for each
> group meant some artistic shot pulling. Now things are back to being
> constant on each group I can teach her.
>
> I have kept a high percentage of my original customers whilst adding many
> new, so things are fine. An old regular came back last week and said that
> she had been on holiday but was missing my coffee - she freely admits she
> is hooked on my cappas and can't drink anyone elses.
>
> I have recently managed to get some Trucillo branded items, after trying
> for 2 years. In the end, my italian supplier of the coffee sent his
> brother in to see Trucillo directly. They apologised that they hadn't
> responded earlier and he returned from Salerno laden with china ashtrays,
> napkin dispensers (complete with 2k napkins) Coffee clock, trays and a
> nice Italian espresso Bar menu. I can't sell some of the items on the
> menu (beer and spirits) so I'll have to wait and see if I can use the
> menu. It would be neat, since it's all in italian...
>
> Talking of which - some people can't even understand my english menu. I
> sometimes get people looking at the menu and then coming up and saying "I
> only wanted a normal coffee". This would be an Americano, but I've now
> added a menu item -
>
> I only wanted a normal coffee....... £1.00
>
> Yesterday (I'll have to work on reverse chronological order since previous
> events haven't been remembered yet) a regular couple were sat at the table
> with their friend, who is a bit of a heathen. I've never liked him, and
> he came up for an americano with steamed milk. He reached in front of
> another waiting customer, in a pushy way, and removed half the contents of
> the sugar stick bowl- easily 20/30 sticks. I offered to put sugar in for
> him (we have it on the counter as well) but he said he wanted the sticks.
> I slightly lost it (we were a bit busy) - and said "why do you need all
> that sugar, neither Kevin or Elaine are having coffee and neither of them
> take sugar anyway?" He said that he just wanted it. I told him to rip
> McDonals or some other large corporation off if he wanted a private stock
> of sugar sticks at home - my prices are good value and can't include
> people taking far more sugar than they would need in their coffee.
>
> The next lady smiled after he had gone and asked for a coffee, whilst
> promising that she didn't need any sugar...
>
> I bought two more tables, since I already had spare chairs at home, and
> had worked out that when busy each table earnt around £50. The internet
> is a wonderful place as I was explaining to the pet food stall holder
> (Stuart, a near retirement chap who prides himself in never spending more
> money than he can and saving money, probably by nicking sugar sticks when
> out...) that although he didn't believe in this new fangled technology it
> must be usefully nice to browse the net for a few minutes, find the
> difficult-to-find flip-top tables, in stock somewhere in the north of
> england and have them delivered the next day by courier. Not impressed
> that one was missing a vital comonent but luckily the vital component
> (threaded bar) was in stock at the local hardware store.
>
> Got new tables out on Saturday where they would have proved their worth
> had it not poured with rain from 2pm onwards.
>
> Had plenty of European visitors - quite a few Italian ladies have made us
> their home whilst they visit, as have the Portugese.
>
> I continue to struggle with trying to meet the needs of the predominantly
> not well off local population whilst being told by other visitors that I'm
> far too cheap. I haven't raised coffee prices at all since I started,
> other than 10p on americano and tea. Costs have gone up - cups and other
> disposables by +5% or more. My best friend used to run a restauarant and
> he was continually worried about losing trade if he put his prices up and
> I was always telling him that if calves liver in orange sauce went from
> £8.15 to £8.95 no-one would mind. Easy when it's someone elses' business.
> I don't think that £1.40/1.70 for a small/large cappuccino would be
> unreasonable but the likes of Greggs and Subway nearby virtually give
> coffee away (85p for anything). Ho-Hum...
>
> Later..
>
> I had Connie working today. I had shown her how to pull shots and tried
> to stress the importance of grind etc, but due to being busy I hadn't
> taught her anywhere near enough. Anyway, at 4pm I told her that whilst I
> went to fetch the car (5 mins away) she should serve customers and if she
> felt brave she could make an americano if ordered but not to steam milk.
> I came back to find an Italian sat at a table with an espresso and Connie
> dancing round the trailer. "I made an espresso and He liked it!" she
> exclaimed with a wide grin on her face. I was dubious and was desperate to
> get a look at the cup. I didn't have to wait long as the gentleman came
> back to the counter - "that was so good I'd like another one" he said. I
> couldn't argue with Connie as she prepared the 2nd espresso. It gushed.
> In her excitement she'd forgotten nearly everything. She'd hardly tamped
> and I asked her if this was like the last shot. She said no, the last one
> had been slower. I asked her what she thought might be wrong and she knew
> it was the tamp. I suggested she try again with a harder tamp, and the
> next shot was serveable....
>
> A valuable lesson that everyone gets to learn in the trailer. They always
> spend ages learning, then they get quite good, then they get complacent
> and I have to remind them that espresso is almost a living drink - each
> one is different, each one requiring the same attention to detail as the
> last. It was the same with Carly last saturday. She has been pulling
> shots for over two years on and off, but when she came in to give
> Charlotte a saturday off it was like she'd forgotten everything. The milk
> was horrible dry foam, coffee everywhere round the grinder, shots too
> fast, so I had to spend a little time re-acquanting her with the job,
> whilst not deflating the skill level she thought she had - I just said
> that she'd got a little rusty with lack of practice.
>
> Towing the trailer is still a sod with the Jeep Cherokee - boy, do I miss
> the Landrover. The jeep is unstable - trailer snaking everywhere, so I'm
> not up for doing events more than a few miles away. I've fitted a
> stabiliser which has helped a little, but the Jeep is going. I see an
> Isuzu Trooper (Bighorn) in my future. 2 ton and a 3.1TD intercooled
> engine. Either that or a Toyota Hilx Surf, but they don't seem as
> agricultural, and I like agricultural. Wouldn't mind a VX Amazon but they
> are like rocking horse doo-doos round here...
>
> Well, that's about all for now. We've had some lovely sunny mornings
> lately. It's so nice in the early morning, between 6-8am when the local
> traders tend to gather for a morning chat and coffee before the days'
> work. That's what it's all about for me - the social aspect of it being a
> meeting place as well as a provider of decent coffee. I witnessed that in
> a cafe in Lisbon I frequented one year when on a job there and wanted to
> emulate it here. Almost done it.
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Regards,
> Danny
>
> http://www.gaggia-espresso.com (a purely hobby site)
> http://www.dannyscoffee.com (UK advert for my mobile espresso service)
> http://www.malabargold.co.uk (UK/European online ordering for Malabar
> Gold blend)
> swap Z for above characters in email address to reply
>

Golders Green ! I lived there many, many,many years ago !! Is it now noted
for its rye bread ?

Regards,
BMC


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