Street Sign

Our other big project this week was finalizing our logo so we can order our signs and all the other things a logo goes on. Until it goes to the printer, I don’t think we’ll stop fiddling with the logo, but as it stands now, this is our proposed street sign:

We stared with the basic premise of the tree way back when we first started dreaming about the café last winter. After going through dozens of revisions, scraping the tree entirely, and trying many other things, we kept coming back to the simple tree that was our first idea.

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1 Month, 6 Days to go

With less then six full weeks to go, the sight of six foot deep hole in the café  floor  could be a little discouraging. However, the truth is that we are really excited about it, because that hole means permits are in place and construction has officially begun. From here, we anticipate that things will move very quickly. One more day with the plumber, then things will sit for a few days and late next week, the framing for the counter will begin. Besides the construction starting this week, we’ve also finalized our coffee supplier, and made a decision regarding some confusing financial stuff.

The coffee, the construction and the cash were the three big goals we had for this week. On Wednesday morning it looked like we may only get one of the three taken care of, but several phone calls within a thirty minute span, and everything sprang into action.

So everything is going quite well, but did I mention that we open in forty-one days?

Serving Counter – Mockup to Tape Down

If all goes well with a little permit we need to get, we will be beginning construction on our serving counter very shortly. Using Google SketchUp, I made a 3D model of the counter to help us visualize the space we will need and to help us design a smooth and efficient workflow. The model is also necessary to give the talented people who will be building the counter something to go on.

The counter front is a combination of environmentally friendly bamboo panelling and cultured stone. If we were opening a café in the desert on a slightly hazy day, the SketchUp picture would really capture what we are trying to do. Since we’ve instead elected to build our counter inside, we’ve taped it on on the floor to help us get a handle on the size.

Serving Counter – Taped, originally uploaded by tukanuk.

The next step is where the real fun begins. A plumber will come in and run the water and drainage lines, an electrician will get us the power we will need and then the real construction begins! Stay tuned for pictures of the actual construction which will hopefully be coming very soon.

Club Chairs

I’m not sure you have truly seen comedy unless you happened to catch Michelle and I loading seven of our brand new club chairs into the backs of our little Chevy Metro and Cavillier.  Three trips from the furniture store to Green Bean later, we had it taken care of. My big failure here is that I somehow forgot to take a picture of the transportation process. The good news is we think the chairs look even better in the Green Bean then they did in the store. 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days until opening day!

Customer Feedback and Service

Have an idea, question, problem or praise for Green Bean? Let your voice be heard! Get Satisfaction is an online tool for bringing customers and companies together. On any page on our website, simply click on the “feedback” button on the left hand side of the screen and follow the simple instructions. The feedback you provide is public and community driven, allowing us to provide comprehensive customer service, answer questions and fix problems in an easy way that will be helpful to everyone.

Our new Facebook page

We are excited to announce that in addition to our website, Twitter, and Flickr, we now have our own Facebook Fan Page. Be sure to check out: http://www.facebook.greenbeancoffee.info today and become a fan of the Green Bean Coffee Company!

Logo Variations

We’ve been working on a Green Bean logo for quite some time now and I think we’ve narrowed it down to this basic design and colour scheme. We don’t want to commit too tightly to anything and instead we intend to allow our brand identity to evolve slowly over time. For now, we’ve whipped together a batch of variations on our basic design. Certainly, some of these colour combinations are better then others, but as a whole, I think they look pretty cool together. We’re always interest in feedback so feel free to comment and let us know what you think.