Notes for Mar 1st

First off, it has been a rough past few weeks for Simon Yu (owner of Simon's) and his family. Simon had been quite ill for the past few weeks and was hospitalized. It looks like Simon is making a solid recovery and gets to go home today. While we may not see him back at the shop any time soon, it is good to finally hear positive news about him. While he was out, the turnout and support of customers at Simon's has been exceptional. it reminds me why I have such a soft spot for that place and the regulars who frequent it (having worked there myself in the past). The place is packed and people are always checking in to see what the status is with Simon. The staff have done a great job picking up the slack so Simon can take his time to recover but we will definitely have to have some kind of welcome back party when Simon is ready to make a return.

In shop has been really quite busy as Silas romps around Central America visiting farms we are buying from and looking for new connections. The trip has been quite successful so far and it looks like 2011 will be a year where we really expand our offering list within the countries we are working with. he will return with tons of travel logs and photos at the end of next month.

We have a couple of new faces in shop helping pick up the slack and get some projects going we have been talking about for a long time. More to come on those projects soon, but keep an eye out for changes. We reorganized our roast schedule and have been doing a lot of things to get ready for a busy year. This includes auditing accounts, evaluating our shipping methods, and in some cases cutting ties where it just wasn't working. We love the account representation we have right now and are happy to see the growth they have undergone and progress made. It is a bit overwhelming to sit back and think about the support we get locally and the following we enjoy at places serving our coffees. We are lucky to have some awesomely loyal customers. I often find myself taken aback by how willing they are to go to bat to tell others about what we do.