Extended Hours Coming Soon!!

Holiday Cheer at Sip!

WEBSITE!

Our website is finally up and going!! www.siponthesquare.com

My mom and I bought both of these table/chair sets at Round Top a few weeks ago and I recovered the seats with oil cloth. I compromised on the colors...purple on one set and orange on the other...go Frogs

The menu board...all I need is a menu...?

Stickers for all my cups, to-go containers, etc. 

We're getting closer!

Signs & Stuff

I got the outdoor signs in today!!!

And I got peppermint for peppermint mochas :-)

Light

This makes me so happy...finally hung the chandelier I bought a few months ago :-)

Woo hoo!

We got the TV going tonight and the espresso machine up and running! I'm no barista yet, but it's getting exciting around here!

Big day!

I filed for my DBA today with the county clerk, so we're legal! The woman behind the counter was not nearly as excited as I was...

And I got the koozies I ordered in...yay!

I read this somewhere recently...love it!

Sometimes when I want to give up, I just give up for an hour... and then get right back to it... lol

Gruene Beans

I may not be able to sleep for two days from all the caffeine I had this afternoon! My mom and I were looking for Crosswalk Coffee on the Main Plaza in New Braunfels, but it has closed! However, on our way back we stumbled upon three other coffee shops in Gruene. One was closed due to the weather so we only tried two of them. We decided to order the same thing at each shop and see what we liked better - a real taste test. First stop was Gruene Grind Coffee Company. They have a drive-through window and are in a somewhat newer section of Gruene - the Gruene Lake Village shopping center. We would have loved to go inside but it was raining really hard at this point and the parking spot was pretty far from the door and they had the drive-through...so...you know. We stayed in the car. It gives me an excuse to go back I guess! The next shop we passed was Stepping Stones...they were closed so...another excuse to go back. The third place was the Gruene Coffee Haus. This place is across from the Grist Mill, in an older building and has a bit more of an antique/rustic feel. Both are very cute though and have lots of personality, not to mention better coffee than some of the little coffee shops I've visited lately!! Depending on your preference for old vs. new you might like one or the other better. 

I think if I had a coffee shop in Gruene I'd name it Gruene Beans...or The Gruene Bean.

Other than that, this is a sign we saw on our way into New Braunfels this afternoon...somebody's pretty funny :-)

Corner of RM32 & Purgatory Rd

I am so excited about the progress we've made. I had no clue how hard figuring out the floor plan and bar/counter design would be, but I'm relieved we've worked it out! It's starting to look a little bit more like a coffee shop, but we still have so much left to do!! Here are a few pictures...

Looking through the front window

Hidden treasure...

We started tearing down walls at the coffee shop this weekend and I found this lovely little gem of a family photo inside one of them...

Taking out the ceiling tiles, walls and glass door 

One of the other coffee shops in town closed this week, so they were nice enough to not only offer to sell me some of their equipment but they also gave me a TON of extra supplies they had!

It's a coffee shop on wheels...

Sweat Equity

Today I really upped my sweat equity in Sip! I spent the better half of the day on the floor hand scraping paint off the concrete with a single edge razor blade. My hand just might be permanently stuck in a claw-like grip and I'll have blisters for the next two weeks, but other than that it wasn't too bad! Ha!

We're hoping to start our very light "remodeling" this week.  We're just taking out a couple walls and building the bar/counter area. My structural/engineering skills are completely lacking so designing and visualizing what I want the bar/counter to look like and exactly how it needs to be laid out has been really hard for me, and of course it bothers me that I can't figure it out myself...so, I made a trip to Barnes & Noble yesterday and picked up a few books. "The Complete Guide to Countertops" and "Working with Concrete" ... can't wait to get started! Believe it or not they also had "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting & Running a Coffee Bar." So, yes...I got it, too!

I'll be completely honest and admit I started reading the "Idiot's Guide to Opening A Coffee Bar" last night and had to put it down about 10 pages in. It was a little overwhelming. I had one of those moments where I  thought...Am I really doing this? CAN I do this? Ahhhhhh!!!

I picked it back up 30 minutes later and got about halfway through before going to bed, but it was definitely a reality check! I have a feeling there will be more of those moments along the way where I just want to pull the covers over my head and hide, but I think it's also in those moments where you have to dig deep and figure out who you really are and what you can really do. As they say, "Nothing worth having ever comes easy."

My pile of paint scrapings from the floor!!!

What I have left to finish....

Happy Monday!

It's a Monday...what can I say, I just wanted to see some pretty things :-)

I had a great weekend in Fort Worth celebrating Haddy & Ed's wedding, it definitely made me realize how much I love my FW "family" of friends, but reality calls and I have a lot I need to get accomplished in the next couple days!

The floor in the cafe is stained green concrete and I have had a blue color scheme in mind from basically Day 1, so I've been on the lookout for blue and green color combos, these are some of the cutest ones I found. 

I thought these were some cute ideas for bulletin/announcement boards with a little personality

A couple blue and white Chevron pattern fabrics I really like for window treatments...

And in case you need a pick-me-up...Just Dance

In the name of research...

Market research continues! I am feverishly working on a floor plan and counter/bar schematic for Sip!, so the past few days I have been mainly interested in seeing what kind of layouts different places have.  I’ve got to say I’ve been really disappointed in some of the coffee shops out there. I won’t name names because I don’t want to be rude, but I’ve thrown away a lot of coffee in the past few days! I’ll admit I am a tough critic, but you have to have standards and I don’t want to open a crappy coffee shop!

Having said that, I was almost ecstatic when I came across a place I love on Friday!  Oddly enough, it’s about ½ mile from the house I lived in in Austin for almost two years. It’s a really neat, neighborhood coffee house called Teo Espresso & Gelato in the 26 Doors shopping center. My vanilla latte was amazing and I loved their outdoor seating area! I didn’t try their gelato (hello self-control) but it looked delicious and it is all made in-house.  I will definitely be back to Teo!

The other place I found is The House Coffee Bar on Florence near downtown Fort Worth. What a find! And I mean 'find' literally! It took me a few u-turns and oopsie's to get to it but I finally did. And what a pleasant surprise! I really thought Fort Worth had no neat independent coffee shops left. My latte was great and they had a large indoor seating area with comfy chairs, couches and tables—a great atmosphere overall. Plus free Wi-Fi...that I happened to be especially grateful for this Friday morning, no thanks to AT&T.  I would definitely recommend The House!

 

I am happy to say I have renewed faith in the coffee house industry ;-)

Have a great weekend!

Michele

Hello, Cupcake!

Wow, this week has been pretty hectic! We met with a coffee vendor in Austin who is turning into an amazing resource. He has over 30 years of experience roasting coffee as well as owning and managing restaurants and coffee shops all over the country from Montana to Austin. He definitely knows the ins and outs of the food service industry and not just what flavor of coffee people like! One of his smaller coffee shops is a 9' x 12' space on the UT campus that does about $3,000 a day in sales...that's a lot of coffee for a small space! And let me tell you, a coffee shop requires a lot of space. You can't just throw an espresso machine in a room and call it a coffee shop, you have to have grinders, blenders, air pots, brewers, pitchers, temperature gauges...the list goes on and on! Sip may be looking to expand before we've even opened...!

One of my favorite things so far may be all of the taste testing I get to do, in the name of "market research" of course! I need to know how other people's coffee tastes, how the different brands of syrup and flavoring stack up, and who has the yummiest cupcakes! I know I know...it's not just about the cake! I am also looking to see how their stores are laid out, what their work space looks like, how their prices compare and what's on their menu...but I'll probably stick to writing about the tasty stuff, like the vegan mint chocolate cupcake I had at Austin Java, or the chocolate peanut butter one...both very good! (Guess I better keep hitting the pavement as often as possible)

One of the main reasons I went into this venture was to do something that would challenge me and push me in a new direction and it definitely has. I mean who knew a little paint thinner wouldn't take paint off a concrete floor? Or you can add a plumbing line through the ceiling, that was news to me! I am glad I can say I have really loved it so far. There are and will definitely continue to be hurdles to overcome but it is a fun and rewarding process. I am reminded of the saying that I know enough to know that I don't know everything and the best thing I can do is surround myself with smart people! I feel very fortunate to have such people around me. 

G'night all!

Michele

Decor Inspiration

I love these Trina Turk fabrics!

A bunk room? And now I am completely off track...

I love this chandelier!

I need one of these