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