January is a notoriously difficult month to be in the restaurant industry. Have you noticed how so many restaurants close partially or completely during January? After the holiday rush, January is a slump: people are making a serious effort to save money and eat better. Plus the weather sucks and people kinda want to just leave the house and go straight to work. For a lot of restaurant people, It’s a great time to go on vacation.
BABY’S FIRST CAPPUCCINO! And our sweet IKEA mugs
At Rebelle, we use January to plan some of our biggest ideas going into the year and make changes. Last year, our updates were mostly about making it prettier inside, more seating and equipment upgrades. This year, it’s all about taking it to the next level. We have some *~*2020 strategic initiatives*~* that I am super excited to rollout in the next few months, starting with our upcoming espresso test! I love doing tests on the business! I’m very excited. I LIVE for this kind of stuff.
Way back when we built the shop, I made a deliberate decision NOT to serve espresso. I thought that we didn’t need espresso to run a successful breakfast business, and I looked up to peers who built a solid coffee business without espresso. I also had zero barista skills/didn’t have one I could hire and, with our tight budget during our initial buildout, I couldn’t afford a $10,000 espresso machine plus grinder, plus setup with a plumber and an electrician… It adds up.
As time has gone on, our clientele has grown and my view on espresso has evolved. I am a die-hard cappuccino drinker and it is my coffee drink of choice. Selfishly, I’d love to have espresso at Rebelle so that I can have my morning cappuccino here! (If you were wondering, Little Sister will espresso from day one.)
On the macro level, I think customer needs are also changing and we are in a good position to respond to that. People want dope breakfast on-the-go AND a full-fledged coffee shop, all in one. We have noticed the afternoon is a good time for customers to come for a coffee and a bite, maybe to do some work, have a meeting or pass the time. Espresso drinks fit the bill much better than drip coffee.
The coffee shops are going into breakfast, too. Starbucks has built up their food program to ~20% of their sales over the last few years with a strong focus on breakfast. Dunkin’ relaunched their espresso program last summer and saw a 30% growth in espresso drink sales. Just on a relaunch! Astounding what clever marketing does. We don’t aspire to be Dunkin’ or Starbucks, of course, but they research their market well. I’m down to piggyback on their intel any day of the week.
Because installing an espresso machine and staffing baristas is such a costly undertaking, we have decided to start with a small scale test. We have a small space behind the counter and it is busy, so we need to figure out what kind of demand is realistic for us to meet. We also wanna nail the basics, work out the kinks and figure out the workflow while the setup is still fairly flexible and not plumbed/wired into place. Our friend Bryan at Bolt Coffee loaned us a plug & play espresso machine that doesn’t require plumbing or wiring by professionals, and our roaster Brian from Borealis Coffee trained our team to prepare a few common drinks. The idea is that we will run with the plug & play for a few weeks, see how the test performs sales-wise, tweak the workflow and operations, and make a go/no-go decision on the full setup investment. So far, we’ve made a few drinks for our regulars and the reaction is encouraging!
I like to do big changes bit by bit in rapid succession. Our test will be rolling out slowly in a tiered approach, starting with an email invitation to our most frequent regulars. (HEY! Sign up for our emails! Especially if you come often!) Our regulars are our neighbors, they are super friendly and highly invested in our success, and they tend to give us the most usable feedback. Exactly what we need when undergoing such a big change for us! It’ll likely be a matter of 1-2 weeks of testing with regulars before we feel confident offering espresso drinks to all customers. So if you see the machine and salivate at the thought of steaming cappuccinos, hang tight! We’re coming for ya.
I’m so curious to know: Are you a Rebelle regular who goes elsewhere because we don’t serve espresso drinks? Would you visit us more frequently if we served espresso drinks? What is your espresso drink of choice? TELL ME ALL THE THOUGHTS!