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Local Brew
Archived Posts from this Category
Archived Posts from this Category
Posted by TheShot on 05 May 2014 | Filed under: CoffeeRatings.com, Consumer Trends, Fair Trade, Local Brew, Quality Issues
Today's Stanford Daily published an article on the Stanford Coffee Symposium that we held this past weekend: Stanford Continuing Studies hosts coffee symposium | Stanford Daily. In addition to the featured speakers mentioned in our earlier post, the event showcased espresso drinks and coffees meticulously prepared by Mr. Espresso, Barefoot Coffee Roasters, Centro Agroecológico del Café A.C. (CAFECOL, from Mexico), Coupa Café, and Café Venetia — plus an overall event coffee service provided by Peet's Coffee & Tea.
Exclusively for the event, Richard Sandlin of Fair Trade USA (and the Bay Area Coffee Community) and Stephen Vick, green coffee buyer for Blue Bottle Coffee, jointly developed a custom coffee evaluation session where some 200 students tasted three very different coffees from different regions — each personally sourced by Stephen and prepared by Blue Bottle baristas. Richard and Stephen encouraged the students to identify & associate flavor descriptors for each coffee and compare their tasting experiences with those of their own.
I was pleasantly surprised that the Stanford University team transformed the classic, 1938-built Stanford Graduate School of Education building, with its modest power & water supply, into something that could support an event of this size: with modern espresso machines and a demanding cupping-like event with three different hand-crafted coffees served simultaneously to some 70 people in three shifts.
Although I was mostly busy helping to keep things running smoothly behind the scenes, I still managed to learn quite a bit about coffee history, the coffee genome, the impacts of coffee on labor and certification practices in Latin America, and how to measure biodiversity and its effects on coffee production. That said, my favorite event logistics non-sequitur of the day had to be: "I found out that the golf cart wasn't stolen."
A big thanks to everyone who helped pull off a educational, fun, and highly caffeinated celebration of coffee that also increased our mindful appreciation of it.
Posted by TheShot on 27 Apr 2014 | Filed under: Café Society, Local Brew, Quality Issues, Roasting
Long before there was Coffee Bar, Mr. Espresso continually wrestled with the "last mile" of retail coffee delivery. All their quality efforts sourcing, roasting, and blending coffee could be undone by poor storage, an inexperienced barista, or a poorly maintained espresso machine. By opening Coffee Bar, Mr. Espresso could take more direct control of that last mile and better showcase their coffee.
Equator Estate Coffees is another local roaster that hasn't quite yet had the retail coffee outlet to truly show them off. This was a particularly nagging issue for us on CoffeeRatings.com, where over the years we noted their industry accolades but were continually challenged to find just one among dozens of example outlets where their roasts didn't underwhelm us.
Equator co-founder and master roaster, Brooke McDonnell, sometimes took to the comments on our blog posts to debate the variances in personal tastes. She was right that personal tastes vary, and none are necessarily more "right" or "wrong" than others.
Sure, we've been known to pause over the likes of Stumptown Coffee Roasters — who while clearly in the upper echelon of coffee quality always seemed to rank in the lower end of that class. Someone certainly has to, so why not them?
But if Stumptown marked a natural statistical outcome when forced to jockey for rankings within subjective personal tastes, Equator represented nothing short of an anomaly for us. Ultimately, we had more or less come to the conclusion that our perception-of-quality disparity had less to do with our own coffee palate and more with their relatively loose controls over the supply and delivery chain at the retail end.
Opening in June 2013, Equator Coffees at Proof Lab Surf Shop represents a joint venture where the roaster finally got their own "reference quality" coffee bar. Located at one of the main divides in Mill Valley between traffic into "downtown" and traffic towards Muir Woods and the California Highway 1 beaches, this red-painted wooden shack at the head of a part-gravel parking lot beckons surfers and coffee lovers alike. It seems like an odd place for a surf shop (Proof Lab, in back): sandwiched between the Bothin Marsh and Coyote Creek with no sign of sand for miles. But the surfers (and boarders) come.
There's a cement patio in front, enclosed from the highway by standing surfboards and a surf-board-inspired outdoor table. The rear entrance to the building has seating among white-painted metal café tables and chairs — and a surfboard table. Inside there are several small wooden café tables set against a wall of Hurley surf advertising. (With surfboards in the rear.) One wall is dedicated to retail sale of various coffees and home brewing equipment.
Using a red, two-group La Marzocco Strada machine, they pull shots with a mottled, textured crema of a medium and darker brown. It looks robust and organic, has a decent body, a full aroma, and a well-blended flavor of herbal pungency mixed with some spices, heavy cherry-like fruit (perhaps just a touch too much fruit for my tastes), and some honey-like edges. Served in white logo Espresso Parts cups with very necessary sparkling water on the side.
It's a solid cup. It has great visual appeal and seems like it has all the ingredients for excellence. However, you might say the enigma continues a little: as good as it is, it still falls on the weaker side of excellence with still some room for improvement.
Read the review of Equator Coffees at Proof Lab Surf Shop in Mill Valley, CA.
Posted by TheShot on 22 Apr 2014 | Filed under: Café Society, Consumer Trends, Local Brew, Roasting
Haight Street has taken decades to emerge from its Summer of Love bender. Despite locals declaring "the Death of the Hippie" and the end of an idealized Haight-Ashbury by October 1967, runaway teens and drug addicts continued to flock to the neighborhood seeking social escape while lacking any support networks.
By the time I first visited the area in the late 1980s, the stories of wars between drug dealers, crime epidemics, and kids on LSD falling to their deaths out of Victorian windows had long since vanished. But the chronic problems of homelessness and drug addiction remained. Other than seeing live music at the I-Beam or experiencing the camp of Rock & Bowl (now Amoeba Records), this part of the neighborhood was something you generally avoided after dark.
Today, things are very different. In place of the sketchy Cala Foods (whose closing was celebrated by locals), there's now a Whole Foods. Gentrification hasn't scrubbed everything clean, but at least the Golden Gate Park area across the street no longer looks like a refugee camp from a condemned methadone clinic.
And located in a large, tall space adjacent to the Whole Foods parking lot — at what used to be the San Francisco Cyclery — is Flywheel Coffee Roasters, opening in April 2012. They have added to the growing coffee legitimacy of the Upper Haight by roasting their own beans — using a Portuguese Joper Roaster in the back.
The space has a sunny entrance with tall windows facing west over Stanyan St. Inside there is counter seating along the windows, simple stool seating at taller tables, and several other tables indoors. Out back there's something of an enclosed deck that's exposed to a little bit of the occasional outdoor breeze. Up wooden stairs is a low-ceiling space with a bit of coffee roasting supply storage.
The laptop zombie quotient is on the high side here (ah, the price of gentrification). This gives it a rather cavernous, library-like feel. They offer cold brew drippers ($4), syphon-brewed coffee ($5), Hario V60 pour-overs, and a new three-group Faema Enova for espresso drinks.
They pull shots with a mottled medium brown crema of some coagulated thickness. It tastes of cloves and other, deeper herbal pungency without much spice nor tobacco: it's actually a rather narrow, limited flavor profile with little roundedness. This perhaps reflects their usual choice of single origin coffees from Colombia, Kenya, Ethiopia, etc. Served in black Espresso Parts cups with a short glass of mineral water on the side.
It may be far from the better espresso shots in town. However, that a decent coffee house serving decent coffee could exist here was difficult to imagine 25 years ago. At least that much is progress, and we always have a soft spot for truly independent cafés.
Read the review of Flywheel Coffee Roasters in the Upper Haight.
Posted by TheShot on 25 Mar 2014 | Filed under: Café Society, Local Brew, Roasting
This original Stanza Coffee location opened in April 2012 with the explicit purpose of showcasing coffee roasted from outside the Bay Area. As such, it's unfortunately another example of a coffee shop that has defined itself in the negative: i.e., not by what it does and what it stands for, but rather its identity is wrapped up in what it does not do.
We're big believers that the best coffee shops — or the best of anything, really — simply chart their own course instead of reacting to what others are doing. Defining your own identity as a foil against what others are up to unwittingly puts your own business strategy into your competitors' hands. That's driving from your rear-view mirror.
But if anything, that we now have coffee bars specializing in exclusively imported coffee is a healthy sign for local roasters.
Formerly the confectioner, Coco-luxes Haight Street Boutique, this is a small space along Haight St. with dark raspberry walls, dark wood, beat-up upholstered black chairs, and tables in front converted from the tops of barrels. Further back past the short service counter is an almost diner-like lunch counter where laptop zombies crouch over electrical outlets, sucking much of the life out of the place.
Offering a rotation of roasted coffees from elsewhere, on our visit they were serving Counter Culture Coffee and Intelligentsia for espresso or Hario V60 pour-overs.
Using a white, two-group La Marzocco FB/80 at the bar, they pulled shots of Intelligentsia's Black Cat that came with a very even, medium brown crema. While it smelled like it could have been an undetonated brightness bomb, it pleasantly (and not surprisingly) was not: a softer Black Cat flavor of some mild spices and some herbalness in a rounded balance. They serve it with a short glass of still water on the side of their white notNeutral cups.
Despite its good qualities, it is far from the more flavorful and best espresso shots in town. With a mission to showcase roasts from outside the area, they modestly live up to the task but do not take it over the line of excellence. It's hard to say if the results would be significantly better if they focused more on themselves and looked over their shoulders a little less.
That said, we continually wish we could conveniently sample more coffees roasted outside of the area. We've been fans of the multi-roaster concept for years — from Ma'velous through the defunct likes of Café Organica. Hopefully Stanza Coffee will continue to fine-tune their operations to better showcase these imports.
Read the review of Stanza Coffee & Wine Bar in SF's Upper Haight.
Posted by TheShot on 19 Mar 2014 | Filed under: Café Society, Consumer Trends, Local Brew, Roasting
This coffee shop opening in Sept. 2013 received an almost inordinate amount of fanfare. It still gets some of it. One of the latest examples being the New York Times Travel section with a recent piece by their former coffee scribe, Oliver Strand.
Andrew Barnett (of Ecco Caffè fame — now Intelligentsia SF — and currently the Good Food Awards and Cup of Excellence judging) established the coffee side of the operations, starting with his own micro-batch coffee roasts. So there's some definite reason to get excited about that.
But here's where things get convoluted. Grafted onto this perfectly good coffee bar is GreenSalads.org. Overlooking the folly of naming your brick & mortar business after your electronic address (e.g., "1800 Flowers? But I only need a dozen."), they serve salads that read like a checklist of 2013's most trendy and overdone ingredients: kale, quinoa, Brussels sprouts. Is a cauliflower salad in the cards for 2014? It's honestly hard to tell if the menu here is meant as a self-parody of SF salad menus or not.
But wait — that's not all. Also grafted onto this place is Lt. Waffle, offering sweet and savory Brussels-style waffles. One even garnered local 7×7 cover press as the #1 item of their "The Big Eat 2014" list of 100 things we absolutely must eat before we die. (I know I'm holding off on including that DNR in my advanced health care directive until I eat one.) The salad and waffle offerings come courtesy of Anthony Myint, who partnered up with Mr. Barnett while he was a regular customer at Mr. Myint's Mission Chinese Food.
We may be established fans of Mr. Myint's Commonwealth and certainly of Mr. Barnett's coffee. But the resulting café is a bit of a Kickstarter Frankenstein: an odd fusion of waffles, salad, and coffee with the feel of a schizophrenic food consignment shop.
Even so, that hasn't deterred SF foodies any. Ever since the 2008 economic meltdown, the restaurant world has been downsizing their menu ambitions while simultaneously upsizing their revenue-per-plate on lunch fare for the common man. Out are top-dollar amuse-bouches, tasting menus, and culinary foams. In are glorified comfort foods: pimped out burgers, pizza, grilled cheese, and salads offered at twice the price we used to pay, and demonstrating less than half of the culinary creativity pre-2008.
If SF diners proved financially apprehensive about splashing out for a new BMW, they've proven more than happy to spend almost as much on a tricked out Honda Civic. The fetishized $4 toast was only a matter of time.
But enough about salads and waffles. While good, we'll leave those details to Mr. Strand's quoted restaurant review. The coffee side of the house has its act in order even if it doesn't quite "wow" for the area. It's a small corner space with virtually only outdoor sidewalk seating along San Carlos. Inside the wide windows open out to the street and there's a tiny bench for two.
Using a three-group La Marzocco Linea namesake and Mazzer grinders, they pull shots of espresso with an even medium brown crema and a potent aroma. It's two-sips short and has a moderate body with a flavor profile of some spice and a slightly bright fruity edge. Served in red Heath cups for espresso (white for caps), Illy spoons, and sparkling water on the side.
Things get a little more unusual when milk is involved. Their macchiato has a dense and creamy milkiness that borders on cappuccino territory, despite its diminutive size. It comes with a latte-art heart. We do like the fact that Linea ruffles some coffee fad feathers in not offering any drip coffee options at the small bar here.
Read the review of Linea Caffe in the Mission District.
Posted by TheShot on 08 Mar 2014 | Filed under: Barista, Consumer Trends, Local Brew, Quality Issues
I've had a long, strange history with academics. Before succumbing to the dark side of money-plundering dot-com entrepreneurs, I worked in scientific research labs at The Johns Hopkins University and at Stanford University. It was also a joint graduate PhD program in bioengineering at UC Berkeley/UCSF, with a focus on neuroscience, that first brought me out to the SF Bay Area some 25 years ago.
Thus the idea of academia is something I know well, albeit with ambivalent feelings. For me, there's always been an inherent conflict between the practicality of "real world" grounding and the legitimate need to follow intellectual pursuits to advance any field of interest — whether that be neuroscience or coffee — even at the risk of building ivory towers.
That people in the coffee industry today swear by using measuring scales, monitor things like total dissolved solids (TDS), and continually experiment with this pressure control or that pre-infusion time are all baby-step examples of the need for an academic approach — the building of a more comprehensive coffee science, as it were.
And yet while you can earn a PhD in Coffee Science from the University of Trieste (Italy) studying the scientific papers of Ernesto Illy, in America you can't even earn so much as a bachelor's degree in the field. So it's with encouragement that we read yesterday's announcement: UC Davis establishes center for coffee science study center; possible major to follow – Our Region – The Sacramento Bee.
If you don't know UC Davis, they are an amazing ag (and veterinary) school. As just a personal example, a fellow Chicago native and husband of a lifelong close friend of the family, Chris Carpenter, moved from Chicago to Napa years ago to earn a masters in Horticulture from the viticulture and enology (i.e., wine) department at UC Davis. He's now earning 100-point scores as a winemaker and recently served four years as chairman of the board for Slow Food USA. If you can judge an academic program based on the success of its graduates, and you should, UC Davis is no slouch when it comes to food and drink.
UC Davis just formally announced their Coffee Center and their first Coffee Center Research Conference, which will take place this coming Tuesday, March 11. All initial steps, but definitely promising steps in the right direction. Unlike their world-famous viticulture program, for example, the question still remains whether such an ambitious scientific initiative can truly thrive so far from origin for an ag school — rather than in a place like Kona, Hawaii. Greenhouse coffee can only go so far in vitro.
Much of their conference agenda, like their Coffee Center, seems focused on the microbiology of coffee. However, there are also talks on coffee genetics and sensory evaluation — the latter naturally tapping into the university's expertise on the subject in the wine world.
Coincidentally, a little over a week from now the 2014 TED Conference will take place in Vancouver, and there promises to be continued servicing of TED attendees by various luminaries of the professional coffee world. Recall that an invitation from TED is what inspired the now-defunct Coffee Common.
TED fashions itself as a sort of intellectual gathering of big minds and big ideas for the betterment of the world. Sounds great for the academic and scientific advancement of good coffee, right? But if you thought I'd be a fan of TED, you could not be more wrong.
Fortunately I was able to attend a past TED conference on the tab of an ambitious dot-com entrepreneur rather than having to fork over the $7,500 hazing price myself. (I.e., "Your hedge fund must be this large to ride this attraction.") TED has done an amazing job of marketing and self-promotion, and I felt I should have every reason to support TED and its aims on the surface. But I found the TED event and organization to be intellectually shallow and ethically dishonest.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, famed author of The Black Swan, once famously called TED a "monstrosity that turns scientists and thinkers into low-level entertainers, like circus performers." Part of that is the event's general preference for infotainment over substance, as exemplified in its famous 18-minute videos that run like infographics set to moving pictures — optimized for people who prefer to be entertained rather than informed.
More objectionable to me were many of the event attendees themselves. They seemed fixated more on asserting or reaffirming their own special status in the world by the company they keep — or, perhaps as Mr. Taleb would put it, by those circus performers they invite to entertain them. Imagine The Great Gatsby, but with ostentatious material wealth replaced by grand displays of intellectual vanity.
The professionals of the coffee world are some amazing, impassioned, bright people capable of making their own brave decisions of free will. Yet I cannot help but feel that TED has cynically invited many of them merely to exploit for a premium event coffee service, helping the world of TED to maintain their personal façade of elitism in the process. I wish the best for the attending coffee pros and only hope they come out unscathed, unlike myself.
Much closer to home, about a year ago Stanford University Professor of Biology, Virginia Walbott, approached me to help co-organize a Stanford Coffee Symposium to be held in the spring of 2014. Prof. Walbott organized a similar, highly successful event for chocolate in May of 2011, tapping into both the university (Depts. of Biology, Latin American Studies, Economics, etc.) and industry (Scharffen Berger, Monique's Chocolates, etc.).
Our goal for the event is to balance some higher-minded academics with a practical, consumer-friendly grounding in what makes coffee enjoyable and fun. (Read: check your self-congratulatory intellectual elitism at the door!) To be held Saturday, May 3 at the Cubberley Building of the Stanford Graduate School of Education, Stanford Continuing Studies just published its course catalog entry last week:
WSP 172 – Coffee: From Tree to Beans to Brew and Everything in Between
Registration is now open at $195 per student with a deadline of April 26. The featured speakers and topics thus far are as follows:
In addition to the planned talks there will be various Bay Area coffee vendors and an interactive tasting session. My current challenge? Following a location visit last Tuesday, I'm now working with the university to get sufficient power into the 1938 building to run sufficient numbers of espresso machines and grinders.
That said, I'm genuinely excited about the event and hope many of you will be too.
Posted by TheShot on 01 Mar 2014 | Filed under: Café Society, Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew, Local Brew, Quality Issues
Surprisingly, Epicurious had yet to make a notable entry in the obligatory culinary-magazine-rates-national-coffee-shops department. But that all changed this week with the rather ambitious title of "America's 25 Best Coffee Shops — The ultimate guide to the best coffee shops across the United States": America's Best Coffee Shops | Epicurious.com.
We do have to give them an iota of credit. Unlike most of their ilk, they cover coffee without a brand name that suggests an exclusive concern for food, eating, meals, or anything else at the expense of beverages as some kind of frivolous, second-class diversion. But then they did have to ruin it a little by filing the article under their "Where to Eat Around the Globe" category. Facepalm indeed.
Writer Colleen Clark also falls for many of the usual suspects among coffee house article tropes. Like a rapper with mad rhyming skillz just this side of 2 Chainz, she employed several examples of the journalistically lazy caffeine riff and liberally used the trite words "java" or "joe" as substitutes for "coffee". Imagine if writers playfully used the term "alcoholics" when talking about wine lovers they way they effusively use "caffeine junkies" whenever talking about coffee lovers. Double standard, anyone?
Then there's the tiresome barista-as-sommelier analogy. She also made several references to the rather dated topic of regional coffee "scenes": the concept where which urban metropolis you're in determines whether you can access quality coffee or not is becoming rapidly irrelevant if not already extinct. Now that even the world's last holdout for terrible coffee — Paris, France — has worthy and redeemable coffee shops, there are no more "coffee cities" anymore than there are wine or tea cities.
All these negatives aside, the article is actually a rather decent assessment of great coffee shops — given Epicurious' magazine peers. (Even Forbes tried to get in on the act of reviewing the nation's best coffee shops.) It might suggest that "it's hard to separate the real-deal java joints from the flash-in-the-pan trendsters" — a problem that we honestly never knew needed solving. But they at least drew a line in the sand, laying down some of their criteria by which some coffee shops should or should not be included in their list:
So we've combed the country for the coffee shops that combine craft with hospitality, for inviting spaces that spark creativity, and for roasters who know how to make your morning brew tell a story. These are our picks for the USA's top 25 coffee shops.
This beats most of the random nonsense we've seen in past magazine lists of this type. Even if some of these criteria are precisely the sort of fluff that frustrated us as distractions from a focus on the actual coffee as far back as 2003: telling stories, named architects, hospitality, etc.
So that you don't have to turn 25 pages of ads on the Epicurious Web site, we've summarized their list here in one place as something useful (and as listed in no particular order):
Risks of the No Coffee Left Behind Act aside, this is a solid list. We will be the first to admit that it is over-represented by San Francisco. But most curiously, although it does well to call out a few smaller independents such as Daylight Mind and Barista Parlor, this list is heavily represented by chains. For a Top 25 list, it's actually cheating a bit as it actually represents a total of 85 coffee shops.
Has quality coffee in the U.S. reached a tipping point where the independents have come to be outnumbered by the chains? That's hard to say just yet, but you can't argue with the quality represented here.
Posted by TheShot on 31 Jan 2014 | Filed under: Barista, Café Society, Local Brew
Without question, this gran caffè is a city institution. It's long been considered a gathering place for intellectuals, thinkers, poets, foreigners and locals alike. Opening in 1860 as Il Gran Caffè, it started as a Parisian-styled singing café — or café-chantant — before adopting its current name in 1870. It is rightfully recognized among I Locali Storici d'Italia — an association dedicated to recognizing and helping to preserve some of the historically significant establishments in Italy.
Some of this café's great historical connections include where Edoardo Scarfoglio and Matilde Serao launched the daily paper Il Corriere di Roma in the 1880s (they later went on to establish Il Mattino in 1891), where Gabriele D'Annunzio penned the Neapolitan classic "'A Vucchella" in 1919 (here's a version by Enrico Caruso, famed 1906 SF earthquake survivor), and where Jean-Paul Sartre, Oscar Wilde, Ernest Hemingway, Benedetto Croce, and the aforementioned Giovanni Agnelli each came to sit, think, talk, and maybe even write at some time or other.
Outside there are often crowds of tourists gathering for tours of the Napoli underground. There's outdoor seating in front under parasols against Piazza Trieste e Trento, which very much feels like the heart of the city given nearby Piazza del Plebescito, Palazzo Reale, and the San Carlo theater.
Inside, there are many rooms of slightly fading glory: stucco, marble, grande chandeliers, ornate detailing, frescoes and paintings by some of Napoli's great artists of the 19th century, antique woodwork. The place feels almost Torinese in its classic style and sophistication. There are books on coffee making from 1836 for sale. And many of the interior rooms feel like capelle — small chapels as if in a cathedral — dedicated to the art of pastries, gelato, a grand tea salon, etc. Some of these grand rooms were cut off as part of a separate bank established under Facist rule in 1938, but in 2001 they were reunited with the main café.
The often brusque baristi here can be older veterans, but there are some newer faces in the lot. Together they might linger longer on the orders of the locals regulars while speeding up for the tourists. They will preheat their ornate, Gambrinus-detailed MPAN cups, pulling shots from their manual four-group lever La San Marco machine with a striped dark and medium brown crema.
It's a solid effort with Caffè Moreno coffee: a pungent Napoli-friendly flavor that just edges shy of a tobacco edge. A mere €1 at the bar. The 2014 Gambero Rosso Bar d'Italia rated them two tazzine and two chicchi, which dropped them one chicco in their coffee rating from the 2013 edition (i.e., they were previously rated the maximum of three).
Like many places in Napoli, they have their own specialty drink: the Caffè Gambrinus, consisting of espresso, cacao powder, milk foam, whipping cream, and chocolate sprinkles.
Read the review of Gran Caffè Grambrinus in Napoli, Italy.
Posted by TheShot on 30 Jan 2014 | Filed under: Consumer Trends, Local Brew, Roasting
Big-name capital investments in coffee businesses are old news. The newest of this old news is an additional $25.75 million of investment secured by Blue Bottle Coffee (SF Gate, Business Insider).
News like this tends to elicit a mixture of validation (i.e., "Good coffee is serious business!") and a little envy (i.e., "My business makes great coffee, so where's my $25 million?"). So why Blue Bottle?
To read some of the explanations out there, it's an investment in "slow coffee" or "craft coffee" (the latter term we avoid for potential confusion with "Kraft coffee" — aka, Maxwell House). We read about their "brand cache" and their "commitment to freshness" — which aren't exactly unique.
Like any business, Blue Bottle also has it's problems and flaws — over-extension beyond the reach of their quality controls being one big example (e.g., see our recent review of Fraîche.) But Blue Bottle is doing a number of things right, and we're surprised that some of them aren't being reported.
How most roasters sell coffee to consumers is broken and outright wrong. This is rooted in an old industry problem we've long lamented here, which is approaching customers from an inside-out approach instead of an outside-in one. Past examples of this discussed here on this blog include coffee cuppings for layman consumers; we've gotten into long, drag-out debates on this topic with the likes of Peter Giuliano — co-owner and Director of Coffee at Counter Culture Coffee and Director of Symposium at the SCAA.
But it is symbolic of the coffee industry's chronic inability to adopt a consumer-centric approach. Rather than think about how coffee is experienced by consumers, many coffee purveyors first try to shoehorn consumers into the perspective of industry insiders. Thus most coffee people today sell as if only to other coffee people — not to consumers.
Blue Bottle, on the other hand, exhibits one of the better examples of a coffee company that's trying to fix that. One way to clearly see this is on their Web site. Last year, Blue Bottle sat down with the Google Ventures design team and an agency in Montreal to rethink their Web site. What they found is that most retail coffee Web sites emphasize things like a coffee's origin — stuff that's of great relevance to how people in the industry think about coffee but is often a meaningless descriptor to a consumer. That's not how consumers buy coffee.
They discovered that primarily selling a coffee under the "Kenya" designation is a little like the early days of selling personal computers, where PC dealers emphasized things like processor clock speeds, memory cache sizes, and PCI slots. All of which made great sense to the way industry insiders thought about computers but were just gibberish to most layman consumers. Today's ubiquitous Apple retail stores are successful, in part, because Apple addresses consumer needs without weighing it down with superfluous industry insider gibberish.
This could explain some of the popularity of Philz Coffee's Harry-Potter-like alchemy: the nonsensical labels on their coffee blends (e.g., "Ambrosia Coffee of God" or "Silken Splendor") might be at least as meaningful to consumers as calling something "Kenya Nyeri Gatomboya AA".
If you look at Blue Bottle's Web site redesign, notice how it leads with the things that are most meaningful to consumers: how they brew their coffee and what devices they might have at home to brew it. Their Web site also emphasizes consumer brewing guides to complement this cause.
I'm not the only one who has either avoided or abandoned the long lines at Blue Bottle Coffee in San Francisco's touristy Ferry Building Marketplace location. But some may be surprised that these lines aren't entirely by accident.
Another smart thing Blue Bottle does (and they're far from the only ones) is apply queuing psychology at such a publicly visible location to influence perceived demand and value — or what FastCompany last year called "The Wisdom of the Cronut."
The painful morning wait for cronuts is likely to be contributing to the product's popularity. The fact that people are waiting signals to others that they too should be in on the trend.
–FastCompany, "The Wisdom of the Cronut: Why Long Lines Are Worth The Wait"
What's worse than a line that's too long? A line that's too short. We're talking some Disneyland mental mojo here.
Think of all the tourists walking by in the Ferry Building, saying, "Do you see that line? That must be some pretty good coffee!" Or even the revenue-per-customer-transaction winner of, "If we're going to wait in line this long, we may as well also pick up a Blue Bottle hoodie, a Hario Buono kettle, and a coffee subscription."
On the subject of coffee subscriptions and how they've reportedly reached "trendy" status finally, Blue Bottle has been at it for quite a while. We may not get the point of adding another middleman for the brief window consumers play the field before settling down more with their favorite coffee purveyors. But we do like the longer-term prospects of buying direct from the roasters you do come to enjoy, which suits Blue Bottle extremely well.
For Blue Bottle, coffee subscriptions have become where they make most of their money. Although revenue-per-customer is higher with prepared retail coffee beverages, so are the underlying costs. Because when you drink that latte, the main ingredient — and biggest contributor to the price of the beverage — is labor costs. For selling coffee subscriptions as a bean & leaf shop, the additional costs are little more than drop shipping.
This has transformed how Blue Bottle approaches coffee sales, as most coffee businesses still sell to consumers like most other real-estate-based point-of-sale businesses. Thus at tourist-friendly locations such as the Ferry Building, Blue Bottle is no longer suggesting that visitors take home a freshly roasted 12-ounce pack. Rather, they suggest that they sign up for a running coffee subscription shipped regularly to their home.
And when it comes to venture capitalists who are most familiar with funding software companies, investing in a subscription business gets them very excited. After all, virtually every software business has spent the past decade trying to shift consumers from retail purchases to subscription models.
Posted by TheShot on 12 Jan 2014 | Filed under: Beans, Café Society, Fair Trade, Local Brew
Taking a short respite from our series on espresso in Napoli and the Amalfi Coast, we have a couple of local coffee shop reviews to catch up on. One is the obscure and eponymous CoffeeShop_.
This dive of a coffee shop has been operation since 2012, but the overwhelming majority of locals in the neighborhood wouldn't know it. It kind of defines the term "understated", so you pretty much have to stumble upon it.
It's a tight space with no seating, inside nor out, though thankfully they do offer their espresso in "for here" cups anyway (Pagnossin cups with no saucer). Though even with the tight space and nothing to sit on, you'll often find people hanging out inside.
In addition to espresso drinks they sell Hario drip coffee (they also sell the drippers) and baked goods from Batch. Their coffee is proudly sourced from Emeryville's Ubuntu Coffee Cooperative, which also explains some of the other "hippie crap" on the drink menu such as yerba mate and matcha.
Using a two-group Promac, they pull shots with a very creamy texture. It has an even-textured medium brown crema with a flavor of pepper and mild spice with some modestly sharp brightness (to let you know the coffee is freshly roasted). But without potent fruitiness or candy-like sweetness.
Three generous sips, and we're still not entirely sure why the espresso shots get the nickname "Dirty" here. (As in: "I'll have a Dirty, please.")
Read the review of CoffeeShop_ in Bernal Heights.


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Last Christmas I got what appeared to be a fabulous present-- a book about "Caddyshack" called "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Greatest Movie Ever Made." A great bathroom reader, right? Not so much. I don't want to seem ungrateful, but it should have been called "Everything You Didn't Want to Know..." The author interviews everyone from the set designer to Cindy Morgan-- the biggest name in the movie he was able to get access with. And by interview, I mean finds out everything about their childhood and career. I like "Caddyshack", but knowing that the actor who played Danny Noonan's dad was devastated at the premiere to see his part dramatically cut, doesn't exactly make me fall off the throne in amazement.
It has some good insider moments, but I think I'd rather relive it with some commentary as we watch the classic lines you still hear now and then... or everyday in the newsroom. It was interesting to know they used two golf courses-- one in California and one in Florida. I thought it was insightful to know that Morgan and Chevy Chase didn't get along on the set. But you'd never know it by watching their scenes which is included here along with the rest of Chevy Chase's genius role of "Ty Webb."
Of course, Bill Murray pretty much launched his career into stardom with his role of "Carl Spackler" the creepy greenskeeper who becomes obsessed with killing a gopher. Of course, the fuzzy little foreigner has to crack the whip first. "DAMN YOUR EYES, MAN!"
It's a little known fact, that Murray's role was originally small, but his excellent ad-libbing was so hilarious that the writers expanded the role for more scenes like the classic, "Cinderella Boy."
And then there was Ted Knight, the classic funnyman from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" who didn't party with the rest of the cast-- according to the book, who took the brunt of the jokes. But like Dean Wormer in "Animal House" ('Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son'), his lines are some of the funniest. Hey, you send me an instant message in the newsroom and you'll hear, "I demand satisfaction!"
Many people, including myself, will argue the funniest scenes in the movie are with Knight's "Judge Smails" and "Al Czervik" played by Rodney Dangerfield. "Oh, it looks good on you, though!" As good as that is, I think this is the funniest exchange in Caddyshack:
So, forget the book-- you'll only tear your hair out as you read about the arduous task by the prop man to construct the gopher and come up with the proper "sound" it should make. Just pull up some clips or watch the movie the next time it comes on late night and wait for your favorite lines like: "You gonna eat your fat?" "Spaaaauuullllddiinnnggg!"
Oh, and I did find the the theatrical trailer to the movie, but it's not exactly appropriate for this forum, so you'll have to search that one yourself.
Ahoy polloi!

subset: commoncrawl


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Texas-based heavy metallers IGNITOR have issued the following update:"IGNITOR is auditioning singers and rhythm guitarists. Male or female. You will learn at least two of the songs on our MySpace page on your own (we'll send lyrics or mp3s as needed.) If you've got what we need, then bring it! If you live outside the Austin area, then consider moving here. Whoever — wherever you are, we need you. We will tour in the northeast U.S. and Europe in 2008 to support [the band's recently released full-length album] 'Road of Bones'." IGNITOR recently inked a deal with Italy's Cruz Del Sur to license and distribute "Road of Bones". According to a posting on the band's web site, the CD features "10 scorching tracks telling tales of Vikings, Irish battles, serial killers, insane asylums and war heroes." "Road of Bones" features artwork by famous artist Joe Petagno (MOTÖRHEAD).
IGNITOR Auditioning Singers, Rhythm Guitarists
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And then there were two....
Only two undefeated teams remain from the "power conferences" in College Football. #1 Alabama and #2 Texas Tech. If the 'Tide and Red Raiders (who face Oklahoma next week) win out, we likely will have very little controversy surrounding the National Championship game. An undefeated SEC champ vs an undefeated Big 12 champ. The two best teams, from the two best conferences battling it out for a crystal football...
However, if Texas Tech falls next week to Oklahoma or Alabama loses in the SEC Title game.... WE'VE GOT CONTROVERSY. Florida, Texas, USC, Oklahoma and Penn State all will be screaming for their slice of Championship Pie. BCS Haters will love every minute of it.
For the record, I am still VERY high on Oklahoma State. Therefore I didn't drop them out of my top ten. They had a bad night against Texas Tech. But I still think they beat teams like Penn State, Missouri or Georgia on a neutral field.
I also didn't punish TCU that much after a loss to Utah. They outplayed the Utes. The Frogs "won the battle, but lost the war." TCU only drops to #14.
Finally, living on Colorado Springs I have been very impressed with Air Force. At 8-2, they are on the verge of breaking into my Top 25. I went back and forth on weather Oregon State or Air Force deserved a #25 ranking this week. Both have worth records, but the Beavers win over USC (then #1) gives them the nod. However Falcon fans, Troy Calhoun and company have a chance this week to not only move into the Top 25, but perhaps crack the Top 20 by beating BYU. Air Force needs a "quality" win to impress the pollsters. They have their chance against BYU next Saturday followed by a trip to TCU to finish the season.
Until next time, keep livin' the dream.... Jesse Kurtz, KKTV Sports Anchor/Reporter
Rank # 1: Alabama
Rank # 2: Texas Tech
Rank # 3: Florida
Rank # 4: Texas
Rank # 5: USC
Rank # 6: Oklahoma
Rank # 7: Utah
Rank # 8: Boise State
Rank # 9: Oklahoma State
Rank # 10: Penn State
Rank # 11: Missouri
Rank # 12: Georgia
Rank # 13: Ohio State
Rank # 14: TCU
Rank # 15: LSU
Rank # 16: North Carolina
Rank # 17: Michigan State
Rank # 18: BYU
Rank # 19: Ball State
Rank # 20: Tulsa
Rank # 21: Florida State
Rank # 22: California (Cal)
Rank # 23: Virginia Tech
Rank # 24: Cincinnati
Rank # 25: Oregon State


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CHARLESTON -- They've combined for 31 state titles in the last 35 years and could be considered the cream of the crop when it comes to high school basketball in the state of Missouri.
Which is why when the Charleston Bluejays and Scott County Central Braves get together, people tend to take notice.
Charleston graduate Lester Gillespie, who has connections with both schools, is hoping that's the case when the Bluejays and Braves get together once again on Oct. 23 for an alumni basketball game featuring players from both school's illustrious history on the hardwood.
"I'm proud of the fact that I got the opportunity to live in Scott Central's school district and work in Charleston's school district," said Gillespie. "You're not going to find two better basketball programs."
The reason Gillespie and others affiliated with each school will be playing one another will be to raise money for the Charleston youth basketball program -- something that could be pointed to as to why the two basketball schools have had so much success.
Gillespie, who contributes his time to Charleston's youth program, knows all about the friendly rivalry between both Charleston and Scott Central. Which is why Scott Central's youth director, Larry Mosley, and Gillespie try and play each other throughout their respective seasons.
"As far as basketball is concerned, it all starts with the little league programs with Larry Mosley and myself," Gillespie said. "We always try and play each other two or three times a year because we know the competition is always going to be there. Even at elementary levels."
According to Gillespie, having the legends of Charleston and Scott Central basketball on the same court will hopefully bring in spectators.
"We want this to be an annual thing," Gillespie said. "All the money we're raising will go to the youth basketball program and then, hopefully, next year, all that money will go to Scott Central's youth program.
"What better way to kick the basketball season off," added Gillespie. "We're excited about this. It's just a good, wholesome rivalry."
Along with two games of both men and women from each school, alumni directors will also be recognizing the Charleston 1975 state championship team, which was the first of their 10 state titles.
Head coach of that team, Mitch Haskins, will be present as well as head coaches Lennies McFerren, Bobby Spencer and Danny Farmer. Scott Central's Ronnie Cookson and his 1976 state title team will also be recognized as well as Otto Porter and James "Frog" Williams, who each played on the Braves' '76 squad, which was also the first of 14 state titles for Scott Central.
"(Porter and Williams) always come back and play with this new generation of kids at Scott County Central," said Gillespie. "They keep that tradition close. Sometimes, people don't realize how much time they spend in the gym playing with those guys and they are definitely mentors to those teams.
"We just wanted to recognize them for what they do."
Porter and Williams, along with Jerry Porter, Melvin Porter and Anthony "Moon" Timmons will be just a few of the representatives from Scott Central, while Gene Rodgers, Larry Smith, Percy Owens, Michael Morris and Angelo Cassell make up some of the Charleston roster. Missy Whitney, Florene Hall, Dollette Jones and Ladonna Walker, with others to be named later will represent the Charleston women's squad.
Former alumni for the men's team will consist of graduates from 1976 to 1988 while the women's roster will consist of graduates up to 2010.
Admission for the event is $3 for adults and $2 for students. Tipoff for the women's game will be 4 p.m. while the men will begin at 7 p.m.
"There's a nice rivalry between Charleston and Scott Central," Gillespie said. "But, it's a clean rivalry. You could go back and talk about the AAU teams we've had and it's always been combined with Scott Central and Charleston players. The kids know each other and it's always been a good thing."


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Outcast Hurricane Electric Pump
The 12-volt Hurricane Raft Inflator produces a strong consistent flow of air to quickly inflate boats or float tubes to 2 psi. Hands-free design by virtue of its on/off switch and hose. Battery clamps and a variety of valve adapters are also included.
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The weekend continues to be cool and cloudy with spotty light rain until Sunday afternoon. A brief period of clear skies will last only until Tuesday.
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News 12 at 6 o'clock / Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2014
MARTINEZ, Ga. (WRDW) -- "We sat down yesterday and he called the authorities on us and they told us that we had to leave," Jarrod Coffey said.
On Tuesday, he and six other former employees of St. Louis Original Hamburgers came back, but owner Gregory Glover locked them out just as they were approaching the front door.
"I just want a paycheck," said Coffey, knocking on the front door of the business.
The group staged a quiet protest on the curb outside the burger joint on Furys Ferry Road in Martinez. It ended as quickly as it began after Glover called deputies to remove them from the property for trespassing.
"Getting paid would be a wonderful thing because that's what you work for," said Coffey.
This Iraq War veteran said he has not seen a paycheck since he started working as a cook at the restaurant a month ago.
In September, News 12 reported on other former employees who complained they too were not getting paid. We caught up to Glover back then, outside the restaurant and just hours after he bonded out of jail on a fraud charge.
He was accused of using a stolen social security number to try and open a bank account. He told us to talk to his attorney. We called the restaurant on Tuesday to see if Glover would talk now.
When we called the restaurant we heard a recording that said the person we were trying to reach is not currently accepting calls. Coffey said he wonders if he will ever get paid and admits he should have done his homework.
"Check on where you are working if it's not something, a brand name that you are aware of do a little bit of research because if we had done some research we would have never stepped into this," Coffey said.
The group said it plans to continue to take action in every way it can including filing complaints with the U.S. Department of Labor, Georgia Legal Services and the Georgia Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
So, for now it appears the restaurant may be closed again.


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- Extension Name : Content Slider
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Designing and coding a Flip page is part of the developer's life (at least the lucky developer's life, if it is about a personal site of theirs). It, however, follows different rules than those for the other pages of the site. You have to find a way to fit a lot of information and organize it clearly, so that the emphasis is put on your sponsors, and not on other elements of your design.
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Asbestos-Related Disorders Center - Springdale, AR
- WebMD Physician Directory of Springdale Pulmonologist Doctors
- Related Asbestos-Related Disorders Articles
- Springdale Emergency Contacts
- Nearby Springdale Hospitals
- Find a Local Pharmacy on RxList - Springdale
Springdale Pulmonologist Doctors for Asbestos-Related Disorders
Type of Physician: Pulmonologist
What is a Pulmonologist? A subspecialty certification by the Board of Internal Medicine; practitioners focus on diseases of the lungs and airways. The pulmonologist diagnoses and treats pneumonia, cancer, asthma, occupational diseases, sleep disorders, emphysema, and other complex disorders of the lungs. Pulmonologists evaluate lung function, examine the bronchial airways, and prescribe and monitor mechanical ventilation. Many pulmonary disease experts are also expert in critical care.
Specialty: Pulmonary Disease
Common Name: Lung Doctor
Pulmonologist Doctors in Springdale * results
- 2
Madhu T. Kalyan
Northwest Pulmonology And Sleep Medicine Center
601 W Maple Ave Ste 101
Springdale, AR 72764
(479) 757-4720
- 23 years experience
- 1 office location(s)
- 3
Jon A. Sexton
Mediserve Walk-In Clinic
801 SE Plaza Ave Ste 3
Bentonville, AR 72712
(479) 271-0073
- 30 years experience
- 2 office location(s)
- 4
Kristin A. Zaharopoulos
Mediserve Walk-In Clinic
3344 N Futrall Dr
Fayetteville, AR 72703
(479) 521-8200
- 1 office location(s)
- 5
Gary L. Templeton
Mediserve Walk-In Clinic
801 SE Plaza Ave Ste 3
Bentonville, AR 72712
(479) 271-0073
- 2 office location(s)
- 6
Mark A. Moseley
Mediserve Walk-In Clinic
3344 N Futrall Dr
Fayetteville, AR 72703
(479) 521-8200
- 1 office location(s)
- 7
Michael A. Eckles
Mediserve Walk-In Clinic
3344 N Futrall Dr
Fayetteville, AR 72703
(479) 521-8200
- 1 office location(s)
- 8
Kyle G. Hardy
Mediserve Walk-In Clinic
801 SE Plaza Ave Ste 3
Bentonville, AR 72712
(479) 271-0073
- 2 office location(s)
- 9
Jason M. Mckinney
Mercy Hospital-Aurora Emergency Room
2708 S Rife Medical Ln Ste 200
Rogers, AR 72758
(479) 338-3080
- 1 office location(s)
- 10
Amer Raza
Mercy Hospital-Aurora Emergency Room
2708 S Rife Medical Ln Ste 200
Rogers, AR 72758
(479) 338-3080
- 1 office location(s)
Don't see your city? Use the WebMD Physician Directory to expand your search.
Asbestos-related disorders facts
- Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral that has been linked to human lung disease.
- All forms of asbestos increase the risk of lung disease.
- The three types of asbestos-relat...
Other Related Asbestos-Related Disorders Articles
Emergency Contact for Springdale
- In case of Emergency, call 911
Nearby Springdale Hospitals results
- 1Northwest Medical Center
609 W Maple Ave
Springdale, Arkansas 72764
(479) 751-571
- 2Willow Creek Womens Hospital
4301 Greathouse Springs Rd
Springdale, Arkansas 72741
(479) 684-300
- 3Vista Health
4253 N Crossover Rd
Springdale, Arkansas 72703
(479) 521-573
- 4Washington Regional Medical Ctr
3215 N Northhills Blvd
Springdale, Arkansas 72703
(479) 713-100
- 5Healthsouth Rehab Hospital
153 E Monte Painter Dr
Springdale, Arkansas 72703
(479) 444-220
- 6Veterans Healthcare Of Ozarks
1100 N College Ave
Springdale, Arkansas 72703
(479) 443-430
- 7Mercy Medical Center
2710 Rife Medical Ln
Springdale, Arkansas 72758
(479) 338-800
- 8Fayetteville City Hospital
221 S School Ave
Springdale, Arkansas 72701
(479) 442-510
- 9Northwest Med Ctr Bentonville
3000 Medical Center Pkwy
Springdale, Arkansas 72712
(479) 553-100
- 10Siloam Springs Memorial Hosp
603 N Progress Ave
Springdale, Arkansas 72761
(479) 215-300
- 11Ozarks Community Hospital
1101 Jackson St SW
Springdale, Arkansas 72736
(479) 787-529
- 12Eureka Springs Hospital
24 Norris St
Springdale, Arkansas 72632
(479) 253-740
- 13Mercy Hospital-Berryville
214 Carter St
Springdale, Arkansas 72616
(870) 423-335
* Provider Directory Terms of Use:
The WebMD 'Provider Directory' is provided by WebMD for use by the general public as a quick reference of information about Providers. The Provider Directory is not intended as a tool for verifying the credentials, qualifications, or abilities of any Provider contained therein. Inclusion in the Provider Directory does not imply recommendation or endorsement nor does omission in the Provider Directory imply WebMD disapproval.
You are prohibited from using, downloading, republishing, selling, duplicating, or "scraping" for commercial or any other purpose whatsoever, the Provider Directory or any of the data listings or other information contained therein, in whole or in part, in any medium whatsoever.
The Provider Directory is provided on an "AS-IS" basis. WebMD disclaims all warranties, either express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for particular purpose. Without limiting the foregoing, WebMD does not warrant or represent that the Provider Directory or any part thereof is accurate or complete. You assume full responsibility for the communications with any Provider you contact through the Provider Directory. WebMD shall in no event be liable to you or to anyone for any decision made or action taken by you in the reliance on information provided in the Provider Directory.
The use of WebMD Provider Directory by any entity or individual to verify the credentials of Providers is prohibited. The database of Provider information which drives WebMD Provider Directory does not contain sufficient information with which to verify Provider credentials under the standards of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) of the Utilization Review Accreditation Committee (URAC).
By using the WebMD Provider Directory, you agree to these Terms and Conditions.


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A Quote by Kim Chestney on spirituality, intuition, heaven, psychic, psychic workshop, and revelation
"We are all blessed
ones. Heaven is no longer in the clouds. It is right here, all around
us, everywhere; we must only open our eyes to see it."
Source: The Psychic Workshop
Contributed by: Kim Chestney


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Directions to Hotel Italia TorinoAddress: Corso Stati Uniti 9 bis, Turin, Italy
Average rating: 82%
Rooms from: US$ 46.65
Directions to Hotel Italia Torino
The Hotel Italia is located just a few minutes walk from the heart of the city, and only 80 metres from the Porta Nuova train station. 5 km from the highway A6 & A32 3 km from the highway A4, A5 & A21; Just 20 minutes by taxi or bus from Turin airport 'Caselle'. For further information please contact us directly.


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How To Become Socially Responsible as a Company
By Stephanie Ciccarelli
January 18, 2010
What are you doing through your business to make a difference in your community?
How can you as an entrepreneur and small business owner contribute in a meaningful way?
Using your gifts to benefit others ultimately benefits you and makes the world a better place to live in. Have you considered how to put your gifts, energy and resources to use?
In today's VOX Daily, we'll discuss how you can give back in three wonderfully gratifying ways.
Giving Back in Meaningful Ways
You've probably wondered more than once about how you as an individual and businessperson can add value to your community. I hope that what I share below inspires you and also gives you more insight into how we strive to make positive impacts on our community.
At Voices.com, we've developed an initiative where we donate 1% of our time, 1% of our talent and 1% of our revenues to serve our community and industry in meaningful ways.
1. Time
We've committed to donating 20 hours of time per team member per year. This could include community cleanups, volunteering in a soup kitchen or any effort where we can help and contribute. Being present, accountable and having a heart for our city is life giving. Giving time might also mean that we attend community events in support of other organizations to acknowledge their efforts to positively affect and contribute to our community.
2. Talent
Giving of our talent is very important to us. We were all gifted with unique abilities and skills and feel that they should be put to use in the service of others. Manifestation of our talent may include mentoring, public speaking, advising, organizing events, and making our talent available to those who need it most. This is one of the most gratifying ways to give back because you are literally giving of yourself and using your gifts as God intended. While we're using the figure 1%, I find that it is hard to quantify this kind of giving in terms of actual hours, pieces of advice or services rendered... it's more than that.
3. Treasure
Each quarter we have decided to donate 1% of our revenue to a worthy cause that moves our hearts. This quarter we made a donation to help support those on the ground in Haiti as they do important work and save lives following the devastating earthquake. We realize that giving includes financial resources. By giving to organizations whose mission it is to serve, our goodwill goes even further to tangibly touch people we couldn't reach otherwise, save for prayer.
Are You Giving Back?
I'd love to hear about how you may already be giving back to your community! Be sure to comment with your stories :)
Best wishes,
©iStockphoto.com/Rob Friedman
- Brian Haymond
- January 18, 2010 6:08 PM
- Karl-Heinz O'Higgins
- January 19, 2010 10:47 AM
- Jasen Anthony
- January 19, 2010 11:11 AM
- Steve Suekey
- January 20, 2010 9:37 AM
- Bettye Zoller
- January 20, 2010 12:11 PM
I'm not surprised by what you have written here Stephanie – laying out what Voices.com has chosen to do. If every company did "something", it would nurture the whole community in wonderful ways!
With regard to TheVoiceofBrian.com, I have always had a policy of offering 20% discounts to non-profits etc., right off the bat – for virtually all of them. There are times when I offer a service at no charge as well, for example the current devastation in Haiti. I was asked to voice a portion of a :60 national PSA and the organization was fully prepared to pay the rate, however in good conscience we could not accept any payment – that brings my family great joy.
To date, the production side of my business has produced 198 half-hour radio programs (approx. 3.5 hrs. work each week) for a local non-profit and it airs on a local radio station as well as on the web around the world. The letters of how the program has impacted people is, as you mention above, gratifying and makes what we do to give back really worth it.
My daughter's have and continue to learn the value of giving back as well. They get to hear themselves during most NASCAR races, as they lent their voice to an amazing children's charity, Victory Junction Gang Camp.
I will say this, I have run into road blocks in offering services to other worthy charities.....it's the most baffling thing!Posted by:
Many thanks and congratulations with the work you and your team do for the greater world. I could not agree with you more as far as the importance of giving back to our communities.
I currently volunteer as a reader to palliative care patients three days a week. I always make sure that the patients I read to know how much they are giving to me. When the patients hear that I am trying to perfect my reading, the emphasis is taken off of their situation of not being able to read for themselves. They feel as if they are able to be useful teachers for me. It is definitely a win-win situation. I also sing in two local choirs.
Because I am new to the world of voice-overs, volunteering allows me to gradually enter the business in a safe and appreciative environment. If I never earned a $ on actual voice work it would be ok. I receive the world from the people I volunteer for.
I wish you and your team all of the best for 2010!
Karl-Heinz O'Higgins
What a great VOX Daily to read. It is so awesome to hear when other people make the effort to give back in some form or fashion. Yes I too am giving back!
Paying it forward is one of the most important things I think all of us can do.
When I started my Voiceover Career over 5 years ago now (Wow seems like yesterday that I was going for my first session of training) , anyway I made a commitment to myself and God that I would donate 10% of all of my Voiceover earnings to worthy causes. To date I have donated money to, The ASPCA, The Leukemia & Lyphoma Society, The Cystic Fibrosis Society, The Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), PETA, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, The Make A Wish Foundation, Ability Beyond Disability, The United Way, Boys Town, The Dana Farber institute, The Actors Chapel in NYC, My own personal church (St. Anthony's Maronite Catholic Church) and Joel Osteen Ministries ( I love to listen to that man speak, very motivational)
It's not always easy to give away that 10% for a struggling Voice Actor, but some how it comes back around 10 fold. I hope it makes my Clients feel as good as I do that in some small way every time I'm hired to work contributions are being made to help support health, spirituality and happiness.
Best to all of you in 2010...Keep giving, keep helping!
Jasen Anthony Voiceovers
OTR "On The Rocks" Studios
Hey There! One of the things that I have done, is to donate my time and studio, writing a spot, voicing and producing for anyone bidding on my services at a fundraising dance for the Pink Sensations of Pickering Ontario. They are a top notch group of 27 ladies who are breast cancer survivors and are top notch champs in my book! God Bless Em!Posted by:
My company, www.Voicesvoices.com donates regularly to charities, particularly those in the arts and in show biz. We give scholarships to our seminars to needy students and I often speak and teach free of charge at schools and in the Dallas Museum Children's Summer Program etc.Posted by:


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About IWER
"The workforce, nature of work, and the economy have all changed dramatically in recent years, while the institutions and policies governing work and employment relationships remain tailored to the industrial economy of the past. The central research challenge of our generation is to identify how to best update our policies, institutions, and workplace practices to fit the needs of modern working families, employers, and a global, knowledge-driven economy."
This statement captures the perspective faculty and students at the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER) bring to their research, teaching, and public service. We conduct research and educational activities on the broad range of work, employment, and labor market issues and policies. Our goals are to create and advance knowledge on these topics, to education and train the next generation academic leaders in our field, and to make positive contributions to improving the public policies, organizational practices, and institutions that shape the world of work.
IWER was first established as the MIT Industrial Relations Section in 1937. In 1998 we adopted the new IWER name to better reflect the breadth of research on work and employment we carry out.
IWER is housed within the MIT Sloan School of Management and has affiliated faculty from Sloan and the Departments of Economics, Political Science, Anthropology, Urban Studies and Planning, and the Engineering Systems Division. Within Sloan IWER Faculty are part of the Work and Organizational Studies Group.
These diverse affiliations and the close working relationships with colleagues across the campus support a highly interdisciplinary and rigorous PhD program, a weekly research seminar, and a wide array of research projects.
A sampling of current research projects include:
- Study of the long term unemployed that provides coaching designed to increase chances of finding employment.
- Study of what it will take to achieve a "New Social Contract" for the next generation workforce that includes an on-line course for young workers around the world.
- Examination of the changing mix of jobs in the health care industry with a focus on ways low wage workers can upgrade their job and career opportunities.
- Comparison of new strategies for enforcing labor and environmental standards in developing economies.
- Examination of ways to improve the system of health care delivery to soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorders.
- Study of the long term effects of the labor management partnership program in place at Kaiser Permanente.
- Research and active efforts to foster innovations and improve performance of Massachusetts public schools by using state-of-the art negotiations and problem solving processes.
IWER's PhD program is recognized as a flagship in our field. Our graduates have been recruited by and taken faculty positions in a wide range of leading universities including Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Wharton, Cornell, Toronto, INSEAD, London School of Economics, London Business School, and many more. See a complete list of recent graduates and placements.


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Some researchers want Champlain Canal closed
Spiny Water Flea poised to enter Lake ChamplainUPDATED 9:23 AM EDT Jul 24, 2012
Some scientists say closing the Champlain Canal is the last line of defense before spiny water flea enters Lake Champlain. If the organism makes it into the lake, scientists say it could affect the food chain, and become a nuisance to fishermen.
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Each spring biologists and volunteers from State and Federal agencies cooperate to collect adult pallid sturgeon from the Lower Missouri River for hatchery propagation. Offices from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Missouri Department of Conservation, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, and the South Dakota Game Fish and Parks send boats out to collect pallid sturgeon using trotlines and gillnets. The numbers of adults collected each year varies with the weather, river conditions, and luck. Captured pallid sturgeon are transported by special tank trucks to one of the participating fish hatcheries, including the Missouri Department of Conservation's Blind Pony Fish Hatchery, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Gavins Point or Neosho National Fish Hatcheries. As the biologists on the river doing the collection are unable to discern reproductive fish from non-reproductive fish, all pallid sturgeon greater than 850 mm (33.5 inches) are taken to a fish hatchery to have their reproductive readiness assessed by USGS biologists using ultrasound and endoscopy. Fish that not reproductively ready are released back into the river as soon as possible, while those that are ready to spawn are held until conditions are right.
When fish are no longer of use to the hatcheries, they are often taken by USGS scientists and implanted with transmitters and data storage tags immediately before release. This is an efficient way to increase the number of tracked sturgeon with known reproductive status and histories. Greater numbers of sturgeon tracked provide a better opportunity to learn how well sturgeon are growing in the river and how often sturgeon reproduce. Between April 30th and May 2nd, 21 pallid sturgeon captured during broodstock collection efforts were turned over to USGS biologists for surgical implantation of transmitters and data storage tags. Four other fish already had transmitters when they were captured for in the broodstock effort. These sturgeon were reimplanted with new tags. All fish were transported back to the river and released where they were initially caught. In the past year, 59 pallid sturgeon were tracked downstream of Gavins Point Dam in the Missouri and Platte rivers. We hope that with increased numbers of fish being tracked, patterns of habitat use and reproductive behavior may become more apparent.
With contributions from Aaron DeLonay and Robert Jacobson


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Dear Ms. Brody,
Like you, I was extremely disheartened to read the recent CDC report showing that nearly all of the efforts and billions of dollars spent on nutritional education has resulted in Americans eating fewer vegetables than ever.
Nutrition education has failed because it addresses the wrong premise–everyone now knows that they should eat their veggies. The problem is how to get them to do it.
That's why slipping veggies in the meals people already like to eat can be such a huge help. It gives people an easy way to experience the benefits that eating a healthy diet can bring, yet still lets them enjoy their favorite comfort foods, like spaghetti and meatballs–-only now they're loaded with spinach, broccoli, peas, wheat germ and cauliflower. This is a different means to the same healthy end.
Pureeing and hiding veggies takes less than 10 minutes, and even store-bought purees can be used for a nutritional punch-–like baby food carrots, sweet potatoes, beans or peas. The best part is that hiding healthy foods doesn't mean sneaking forever. Many children and adults are now "in on it" and actually prefer that their favorite foods be made with hidden healthy ingredients–-as long they don't change the taste, or look, of the foods they love. Sneaking in this way actually facilitates teaching. Once people realize that the meal they just loved contained spinach, they become more open to trying that spinach straight up.
Perhaps these reader letters sum it up best:
"I always knew WHAT to feed my family, but did not know HOW to get them to eat it."
–Andrew C., Philadelphia, PA
"Every time I use one of your healthy (and sneaky) tips or wonderful recipes, I just want to scream with joy because they eat it." –Mindi B., Keller, TX
Thank you for bringing this invaluable awareness to the world.
With healthiest regards,
Missy Chase Lapine, The Sneaky Chef
<Read the original New York Times Article here: www.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/health/05brody.html>


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Exxon: To Russia, with Love?
Exxon Mobil, take note. A day after the largest U.S. oil company signed a multi-billion dollar exploration pact with Rosneft, Russia's largest oil company, masked police officers armed with assault rifles raided the Moscow office of competitor BP.
Call it coincidence, call it rubbing salt in BP's wounds, but whatever your pleasure, the timing of the raid is odd considering that it was BP, Europe's second-largest oil company, that was originally supposed to partner with Rosneft.
Only the folks at Exxon can say for sure whether they are smart enough to realize what they're getting into. But raids in Russia on the offices of western companies doing business there aren't uncommon. BP has had its share, and Germany's Deutsche Bank was on the receiving end of a raid in February, The New York Times reported.
Wednesday's raid on BP's Moscow office was authorized by a Siberian court that is scheduled to hear a case involving the British oil company and private investors in TNK-BP, BP's Russian joint venture according to the Times. The case stems from the TNK-BP investors being irked by BP pursuing a relationship with Rosneft. The Siberian lawsuit was based on the allegation that BP executives serving on the board of directors of TNK-BP violated their fiduciary obligation,
BP Russia President Jeremy Huck told the newspaper that the company believes "these legal actions are without merit and appear to be part of a pressure campaign against BP's business in Russia."
Potentially worse for Exxon is that its accord with Rosneft, which will see the two companies tap the oil-rich Kara Sea, is that the American company will now be firmly ensconced in the politics of Russia's oil business, and those can be choppy waters. Eurasia Group said the "politics of the Russian energy sector remain treacherous," the Times reported. The raid on BP's Moscow's office underscores that point.
To be sure, doing business anywhere in Russia is no picnic. Moscow has been condemned by some of its own media outlets for not doing enough to fight corruption. And Russia's reputation as one of the most corrupt countries in the world is well-documented.
In 2010, NGO Transparency International ranked Russia 146th out of 180 countries in the world, with 180 being the worst, when it comes to corruption. The organization said that bribe-taking was a $300 billion annual enterprise in the "R" in BRIC, according to Reuters.
Russia's corruption score is so bad that it ranks behind most of Africa and a fair amount of the former Soviet republics, according to the Guardian.
Exxon, you've been warned.
Related posts:
- BP's Deal with Rosneft Gets Icy ReceptionThe recently announced $16 billion share swap between BP (BP) and Russian oil giant OAO Rosneft is stirring...
- Exxon Sale Lands Rig Moratorium Judge on Gusher of CriticismU.S. District Court Judge Martin Feldman found himself between a rock and a hard place when he had...
- No Fooling: Plenty of Bad Press for BP This MonthNot even two full weeks into April and one could argue that BP stands for "bad press." The...
- An Internet Cold War: Yandex Jabs GoogleIn the latest hot Internet initial public offering, Russia's Yandex (YNDX), that country's answer to Google (GOOG), became...
- A Needless Russian Ménage à TroisEveryone knows about things, usually bad, coming in threes. Add Russia-specific exchange-traded funds to that list....
Short URL: http://www.traderdaily.com/?p=14947


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I'm looking for a humidifier with which I can use essential oils. Seems like there are a lot where they say you can just put the oil in with the water; then there's the $150 humidifier that includes a separate container for the oil. Any advice?!
Thanks for your question. Diffusers, humidifiers, oil burners--it is a bit of a mine field out there!
The most important thing is to check that the equipment you are looking at DOES NOT HEAT THE WATER OR OIL in any way. This is the golden rule.
Essential oils contain fragile chemical constituents that may be lost or damaged with heat. I discuss this in detail in my book, An Aromatic Life. Once damaged, there is little therapeutic benefit from the essential oil.
Most humidifiers heat essential oils--and some warn against the use of essential oils with them! This is because essential oils may cause blockages because they are generally not made for essential oils.
The equipment I recommend is either an ultrasonic diffuser or a nebulizing diffuser. Both of these diffusers use cold air and/or water to diffuse the essential oils, helping to keep the essential oil intact and allowing for maximum therapeutic benefits.
I use and recommend Young Living Essential Oil Diffusers and Nebulizers. I have three in my home! You can go to my store for more information.
I hope you find this information useful.
Happy diffusing!
Essential Oil Goddess
Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Essential Oil Questions and Answers.


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The Pan-Mass Challenge Middletown Kids Ride is looking for cyclists. The event is scheduled for Sunday, May 18, from 8 a.m. to noon at Sachuest Beach parking lot in Middletown. Children ages 2 to 15 are asked to ride between 2 and 18 miles around Aquidneck Island, with a trike pike route open to the youngest. There is a $10 registration fee and a $25 fundraising minimum. Proceeds will benefit the Jimmy Fund for adult and pediatric patient care and cancer research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
The Middletown event was started in 2009 by Chad Larcom, whose mother, Liz Larcom, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin�s lymphoma and was treated at Dana-Farber while pregnant with his younger sister, Beth. Beth is now the official coordinator for the mini-bike-a-thon and their father, Chuck, is a veteran PMC cyclist.
After the ride, there will be a party with music from the AOH Pipe and Drum Band, snacks and refreshments.
For more information, call (800) 932-9253 or visit kids.pmc.org.
Location, ST | website.com


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Apparently, that is how long sex lasts. Just sex. Not including foreplay.
Shamefully, we've been in the lower parameters before. And those times, I was woefully unsatisfied. I call it lady blue balls. So what caused our unremarkable rolls in the hay? No barriers.
We, being the good fornicators that we were, had never experienced sex without a latex barrier, and were unprepared for the sensation. So when we decided that we were going to skip the condom, it was like a whole different game. Some people don't feel a difference, but we sure did. It felt good; REALLY good. Apparently too good for him. We would start getting into it, and then he would come, and then apologize. And when he would come.. oh goodness me.. that was new, and different, and.. GOOD.
So there we were. Him, basking in the afterglow, looking all sheepish. Me, flustered and frustrated, not letting him try anything because of the newly acquired mess down below, that I was not prepared for (I still don't know how to best take care of the mess after unprotected sex).
It got better gradually. He had to build up his tolerance of skin to skin contact. He told me he tried thinking of baseball, and math problems to prolong our sessions. I was dangerously close to carpal tunnel due to taking care of myself.
Then it happened. The Husband lasted long enough. The heavens opened, and the choir of angels sang. We finished together. It's one of the times I remember.
I am happy to report, that he lasts longer than me now. So if your partner is having trouble passing the 3 minute mark, suggest some long division. Who says you don't use math in the real world?


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Eric Foner on What Today's Politicians Could Learn From Lincoln
Yesterday, Eric Foner was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in History for his book "The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery." Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, is the author of "Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877," among other books. "The Fiery Trial" focuses on Lincoln and his dealings with the issue of slavery. Speakeasy interviewed Foner via email shortly after his Pulitzer win was announced.
The Wall Street Journal: What will your Pulitzer Prize win mean for your career and future research?
Eric Foner: Of course it is a kind of public recognition that is very gratifying. I haven't actually turned to my next project, and am not sure what it will be. I don't think historians choose research projects with future prizes in mind.
There are so many books on Lincoln. What made you think you could write one that stood out from the pack?
Lincoln is a kind of touchstone of American identity. He seems to symbolize things we deem central to being American — the frontiersman, the man who rose from humble origins through hard work, the man who used political power for indisputably modern ends. So every generation seems to rediscover Lincoln in their own image and because he is so iconic every political tendency, from radical to conservative, civil rights advocate to segregationist, has claimed him as their own. Of course there are many fine works on Lincoln. I went into this project feeling that too much of the recent literature had become too self-referential — that is it focuses so intensely on Lincoln that the wider world slips from view. I wanted to put Lincoln back into the context of his era, and especially the broad antislavery movement and see how his views changed over time, as they did, often dramatically. I also wanted to get away from the teleology that views his career, as it were, backward, from emancipation, rather than forward, with the future always unknown.
What did you find to be the most surprising aspect of Lincoln's dealings with the issue of slavery?
I was surprised how long he held to the belief that once free, African-Americans should be encouraged to leave the United States for Africa, Central America, or Haiti. For many years he could not really conceive of this country as a biracial society. But on the other hand I was also surprised by how rapidly his views changed after the Emancipation Proclamation, which forced him to begin thinking seriously about the future place of blacks within American life. He had not reached any definitive conclusion at the time of his death but had come a long way from his earlier outlook.
In the book you write "I admire Lincoln very much." After your research into his life, was that admiration enhanced or diminished?
My admiration definitely increased as my research went along. I did not write a hagiography and was strongly critical of some of Lincoln's decisions and actions (such as his representing in court in the 1840s a man trying to regain ownership of slaves he had illegally brought into Illinois). As a writer, I developed a great admiration for Lincoln's prose, his command of the language, the precision with which he expressed his views. And, his open-mindedness, intellectual curiosity, willingness to listen to critics, not just surround himself with yes men.
What can today's politicians learn from Lincoln and the way he dealt with the issue of slavery?
Lincoln somehow combined a core moral hostility to slavery with remarkable political flexibility. Never surrendering his basic beliefs, he was willing listen to critics and change policies when old ones were not working. He welcomed competing ideas and sharp criticism — not many politicians can say that.


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Jakarta Traffic Is Not the Toyota Way
JAKARTA, Indonesia — While more than half of the new cars on Indonesian roads are built by Toyota Motor and its subsidiary Daihatsu Motor, the companies' executives say the infamous traffic jams in Indonesia's megacity Jakarta are not made in Japan.
After 40 years here, the Toyota group dominates Indonesian roads. Toyota's cars have a close to 40% market share, while Daihatsu models have a 15% share. To better target the booming market, Toyota just announced plans to build a new factory to rev up its capacity by more than 60% in the next two years.
There will be close to half a million new cars from the group on Indonesia's road this year, but it's not Toyota's fault that gridlocks are growing, say group executives. It's not the cars, they say, it's the roads and the drivers.
"Indonesia isn't building enough roads to keep up with its economic growth and many of the roads it has are falling apart," said Amelia Tjandra, managing director of Daihatsu Motor.
Meanwhile, the country's outdated traffic management system and inability to rein in unruly drivers exacerbate the problem. "There are problems with the infrastructure," she said. "Weak traffic control also causes problems. For example, buses are allowed to weave in and out of traffic and stop wherever they want for passengers."
Indonesian officials have repeatedly said they are working as fast as they can to upgrade roads and develop more mass-transit options, including a rail network in Jakarta that remains under development.
While Jakarta's traffic troubles are typical of a fast-growing, emerging economy (read how they have changed Mumbai), the capital of Southeast Asia's largest economy nevertheless seems to be headed toward new records for paralysis.
When executives from Toyota's headquarters experience hours of bumper-to-bumper traffic firsthand, some worry Toyota won't be able to sell many more cars here, said Masahiro Nonami, president director of PT Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indonesia.
He tells them to stay optimistic and think about Japan. "People have short memories. Even Japan used to have traffic problems, in the '60s and '70s," he said ahead of the official start of construction on the new factory on Wednesday. "If traffic decides sales, I hope that means we will get more sales in Tokyo and Nagoya where there's no traffic."
Toyota has found a way to spare some of its visitors some of the pain of dealing with Jakarta's gridlock. A busload of Japanese journalists had a police escort on its way to the Toyota factory on Wednesday. The 60-kilometer trip still took 90 minutes.
Most of the Japanese journalists embedded with Toyota were apparently too young to remember the Japanese traffic jams of the 1970s, clicking away on their Nikons as the bus sliced through suburban traffic behind a highway patrol car with its sirens on full blast.
For non-VIPs, Toyota said some relief may be on the way. It has no plans to cut the number of cars it sells in the future, but it will be selling an increasing number of smaller cars, as compacts have become popular because of all the traffic.


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Game of Thrones is a site for the HBO-series based on George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.
New to the series? Read our spoiler-free review of A Game of Thrones.
Read our Privacy Policy.
Copyright © HBO
Part of a new scene written for the show which we've glimpsed before of Jon Snow and Ser Jaime interacting. There's certain parallels between these two characters in the novels, yet they're never shown directly interacting, so this rectifies it.
We've been told that Jaime approaches Jon as he's overseeing the polishing of Needle, his gift to his sister, Arya. Ser Jaime begins amiable enough ... but as you can see from his grip as he pulls Jon towards him, there's also something menacing in how he interacts with Jon as he asserts his arrogant dominance.
A trivial detail: the item you glimpse down between Nikolaj Coster-Waldau's feet is a mark so that the actor knows where to stand for the camera. I believe you can just glimpse Kit Harington's mark as well.
Jon Snow, Jaime Lannister, EP102, Characters, Characters, Characters, Characters, Characters
The Westeros network consists of several different sites, including a forum and a wiki, for all your A Song of Ice and Fire needs.


text: Share Eyeshadow Brush Select size 1piece Quantity 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Item 1piece Price £9.00 ADD TO BAG Email When In Stock Fast & Easy Returns 2.49 standard delivery. More information product description A flat brush with a tapered head for precise, even application of powder and cream eye colours. Gives even applicationSuper-soft synthetic hairCruelty-freeClick here to find out how to use our eyeshadow brush to create smoky eyesClick here to view our brush kits Delivery Close Standard Delivery (3-5 days) £2.49 – FREE on all orders over £25 Next Working Day (order by 11am) £3.95


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The College Inn – Cheraw, South Carolina
South Carolina | SC Picture Project | Chesterfield County Photos | The College Inn
The College Inn restaurant in Cheraw sits on property that once belonged to the Coulter Memorial Academy, Chesterfield County's first school for African-American students. The restaurant took its name from the school, which began offering junior college courses in 1933 and continued until 1947.
Charles "Neil" Cole, a local teacher and businessman, sought to fill a void by providing a lunch counter that served black students during the time of segregation. He opened the College Inn in 1935 and employed mostly students from Coulter Academy. He served local diners, including Cheraw native Dizzy Gillespie. The restaurant is now operated by Cole's daughter, Carolyn Cole-Green, and marks a significant place in Cheraw's black history.
Reflections on the College Inn
Cheraw's Director of Tourism and Community Development, David Sides, adds, "On this property and of special significance to Cheraw's black history is the College Inn Restaurant. During the days of Coulter Academy, this establishment was the only place in town where blacks were welcomed to sit and enjoy a hamburger and a shake."
The College Inn Info
Address: 324 Second Street, Cheraw, SC 29520
GPS Coordinates: 34.701208,-79.886169
The College Inn Map
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One Comment about The College Inn
February 17th, 2014 at 10:27 pm
My favorite spot growing up in Cheraw! A wonderful place to meet and hang out with friends! I am sure Mr. Cole is looking down smiling and saying, "Well done, my daughter!" Thanks, Carolyn, for keeping the memories alive! God Bless You! Artee