Thursday, December 17, 2009

Lawyers are Expensive + We Heart Recycling!

Lawyers. They are bloody expensive. Don't get me wrong, it's going to be worth it - but still.

Met with ours today, to review the offer to buy the business in Cabbagetown. It was put together by the sellers agent, and while she's awfully friendly and is legally bound to be fair to us - the seller is her client, and we're more comfortable having someone on our team batting for us.

Only a few clauses to be added, and she'll email me the revised offer tomorrow.

If all goes well we'll end up paying her a crazy amount of money to ensure it all goes smoothly while we're busy elsewhere.


What else would we be busy with? Well for one - outfitting the joint a la Cafe Novo. The tables currently in the restaurant that we would be purchasing, well they aren't to our style.

Alot of what we want to do with the cafe is embodied in recycling, and paying closer attention to what we consume and the resulting waste.
So instead of buying new tabletops, or even tablecloths, we've reached out to our awesome coffee suppliers (remember Planet Bean? Hi Byron!) for burlap bags.

See they receive their green coffee beans from coffee farmers in large burlap bags. I think with my sewing machine and perhaps some backing material (courtesy of a thrift store, flat sheets have many uses!) I can make beautifully suited tablecloths, for the tables we aren't replacing.

Think something along these lines :


What do you think? We'll also have white chairs, only not so much outside.

I'm also thinking upstairs we'll put a nice long communal table, like the farmhouse dining tables. No tablecloth on the gorgeous wood table though.

Several antique stores in my area have a stunning selection of them, for very reasonable prices. I love the concept of sharing a good cup of brew with local strangers that you can engage in conversation with, minus the awkward break-the-ice, or having to intrude on someone else's conversation while they are clustered away into little 'two people retreats' like so many cafes pander to.

A nice well-worn surface, like this table at Wildflower Organics :


How fantastic would it be to find benches at the same time? Ahhh one can dream.

In the meantime dear readers, we ask your opinion on a very important matter - you see we have plans, to sell a certain kind of cookie, with all of the profit going to a charity. That charity will change monthly, and we'd like to start a running list of suitable charities.

Are you personally involved with, know someone who runs, or absolutely adore what a certain charity does for the world? Tell us about it! The more details the better, and we'll add them to our list for once we're up and running. Our only condition is that they not raise money to infringe on the rights of others. Can't wait to hear from you!

xo

4 comments:

  1. I have a couple of charities that would be good for this. I will get back to you about it.

    sandra

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  2. Here is a charity idea for you to contemplate:
    A ton of food from restaurants goes to waste and there is just no accounting for tastes from a day to day basis. So there are bound to be left overs.
    Why don't you let your customers be part of this by offering an "end of day muffin/treat" to Daily Bread? For a dollar, the customer could decide they want to support a food bank organization chosen monthly or offer the ability to choose between 2 per month. Then the end of day goodies go to a good home and someone less fortunate gets gourmet treats every once in a while.

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  3. Donating to EGALE during pride month would be super awesome. Especially if the cookie is rainbow shaped/decorated!

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  4. Sandra - Thanks, looking forward to hearing about it!

    Katy - Definitely a good idea. They will be meringue cookies, so it will be tricky to make them rainbow shaped, but we can make them all colours of the rainbow!

    xo

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