News Articles

When I get the call that someone is going to write a review about my place it always sends a chill down my spine. I never know when they are coming or when they came, so the paranoid thoughts start going through my mind. Did they get good service? Did they come when it was too busy or when the cook was having a bad day? A positive review can mean a nice increase in business or it can be devastating. I think overall this was a pretty good review. She did comment that the outdoor seating in the back didn’t have a very nice view, but there isn’t much I can do to improve that. The things that were important was the quality of service and the quality of the food, and in those regards we did really well. You can see the article at the link below, and be sure to share it with your friends.

http://www.annarbor.com/entertainment/cafe-luwak-review/

Sandee Rodriguez, a regular customer, has written an article about us and Kopi Luwak coffee for the examiner.com publication. It is a pretty cool article so if you get a chance check it out at the following link.

That Bean Comes from Where Article

Yesterday the Ann Arbor News ran a really nice article about us. If you missed it, you can find it online here: http://www.mlive.com/annarbor/stories/index.ssf?/base/features-2/121086243411170.xml&coll=2. Well as luck would have it, my Friday lunch business has been really slow for the past couple of months, so I decided to cut back on staffing for Fridays. This was actually the first Friday that we had cut back. It seems like everyone who read the article must have come in today for lunch. We had every table filled including the deck out back and the tables on the sidewalk in front of the place. It was nice to see the business, but we didn’t have the staff to handle that kind of lunch rush. One of the worst feelings I get is when we have a day where things don’t go well. I take it very personally when customers aren’t getting the service they deserve, and days like today really make me feel like a real failure. I hate the thought of a bunch of new customers coming in for the first time walking away thinking that this is the kind of service we have all the time. Every business has good days and bad days, and when are having a good day we really do things well. Days like today are where we learn from our mistakes. We take a look at the things that went wrong and try to think of ways to fix them, so they don’t happen again next time. The obvious solution for this is to make sure we have enough staff on Fridays again, and work on making sure every week is as busy as this one.

If you have a true coffee connoisseur on your list this season, then we have the perfect gift for you. We are running a special on either the Hawaiian Kona or Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee for $35 / pound. These coffees are commonly referred to as the best coffee in the world. My personal favorite is the blue mountain, but many will argue that the Kona is superior. Either way you can’t go wrong with either of these coffee’s for Christmas if you have a true coffee lover on your list.

Don’t be fooled by coffee you see in grocery stores and warehouse clubs that call themselves Kona or Blue Mountain. If you look closely you will see the word blend after the name. What this means is that they may not have any actual Kona or Blue mountain beans in them at all and if they do they definitely aren’t the pure coffees. The Kona and Blue Mountain we sell are the real deal, and they are roasted fresh by our roaster in Plymouth, Mi.

If you are interested in either of these coffees, either stop in, give us a call, or send us an email, and we will add you to our list. We will be filling orders the week before Christmas, so the coffee will be as fresh as possible for Christmas morning.

Kathleen Conat has written a really nice feature article about the cafe in this week’s Ypsilanti Courier. Kathleen has been a regular customer and a huge supporter since we first took over the restaurant almost three years ago. Being interviewed by someone who you see all the time is a lot more relaxing than talking to a reporter who you have never met. We spent about an hour talking about the past, present, and the future of the restaurant, and I think she did a really nice job of putting it in her article. You can find a copy of the article at the following address:

http://www.ypsilanticourier.com/stories/110107/loc_20071101009.shtml

At about 1:00 in the afternoon I was in Detroit getting ready for a meeting when Forrest called me to let me know that Channel 4 News was coming to the café to do some interviews. I bailed out on the meeting and rushed back to Ypsilanti. By the time I got to the café, Steve Garagiola and a camera woman were already there. As I came in through the back door it was really a great feeling to see almost all the people who were in the café were regulars and everyone was giving me a thumbs up sign as I made my way to the front of the store where the cameras were setup.

I met Steve and we talked about the restaurant and the 4 the Best contest. They had decided to come and check us out because after two days of voting, we had more comments than anyone else. They hadn’t heard of us before, so they wanted to see what we were all about. I have been interviewed by the press before, but being interviewed on camera is a totally different feeling. I was really quite nervous during the interview, but when I saw the broadcast, it turned out pretty well. They ate a sandwich and tried the Thai noodle salad then Gertha brought out her new soup that she was working on for them to try. I think I overheard Steve say that Gertha was the bomb after trying the soup. Overall this was a really great experience, and I hope with the broadcast that people outside the Ypsilanti area will come in and give us a try.

Our going green initiative has been a huge success. I have had a number of conversations with customers who are very happy to see the change, and there was a nice little article in the Detroit Free Press about us (see link below). We have converted all sizes of coffee cups over to Ecotainer cups, and now we have converted all of our cold cups that we use for fountain drinks and shakes over to a corn based plastic cup. Our next target is to change over our salad containers and to go bags. We are still looking for a supplier for these items. One of the hardest items to replace is the 8 and 16 ounce bowls that we use for soups and ice cream. I haven’t found a solution for these items, but I am working on it. Hopefully by fall we will have these items replaced which would make up about 90% of our disposables.

I was in Gordon’s Food Service the other day, and the cashier asked me which coffee cup I was buying. She explained that another customer had come in who had read the article in the paper and wanted to get the same items we are using. I was really excited by this conversation. I am sure that as more people realize these products are available, there will be more demand and more new products will become available.

Detroit Free Press Article

This weeks Ypsilanti Courier has a really nice article about Cafe Luwak with full color pictures of Forrest, Sarah, and myself. The title of the article was “An Inviting Place” with a subheading of “Local Café Offers More Than a Steaming Cup of Joe”. Unfortunately they didn’t publish it online, so I can’t link to it, but the author Dave Wak came in several times and interviewed me and my staff as well as several regular customers. He commented on several of the groups that come in as well as the informal groups that have been created by the regulars. He also did a small critique of the food, and seemed to really like the Reuben sandwich he had. Overall it was a very nice article. If you get a chance to stop in, we have a copy posted on our bulletin board.

Our Kopi Luwak cupping party made the front page of the Community Life section of the Saturday, November 11, 2006 edition of the Ann Arbor News. The article was a full page and included interviews with several customer, a picture of a Luwak (common palm civet), and a picture of me holding a sample of the raw version of the coffee. The article did a great job of describing the coffee and the process it goes through. The article hasn’t been posted to the Ann Arbor News website yet, but if and when it does, I will post the link on our blog, www.cafeluwak.com/blog.

They say there is no such thing as bad press, but I had to wonder when one of my employees told me about this article in the Metro Times. It seems that a local group of Satanists have been having their weekly gatherings at my place. I guess the fact that I didn't know they were here means they werent offending anyone, and it wasnt apparently obvious what they were meeting about. My place is open to the public, and it really doesnt bother me what my customers beliefs are. If they come to my place to order sandwiches, coffee, and ice cream, that really is all that matters to me.

When I read the article I did wonder what type of affect it would have on other customers. Today there was a post on the markmaynard.com BLOG about the article and I very quickly found out that my customers would take it with a sense of humor. I really liked one of the posts:

Even if you disagree with some of the Satanist's dogma, at least we call all agree they have great taste in sandwiches and cold confections.

Read the Metro Times Article Here

View Comments at the Mark Maynard Blog

The Ann Arbor News ran an article anouncing our upcoming Kopi Luwak Cupping Party. They did a nice job of adding a little humor and some good description of the coffee. Click the link below to see the article and scroll down till you see the title "Coffee ala ... ew ..."


Ann Arbor News Article

For the past few weeks customers have been commenting that we need to have our winter soups back. Having a choice between turkey noodle and Gazpacho just isn’t enough anymore. Well now that October is here, we have discontinued the Gazpacho until next summer and started bringing back our winter soups. We always have our turkey noodle because we roast our own turkey breasts. Besides the turkey noodle we usually have two other homemade vegetarian soups. All of our soups are made right here, and our soup and half sandwich special is a hit all winter long.

For almost a year, I have been touting our sandwiches as the best in town. Customers comment all the time that we made them the best sandwich they ever had. Now it is starting to look like the secret is finally getting out. EMU just released their Best Of EMU publication for 2005 – 2006 and in the Best Restaurants section Café Luwak was listed as #1 for sandwiches. We were also listed 2nd in the Off Campus section Best Kept Secret of Ypsilanti.

In the May/June issue of the Depot Town Rag there is a nice little article about us. The article tells how we have grown over the past year and how we focus on quality.

The revival of the Rag has been a real positive for the area. With local business features, stories from our history, and other light hearted articles, the Rag has a really nice community feel to it. With the first issue, we had to restock our front counter several times. It was an immediate hit with out customers.


May-June Depot Town Rag

Overall we were very happy with this review in the Ann Arbor News. There were some criticisms about some of our items, but they were fair and it gave us a chance to work on making improvements. We have already made a number of changes in our processes to solve some of the issues mentioned.

Click the link below to view the review.


Ann Arbor News Review