The cafe is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week. But as you might expect the hours spent by the staff working there are in fact much longer. (photo: Susan's mom's caramel apple pie.)Susan arrives usually between 5:30 a.m. and 6 a.m. nearly every day and jumps right into to preparing her morning baked goods. Not long after Rosemary slides in and begins her day of cooking, grilling and making great salads. At about 7 a.m. Jessica, the new manager, arrives and at 7:30 a.m. Alex and one other opener arrives to begin the process of putting things in order before the doors open.
Alex works on getting the breads ready to be put out for sale and for sandwiches and then gets his stuff out of the walk-in refrigerator for the morning egg sandwiches. Jessica and the opener start making coffee, putting out juices and doing the myriad other things to get ready to unlock the front door.
Throughout people drift in and out, some of them locals and a few of them regulars, joined by the tourists passing through, all getting coffee, coffee cake, blueberry muffins, maybe a pie, and then around noon they start ordering sandwichs and salads and whatever else Rosemary has put together for folks to take home for dinner. (photo below: Susie's strawberry chocolate dacquoise)
At the end of the day the front door is locked, chairs put up on the tables, the espresso machine is cleaned, coffee airpots emptied and then filled with hot water ready for the next day. Floors are swept and mopped, food is covered, lights turned off and that's it. Well, OK, there's plenty more to it of course but you get the general idea don't you? I know I do.Ciao,
Steve
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