Camaraderie Café

For a long time, I’ve wanted to open either a café or a bed & breakfast. I have something like 15 years experience working in the restaurant industry and ran a bed and not breakfast (rules in Jasper) for a few years too.

Both these businesses offer me a chance to do what I really love the most; which is playing Hostess With the Most-ess. I really enjoy hosting folks for good food, good conversation and good times. I love it when people dig into something totally yummy and you can see it on their faces.

Found a music museum in Merida, Mexico

It’s great when people go home feeling that they just spent some time where they were really welcome and know they welcome back anytime too.

I have no idea why this is such a pleasure for me; I just know it is and really that’s all that matters.

The other thing I really enjoy is dynamic and intellectual conversation among people who know that it’s just a conversation, not a fight. Philosophical debates around human impacts, politics, education and lifestyles are so much fun!

So, the idea of having a café where I could hold this type of public event excites me. I love the idea of having TED Talk sessions where I could invite teenagers to come after school, watch a TED Talk and then debate it. Then do the same thing with adults in the evening.

Notice the guy above the door! It looks like he's signing, "Don't come in here."

I like the idea of having a corner where there is an enclosed play area for small children and the wall is a counter where moms can sit, watch their kids and chat over coffee. At one end, I would put a couple of treadmills in case the moms what to walk off the muffin they just ate while they chat.

Over by the fireplace is a wall of books, periodicals and daily & weekly newspapers with tables for people with laptops - Wi-Fi connection in place of course. Over here, we sell coffee by the hour.

It’s a coffee shop, so don’t expect big meals. Oh, there would be soup or stew and a sandwich available, but really you come for the muffins, cinnamon buns, giant cookies, cake, pie and in- café breads served with cheese.

And you come because it’s just so darn comfortable to sit there and contemplate the weather outside, read the latest magazine you’ve taken a liking to now that you’ve found it here and relax. You come because lots of your friends come too and you never know who you might meet and what you might talk about today.

You know that if nothing else you can have a great cup of coffee - or a cheap cup of coffee – and a delicious, nutritious treat while you take a moment to pretend that life is not hectic.

My challenge is that I feel I need partners. Not so much because of the capital and start up cost as because I know how much work it is to create this dream. I also know that a successful operation needs skills and ideas not in my mind.  I have a ton of ideas for this place, but some of them are probably nuts!

You can't hold back the jungle forever!

Also, to have this whole she-bang reliant on one person to carry it along means that there is no day off. Besides, I’ve had enough for now of working in isolation and alone. I want collaboration, community and camaraderie.

Anyone interested?