Just Chatting

Hello Berkeley,

How is everyone? We just wanted to drop in and say hi. I'm not too sure how many people read our blogs, but I just wanted to say hi to new and old readers. It's been a roller coaster ride for us. It's not easy being a business owner trying to compete with the other big coffee shops, but with the support of local neighborhoods and students, it's been getting better. We always wonder how we can reach out to everyone and make improvements. We would like to thank everyone's suggestions and we continue to try and make Sonoma Coffee Cafe a better place. I wish we had a bigger store, but hopefully we can expand as we get more customers in. The spaces next to us is empty and we would love to occupy that space and have longer hours in the future. Everyone that has been posting on Yelp has helped a lot and thank you for the word of mouth. It does help with the community spreading the word. We hope to do more things as the months go by. We are going to do some samples soon so everyone can try the different selections we have to offer. It can be overwhleming when you look at our menu, but we are more than happy yo explain it. I can understand that it's not your normal ordering menu than the rest of the coffee shops. We are offering something different and so far the response has been great. Well, I just wanted to say hi and hope to see you here. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Human Being

Hello Berkeley,

This isn't my usual kind of posting, but I felt I needed to write this. Last night a "homeless" man came into the store and asked to change two dimes and five pennies for a quarter. Now, couple of weeks earlier another "homeless" man came in and wanted two dimes and three pennies for a quarter. I was not falling for it and said no. He then turned away and went across the street to another business. So, last night the gentleman simply asked for the exact change and the last experience I had my initial response was no. I wasn't even thinking and judged him. All he wanted was change to make a phone call. I felt like a jerk. He said to me he can't believe what people were saying to him that day and was having a bad day. I apologized and I told him I hope he has a better day and he left. He came in tonight and I greeted him and asked if his day was better. He was shocked that I remembered him and said, "Today is another day and it's never the same day." He bought a cup of coffee and sat down at our bar stool near our pastries. I decided to talk to him and have a chat. He was telling me how he was having a tough time and trying to get back on his feet. Now, some of you may be thinking he is trying to ask for something or trying to scam. No, he just wanted someone to talk to and needed to take a break. I got to know this gentleman a little bit more and he was an educated man with a lot of life experience. I had to close and he was off to find shelter for the night. I'm guilty of judging someone and I have no right to judge someone or anyone. I'm not saying every "homeless" person is like this person I met, but everyone is a human being. Sure, we walk down the street and get asked for money, but maybe some of them say hi just to be acknowledged and feel human. Maybe this is what Obama means by "change". We need to treat each other like human beings. We need to look at the person next to us and listen, understand, and somehow help each other. I hope that gentleman gets back on his feet. Hey, I hope he has the success story like the guy from Pursuit of Happyness. I would like to believe that is the direction he will take, but either way... he is a human being. 

Good night Berkeley

Happy New Year

Hello Berkeley,

Happy New Year! It's been awhile since we posted. Did everyone have a nice holiday? We all did here at Sonoma. One of our employees fell asleep before midnight..., but had fun so that's all that mattered. We can't wait for everyone to come check us out. One of our customer said they had an experience here and that's what we're trying to do. She liked the fact that we joke with them and they don't feel like they are just buying coffee. That was really nice of her to say that. We do offer fee Wi-Fi for customers, comfy chairs, and personality. Another guy came in a few weeks ago wanting to buy personality. LOL. He said we need to market that more. Hey, we do give free shots of personality with every drink. Just ask for it and we'll give you more shots of personality. I'm hoping the community and the City of Berkeley do love us. We hope to stay in this neighborhood as long as we can. I know it's not easy with this economy we are all in, but we hope that we can bring a smile and contribute something in this "change". Check out our photobucket page. We have customer pictures as well as customer art near the bathroom on the chalkboard wall.
http://photobucket.com/durantscc

Well, I'm out of here Berkeley. I hope you enjoyed my blog for the day. Please leave comments. See you around.

Been here a month

Hello Berkeley,

It's been awhile since we posted. It's been over a month now since we opened. Wow, time goes by fast. How is everyone doing? Holiday is here already!? Wow, we haven't gone shopping at all... Hmmm, maybe coffee is a great gift to friends and families. Some customers have asked for gift cards and yes we are capable of doing that, but we are didn't do it this year. We are trying to get our name out there and when the need for it comes, we will have it for everyone. We will start loyalty cards in the near future. For now, we are hooking up our usual customers. Please bear with us and thank you for your support. We just put some blinds up to keep it cooler in the shop and tinting as well as windows will be following. We will not make the tinting dark because we think being able to look outside while having a nice drink make you feel warm and fuzzy. I thought of something the other day. I had a customer sleeping at one of our tables. The customer had his head down. One of our employees pointed that out to me, which I don't mind. Here is when an idea came to my head. If you are ever at work and you have your head down and someone catches you, just wake up and say "amen". That way others won't think you were sleeping. ***Sonoma Coffee Cafe is no way responsible for the outcome of this. You shouldn't sleep while on the job and should've bought coffee from us.*** Anyway, we are about to close and we're ready to call it a day. See you all later.

Week 3

Hello Berkeley,

We are having a lot of fun with the customers and joking around with them. We do try and sell our personality, but our coffee is really good. Hmmm... that wasn't a good business pitch, but we don't care. We love people coming in and chatting with us. Thank you everyone for coming to our shop and visiting. We encourage interaction with the employees and also smiles. :) Cal game tomorrow! Go Bears! We will do some sampling so please stop by. Oh, to the people at Xtreme Pizza, you guys rock. I was really clumsy tonight and dropped a whole calzone. Yikes! I was tired and hungry and that just made my day worse. The manager comes and asked what happened and I told him my story. He was very kind and made me another one. Great food and great customer service. Anyone ever go to Loony's? Another place that is AWESOME! I can honestly say that everything there is goood. Everyone there is super nice and the set up is awesome. If you're a sports fan, don't miss out on this place. Well, almost closing time, but I just wanted to say thank you everyone and have a safe night.

Day 19

Hello Berkeley! We're happy to see a lot of our returning customers and smiles on their faces. We have a lot of people come in the day, but our afternoon is slow. It's ok because we're here for you any time of the day. It's great to see people are still finding out about us. Our night time customers are slowly coming in. We do plan on staying open later if it does get busier. We know finals are coming up and our permit only allows us to stay open until 11 P.M. If we do get a lot of customers and request for it, we will open later for you! Please let us know what we can provide for you and it can be done. On a different subject, how is everyone doing with finals coming up? I remember the days of late night cramming and drinking coffee. I used to get a bucket of ice filled with water and put my feet in it to keep me awake. Try not to get tempted with your friends asking you to go out and party or hang out. I know it's easy to say yes, but you really pay the price later. Anyway, good luck everyone and you get to enjoy a long vacation after finals! Talk to you later.

Hello Berkeley

Hello Berkeley! We are located on 2131 Durant Avenue (corner of Fulton and Durant). Today is day 17 and we are happy to see new and our usual customers. We would like to thank all the feed backs from everyone and we are continuing to make changes in order to make this a community coffee shop for you. We love to change things up in here because a new look is not a bad thing. We think of it as getting a new haircut or styling your hair. We are currently working on having sliding glass windows and shading our shop. We thought it was going to be a cold winter when we opened, but the weather has been warm and heats up our shop. :( Thank you for bearing with us. Look out for our employee drinks that will be posted soon. We are tempted to have customer drinks as well..., but that's later down the road. We see the great reviews from Yelp and I hope we continue to see more. We love it when people stop in and give us suggestions, so please post on Yelp as well. We believe that Sonoma Coffee Cafe here in Berkeley is your coffee shop. Everyone puts in their suggestion and we make it happen. Our dream is to be that coffee shop that everyone goes to study, meet a friend, hangout, relax, and come in to chat with us. Just like someone posted on Yelp about being a Friends/Cheers kind of place. We hope to continue serving you with a smile and laugh together. Till then, see you next time and have a good day.