Exciting news: The new roaster has arrived!!
Excruciating news: It taunts me from it’s packaging crate in my living room.

That’s right. It arrived on Thursday April 29th. In my last post I mentioned that HenriettaHaus was moving onto a new plan without giving any details since I hadn’t signed on the dotted line yet. I’ve learned to do this since the direction of things around here has proven to be as fluid as a freshly brewed cup of coffee. Things just didn’t work out over there. I will say this, I had a great meeting last week with somebody who wants to rent me kitchen space in her restaurant. After leaving the meeting, I popped into the business next door to tell the owner (what hopefully turns out to be) the good news. That being that we should be neighbors soon. (We’ve been talking about my roastery for the past year.) I told him my next step was to find somebody to do some venting and electrical work and what do you know, our mutual friend was standing right there and that’s basically what he does for a living! Not 5 minutes after I left my meeting with the owner of the restaurant kitchen I’ll be moving the roaster into, I was back in there to show my friend what I was doing and by evening, he had already gone up into the building to inspect and called me with a rough estimate of what it would cost and when it would get done! I’d say that was a good day! I’m keeping busy moving HenriettaHaus along. I will do my best to keep things updated around the internets!
I’m not doing the doggie paddle anymore.

What’s been going on with HenreittaHaus? 4 months is a lot to catch up on but I’ll keep it short. After the loan denial back in May I really started getting organized for self funding. Things were rolling along. I had my lists, my schedules and so on. 10 days after my last post, I lost someone very dear to my heart. It was crushing. I kind of got derailed for a while after that. Finally got back on track only to find out that the place I was going to rent was rented out to someone else. Not a big deal. I’m getting used to these things. So rather than getting too upset, kicking myself for lack of communication and being really bummed out about what an absolutely horrible sign design this other business has, I go in yet another direction. I like the plan as of late. I’m not going to talk about it yet since I haven’t signed on anything, but I will let you know as things progress. Enjoy the day. Just enjoy it.

Sorry it’s been so long since the last post. I’m not going to make any excuses for myself. I’ll just update. Coffee Fest Chicago was awesome! I took some cupping classes and a blending class, went to a bunch of seminars and met a lot of  great people. Plus we got to stay with our dear friends Beth and Geoff who introduced us to the polish salt caves on the outskirts of the city. It was a totally amazing experience. A much needed 45 minutes of relaxation after a day full of coffee cuppings and free flowing espresso shots from every direction. Lesson learned! That was February. In March, my friend Hane featured HenriettaHaus in her Food Comma blog. You should check it out. Thanks Hane for supporting HenriettaHaus!  Also in March, I was presented with a new opportunity for opening up my roastery. This would also include a full cafe. This sounded great as I wasn’t really feeling the other location I was looking into. This business model was a bit larger scale than what I was preparing for over the past few years but it was something I wanted to move into eventually so why not now? I spent the next several weeks doing research and re-writing my business plan. In April I became a member of the Specialty Coffee Association of America. In the first week of May I submitted my business plan to the bank in hopes of getting the funding needed to make this all happen. Second week of May I flew out to Portland, OR to attend the American Barista and Coffee School of which I am now a graduate! It was a great way to brush up on my barista skills so I can offer my customers something to keep coming back for. I learned a lot of valuable information and skills and made some great networking connections. Plus I got to stay in Portland for 11 days! Special thanks to Eric and Bryonie, my brother and my sister-in-law for having me as a house guest for that long!! Upon my return I called my banker  to check the status of my loan as I should have heard something over a week before that.  After getting the run around for 2 days, I went to another branch to check status and to my shock and horror, my loan application hadn’t even started to be processed yet. It just sat on his desk for 3 weeks. I would have found out sooner but I was on the west coast in class and by the time I would get out everyday, the bank would be closed back here in MI. Anyway, I went and got my file and took it to a competent banker and was able to find out within 3 days that my loan was denied. This is what they said “This is a tough economic environment to be starting a business and the food/drink industry is considered high risk.” There you have it. I went the next day to another bank that specializes in small business loans only to find out you have to have collateral for every dollar you’re asking for and being that I live in Michigan, my house is valued at about 2 pennies so I can forget about home equity. Don’t think for one minute that this is going to stop HenriettaHaus! This is just a slight delay and a change of plan yet again. I’m kind of back to where I was headed years ago when I decided I wanted to do this in the first place. No worries dear friends.

After many years of home roasting, I’m ready to roast for all mankind! Freshly back from my trip to Florida where I went through a training course with Ambex Roasters, I feel more focused and ready to go. I’m in talks with the landlords of a space in downtown Wyandotte MI where I would like to set up shop. I’m also in the process of writing my business plan to present to the bank that will hopefully give me my business loan. I’ve got my new roaster picked out so Ambex will be hearing from me as soon as I get my loan! I am excited for Coffee Fest Chicago which I will be attending next month. I’ll be submerging myself into as many classes there as I can to make sure I’m providing you with the best coffee possible! Thanks to all who have supported me in my quest to provide high quality freshly roasted coffee. I promise to continue to provide high quality freshly roasted coffee in my step into the commercial coffee roasting world.

Keep checking back as I plan to keep you updated on all my progress.

~Amy