New Owners: What We Know

I am please to announce that last night’s staff meeting with the new owners went extremely well. The new owners, Tek and Eve, also own Coffee to the People (Haight), Thinker’s Cafe (Potrero), and Orchard Valley Coffee (Cambell). We also met Austin, he worked at Coffee to the People (Haight) when they were bought and is now the general manager there.

It is pretty clear that they intend to keep everything the same for months before introducing any changes. We will keep our organic milk, organic produce, triple certified coffee from Tony’s and everyone on our current staff. “Maybe a year from now” they will introduce some of their coffee roasts, but it would be in addition to what we have now and our customers will decide what we serve. Also, they weren’t too impressed by our pastries and may supplement them with some homemade goodies in the near future.

They mentioned only one thing that would be changed immediately –our furniture. They want to get some wooden tables, couches and more comfortable seating inside!

Honestly, the meeting could not have gone any better. Having Austin there was particularly assuring because he echoed the fact that they specifically buy cafes that they already like, not cafes they want to change.

Even going into the meeting with a very critical eye, after meeting the new owners and talking with Austin, I’m comfortable saying that the Nomad Cafe is completely safe from any major changes.

Mediterranean Snack Plate: Redux

Homemade hummus (garbanzo beans, lemon juice, tahini, minced garlic, olive oil, and salt), pita, olives, veggies, and taboleh (fine bulgar wheat, fresh lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, fresh mint leaves, onion, garlic powder, ground black pepper, salt, plum tomatoes). $7 – including tax.

New Menu Boards!

We finally have new menu boards up! They were made by our very own head manager, Zoe. It’s a combination of wet chalk and regular chalk. Let us know what you think in the comments. I’m especially proud of the Tony’s coffee elephant, great artwork.

House Salad

Mixed greens with tomato, cucumber, roasted pistachios and our homemade orange vinaigrette dressing. $4 including tax.

Heartichoke Sandwich

Here’s one of our new menu items, the heartichoke sandwich.

It has sundried tomatoes, goat cheese, artichoke hearts, basil, & black pepper on a french roll. Served with a side house salad of mixed greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, roasted pistachios, with our house-made orange vinaigrette dressing. $8 – including tax.

Now Serving: Mexico Nayarita Natural

Medium Roast dry-process coffee. Dry coffee process involves sun drying the coffee cherry in order to extract the coffee bean. This process can leave a fruity/blueberry taste in the beans. Wet-process (of which there are many variations) requires very specific machinery that extract the coffee beans straight from the fruit.

As always, triple certified: fair trade, organic and shade grown

Discussion with Jean Quan This Sunday

Oakland City Council member Jean Quan is considering running for Mayor of Oakland in the next election.  We are hosting an informal discussion with her on Sunday, May 24, 2-4pm at the Shattuck Muse building, 6525 Shattuck Ave., directly across the street from Nomad Cafe.  Jean wants to hear how members of our community view the role of the next mayor, what the mayor’s priorities should be, and how you would want to work with Oakland’s next mayor.

We are not endorsing any candidate at this point, nor is Jean asking us to.  We simply want to give the candidates a forum, and to her credit, Jean Quan is looking for opportunities to hear from us about our priorities and ideas for North Oakland and the city overall.

Please RSVP ASAP so we can establish a seating count.

Christopher Waters

christopher@gypsyspiritmission.com

510.414.1723

Health Benefits from Drinking Coffee?

Recent studies suggest that coffee might help prevent diseases such as liver cancer, diabetes and Parkinson’s. Also, it is clear that caffeine is extremely helpful to athletes interested in performing their best.

But how? Isn’t coffee bad for you? Apparently older medical studies, often cited
as evidence that drinking coffee has negative health effects, may have been skewed because many coffee drinkers are also smokers.

So go ahead, have another cup!

SOURCE

Tony’s Coffee: Geisha Cupping

As many of you know, we began serving Tony’s coffee five weeks ago because they offer a large variety of fair trade, organic, shade grown coffees and the overall quality of their beans is excellent. They continue to impress and enlighten us and we are excited to pursue coffee nirvana with them.

Last thursday the 13th, Zoe, Brian and I attended a geisha cupping hosted at Red Rock cafe in Mountain View. We sampled coffee from the award winning Peterson family farm in Panama. This family was able to take a less desirable varietal and turn it into an world class coffee bean. Their beans have won the Best of Panama Competition every year they have entered.

A table was set up with half a dozen coffee beans from different lots on the Peterson family farm. Score sheets were handed out, we did a dry test, a wet test, and then finally we tasted. I’ll admit however, my threshold for good coffee is relatively low in the context of these great coffees and I would be happy drinking any of samples on a regular basis.

After the cupping we met a couple of cafe owners from around the bay and Tony’s traveling taster (she’s a rock star!). We then spent some time socializing with baristas and managers from Red Rock cafe and I have to say, do yourself a favor and stop by the Red Rock cafe if you’re ever in Mountain View.

Breaking the crust.

Peterson Family Samples

UPDATE 5/21:

Here’s a link to a great photo set of the event by Emily Jayne

Flickr Set

Bike To Work Day @ the Nomad

Once again, the Nomad was an official energizer station for bike to work day on May 19th. We gave out musette bags with goodies and free drinks to all cyclists. We are very excited to support cycling commuters. I would like to follow up bike to work day with a challenge.

How about bike to work week? Bike to work month? We believe in you!

Using a bicycle to commute four days a week for four miles (one-way) saves 54 gallons of gas annually. LINK

Energizer station @ Nomad cafe