Day 22

Wow!  The comments our visitors are giving us are fantastic -- thank you one and all.  ONe woman has come in twice and each time she showed concern about our sales tax / non-sales tax set up.  I told her the first time that I'd check with the state.   And days passed... The second time she came in, she voiced the same concern.  I do want to thank her here and hopefully in the shop as well.  We had work to do to get the sales tax situation right.  Thank you all for bearing with us through these start up issues.

Baguette, sticky buns, scones and all the tarts are hits regularly.  Breakfast and lunch have great appeal to many.  Our soups seem to really hit the spot and we are trying to keep up with the demand for the Sweet Corn Chowder - and so it goes.

Our staff is settling into the work and many of them are beginning to see the pattern to the day.  We especially like the late breakfasters,  the after school rush of school children and the last minute - is there still a baguette? - on the way home.

We do not yet have resolution on the HVAC issue in the kitchen.  We do yet have a firm date for restarting the croissant creation.  

Look here for the final word on when afternoon tea will start!

DAY 17 - some semblance of routine

We are beginning to see a bit of routine to the days at the Blue Rooster.  Casual breakfast eaters come in to relax, enjoy, perhaps read a paper, chat with friends and they like timbale of eggs, french toast and the fruit & yogurt parfait -- as well as the Full Irish.

We have a range of daily coffee and scone visitors and many who ask for our sticky bun (we are close to having them on a daily basis now -- stay tuned!)  Often a baguette is taken for later

Lunch is quite busy from just before 12 until 1:30- 2.  We have a wide range of patrons - and enjoy meeting new visitors as well as welcoming those who are fast becoming regulars.  We are able to provide soups and sandwiches for those who need to get back to their desks.  

Our soups and chowders are very popular and most folks seem pleased that we regularly serve a 10 vegetable soup, a black bean soup and so far the sweet corn chowder is a real crowd pleaser.  Today we introduced a split pea with rosemary and it is delicious!

Before we know it, the after school crowds joins us for lemonade, cookies, cupcakes, ice tea, ice coffee and the like.  And during the afternoon we sell lots of bread - baguette is the biggest seller and the white, wheat and pain de campagne have a number of followers too!

We have featured an olive levain, a tomato fennel and Irish soda bread in the last week -- stay tuned, stop by and see what's next.

Day 10 - what's new at the BR

Hi all and thanks for your great feedback!  In response to that feedback, we have a few new offerings for you, the customer,  and we are trying a few modifications  in the 'back of house".  

For those of you who love the soup and would like to take it away with you -- we can now do that! We have our Black Bean and Vegetable and this week we have the Sweet Corn Chowder and 3 Lentil Chili.  All are available until 6 pm for take away in either a 12 oz or 16 oz container.  

We are making more of our baguettes for take away lunches, too.  If you wish to call ahead, we can have them ready for you when you arrive.

Please keep letting us know what you'd like and we will do our best to be responsive.

End of Day 6, Grand Opening Week

The week has been stupendous!  Thank you all who have not only come in to see the shop, try our cafe and buy bread - thank you too for letting me know you followed the construction progress and enjoyed seeing the pictures of who and what made the Blue Rooster.  It's great meeting each one of you.

At this point, we have a number of highs for the week - several regulars!, strong positive comments about the food (thanks Mark & Lois) and raves about the pastry - led by quiche, savory tart and goat's cheese galette.  The baguette lead the charge in the bread area and one of my favorite comments was a long, contented -- ummmmm!

Our staff all have worked fingers to the bone keeping up with customer needs and learning the "ropes" of making the rooster hum.  We have work to do to make it more efficient and the learnings from this week are important to that effort.

We have one serious problem -- the heat in the kitchen has made it neigh on impossible to create and bake the top quality laminated pastries that we want to provide.  These are the croissant, pain au chocolat, all the danish and selected other items.  Until we can assess and implement the necessary changes, WE WILL NOT BE MAKING ANY LAMINATED PASTRY DOUGHS.

We are extremely disappointed and know some of you may be as well, however putting out a less than top quality product is not in any of our plans and we need to do the right thing with this situation asap.  As I know more, you will too.

Grand Opening Day 1

We opened our doors at 7 am, unsure just what might come next.  We have 150 brand new cloth napkins (made by Val down the street) --- by 2:30 there were no napkins.  busy, wonderful people, great craic (look up in the Irish slang dh

ictionary) and a lot of work for a very strong, dedicated crew>

And we are off to do the same tomorrow.  Bread for tomorrow morning is: baguette, tomato/fennel, and all else was bought up today, so Bob is restocking as I write this.  Pastries - croissant, cheese danish, cream danish, raisin sweet roll, sticky buns, and scones with raisin and lemon poppy seed.  All on offer tomorrow.  As the week goes on, the bread wall will have more and different varieties.  The ovens are tested, now they are being worked hard each day!

Thanks to each of you who helped us get off to such a great start.  Your patience and appreciation make a huge impact on each of us working at the 

Blue Rooster.  

Come on back!

\

Ah -- the soft opening is here

The last weeks have been a whirlwind!  Staff training in how to serve our customers, plate our meals and help one another make the BR run.  We are a group with great talents and a willingness to learn all that is necessary to be good at serving and making coffee beverages.

It must be real, we are serving breakfast to the first 50 respondents to our email distribution list invitation, tomorrow!

It must be real, the sign now hangs on the wrought iron hanger.

It must be real, the shelves are starting to fill with tasty treats, the walls are hung with an array of interesting art.

It must be real, the smell of bread is now coming regularly from the kitchen.

Join us next week if you can, we are so looking forward to welcoming all those who have supported us through the work of getting to these next days.

Thank you. 

bags and boxes, ribbon no bows

We are adding the final necessary purchases to make the bakery work - as noted in title.

The cooks and bakers are bringing ingredients into the kitchen and as early as Wednesday we may have aroma of bread wafting through the kitchen.  After the months of construction smells - spackle, saw dust, plumbers glue and PAINT -- a palatable odor is to be embraced!

Many of the staff are taking turns making espresso beverages, helping to organise the waitstaff area in the kitchen and in general 'getting comfortable' with the workings of the BR.

We say: "Onward to opening day!"