Doing More with Less

If you've been by the cafe lately, you have probably seen me in the kitchen, at the counter, making drinks and even more likely, carrying a bin of dishes to the back for washing.  My, owner/operator title has been a daily open to close, trying to solve the ongoing challenge of running a business that hasn't been able to break-even since the pandemic. 

When I began back in 2006, my original business plan of a "little coffee shop with my homemade scones", was thrown into a bit of disarray by purchasing a neighborhood bakery with several outside bakery delivery accounts to other cafes and a weekend brunch in operation.  Taking on a "little more" seemed within the range of my original desires, so I jumped into those 12 to 16 hour-days, seven days a week, with an energy fueled by caffeine and hope. 

Those long days and nights were, of course, not sustainable, and required me to make some choices about what I could personally do and what I could afford to pay others to do.  Along the way, as our staff grew, the options to do "more" continued to show up - adding weekday breakfast and lunch, extending our kitchen hours into the evening, bringing in musicians, taking on catering and connecting with the Jungle Theater.  It seemed that doing more was just a natural way to grow and I was getting into rhythms that allowed me to just keep pushing on.

Moving to 3700 Nicollet to partner with Beacon Interfaith Collaborative and Nicollet Square Housing was a conscious choice to do more because it fit my hopes to be a training space and have more room for community gatherings.  Within the first years though It came with our first opportunity to choose to do less - by choosing to not offer a dinner menu and sticking to breakfast and lunch.  Additions kept coming, with Open Streets Nicollet events, boulevard gardening, a larger patio and more musicians, but for a few years it seemed manageable and gave us a feeling we could even grow our menu a bit as well.

But then 2020 happened.  For months we were doing less, lots less.  It was so much less revenue, but it did mean more processes and items and more of my time being present in the cafe.   We have been trying to do more with less school accounts and theater intermissions, special orders, and community events.   It has been a losing pattern that has stuck with us into this year, even as a "return to normal" has been proclaimed.

What has returned are my seven days a week, and 12 to 16-hour days, and filling tasks that expanded without the ability to staff them.

So, it's time to simplify.  Reductions are needed.

I have had the opportunity to experience some very focused and simple menus over the past months and can recognize the benefits of doing a few things very well instead of a lot things just so-so.  It reminds me of plate spinning stunts where eventually the person reaches a point where too many spinning plates lead to several dropping to the floor.

When I finished college, I spent a year of volunteer service in Baltimore, and the "More With Less" cookbook became my household's go to.   We were practicing intentional community with a goal of living simply, so in many ways this cookbook held the recipes for both.  With a set of simple ingredients and simple steps, there were lots of ways we could cook for each other and with each other on our very limited budget.  The community of people who had sent in recipes (many included short stories and background about the dish) gave us a feeling of being connected to these people through our meals.

One of those recipes, a multigrain pancake mix, has been in use here at the cafe for many years. Our go-to soup for each year's Empty Bowls event, the Lentil Brown Rice soup, is also a More With Less inspired recipe.  As I consider doing more with less here at the shop - these help me know that it is possible.

I have always leaned toward trying to be all things to all people.  Ask me to stretch and I will stretch farther than I probably should.  This cafe has been a place where if you don't see it on the menu and you 'ask for what you want,' you are almost always rewarded with getting what you need.

I have many memories of conversations with customers about adding items to our menu and I feel great reticence at removing any item at all.  I am sorry we do not have the capacity at this time to maintain all that we grew into over the years.  The choices will be fewer but I hope it will come with more consistency and availability.   And as I lighten my load, you may find me doing more with less on my prep-list for the kitchen.

This is my plan for surviving the long winter ahead.  Next spring?  Well, I look forward to the conversations we can have about doing more and about doing less.  I hope you will walk alongside me on this journey on my green path.