2012-10-27 - Coffee Lovers of LFGSS

sorry for the basic design!

Can I do some illist-ration for the card design?
Nice, apollo.

Maybe you could design one side each?

We need the full ride name and date too.

Thanks!

Coming from Norwich and I normally ride a 58cm although I could probably squeeze to a 56cm.

Would you consider hiring a Boris Bike? It's not going to be a long distance ride after all.

^ JDP I can sort you a Bike for the day Boris Bikes get a bit costly over a couple of hours plus their a crap ride you can either pick up from me in Rotherhithe or I'll bring to the start
PM if you are interested

Alex,

Have you decided where we are starting from?

Zebs

I am plotting! :)

Am I right in thinking Flat Cap @ Borough Market is essentially a stall?

I'm wondering if it will be too small/too busy/too hard to park up near on a Saturday...?

Would you consider hiring a Boris Bike? It's not going to be a long distance ride after all.

^ JDP I can sort you a Bike for the day Boris Bikes get a bit costly over a couple of hours plus their a crap ride you can either pick up from me in Rotherhithe or I'll bring to the start
PM if you are interested

Thanks for the offer Zebra that's very kind. I'll see what the train times look like and let you know if it's feasible.

If not I might consider a boris bike just for the craic :)

^ Sorted! And nice avatar!

Am I right in thinking Flat Cap @ Borough Market is essentially a stall?

I'm wondering if it will be too small/too busy/too hard to park up near on a Saturday...?

You are right, just a stall and crazy busy on a Sat.

How's the plotting coming along missmouse?

As a courtesy I emailed all the shops we plan to visit, to say when we are coming, expected timings, numbers etc and just received this reply from Ozone:

"Hi Alex,
Thank you for getting in touch. We would love to accommodate your group. For a group this size you would be looking at hiring out the down stairs part of the restaurant which is available between 9am – 11am or 3pm – 5pm on a Saturday. The hire rate is £250 / hour exc of food & beverage. We could also do a little deal of two coffees and some pastries with your own personal barista for£6/head.

The only slight issue we have is where you might be planning to leave the bikes? There are a few lampposts outside Ozone, but I feel I should mention one of our baristas had his bike stolen from out there last week."

To which I replied:

"Hi and thanks for this. We were not planning on staying for long though as we are visiting approx 6 other venues and I doubt every rider will buy a coffee (otherwise, serious caffeine OD!) so not worth me reserving the downstairs area I wouldn't have thought?

I will mention the locking to the group but I anticipate some of us will be staying outside to mind the bike cluster anyhow. If I can get a more accurate picture of numbers shall I let you know?"

And NOW she says:

"The maximum sized group we usually accommodate at the weekend is 8. If you were to go ahead with the reservation it would need to be on a set menu/ coffee menu basis and the downstairs room would still need to be hired as we do not have the capacity for 30 people in any other part of the restaurant. As Saturday is one of busiest days of the week, we simply cannot accommodate 30 people turning up on a casual basis.
Let me know your thoughts"

Not sure what to do...

Surely they get more than 30 people in the space of 10 minutes during the week?

She's a barista, not Dale Degroff FFS!

Ask her if she's taking the piss.

She's the co-owner.

Matters not - that's ridiculous.

30 people for 20-30 minutes? Name me a food and beverage business that would turn down that money...

We're experiencing "difficult" financial times and she wants to turn down cold, hard currency? She clearly has her head up her arse.

it depends on what the output of their machine is like, how many heads it has etc

if it is only 2 barristas, one doing milk and one coffee they could struggle to produce quality coffees for 30 of us plus their usual clientele

In that case, both parties will need to be patient.

Alex well done for contacting the stops upfront I think with the response from Ozone maybe we should give it a miss

Alex well done for contacting the stops upfront I think with the response from Ozone maybe we should give it a miss

Yes good thinking Alex. Am inclined to agree with Zebra on this one.

The idea of hiring a room for drinking coffee just seems bizarre to me :-s

maybe just phone ahead and ask for 30 take away coffees for an hours time?

Thanks for your thoughts everybody.

It's not going to be 30 coffees is it? It'll be possibly two thirds or even half that number, I suspect.

8 is very small but if we are to be fair, they're not St*rb*cks (sorry, couldn't quite say the 'S' word on here) and it is a Saturday.

I vote Hats and I pick another venue from the poll, or maybe throw in a surprise one.

Surprise coffee could be good. I'm not cycling there blindfold though!

I vote Hats and I pick another venue from the poll, or maybe throw in a surprise one.

Oooh I like surprises! (when I know what the surprise is)

I agree we should pick another venue.

^ I haz an idea.

We don't have to sit inside there cafe, I'd be more interested in getting it in a takeaway cup and drinking it whilst loitering outside there shop with 30 other forum goers?

Thats probably what would have happened anyway but as they lacked the imagination to say that is OK I vote we don't go there.
On the mystery stop can we leave to towards the end as I know JDP is arriving later than the start and it makes it easier for him to find us