New Options!

Sorry it's been so long since my last post! I usually like to post a few times a week but things have been insanely busy! We've been making tweaks here and there to better the business - which has kept us on the go every day, combined with working at the store almost every night.

Dameian's pretty much done building the third record bin. By bringing in a new bin, we're cutting into some of the existing seating area, so we're bringing in some high top tables and stools for the middle of the room. I think it'll balance the room a lot, while also providing multiple options for seating. Some people like the small tables in the back for meetings or playing games, while others want the more bar experience of the high tops and others make a bee-line to the soft couches and chairs.

It's a balancing act to try to schedule all of these changes in unison. We can't bring in the third record bin until the new tables are ready - which are really the old table tops that we made, just on a taller base. But we need to wait on the new stools and still build a shelf for the listening stations - which should be cool because it can double as a wall bar when it gets busy.

We're also modifying the menu towards more snacks and small plates. We're keeping a lot of the sandwiches still because people love them and we've seen a hugh uptick in repeat business for the sandwiches alone. But we do want to offer more options because not everyone wants sandwiches for dinner or late night.

Our family friend, Bettie, has been a HUGE help in the food department. She's an amazing cook and everything she makes is soooo good. Every week she comes in to help make the soups (this week is Homemade Vegetable Minestrone and it's amazing!!). This week she's helped a lot with our small plate options. We've started to slowly introduce some new items - such as Cherry Tomatoes topped with Tapenade, Onion Confit Crostini and Three Cheese Garlic Bread. Soooo Good!!!

New items such as spinach dip and hummus made from scratch may be coming to the menu soon, too! We're still in the experimenting stage, but so far we've been eating like kings and can't wait to share. I can't even begin to express the gratitude I have towards aunt Bettie for helping us. She truly is a gift.

We've also started selling some record players. We're starting small, with our favorite portable record player from Numark. They are the same ones we use for our listening stations. You can USB right in to your computer and convert albums to MP3s. We had been telling everyone how much we loved them that it just made sense for us to start selling them, because we were telling people to go out and buy them anyway. We've had them in the store for three days now and have already sold two. Woo hoo!