Feaster

The new Top Pot will be located at the Southwest corner of 35th Ave NE and NE 70th St. I think it will add an interesting element to the neighborhood. I do not see Top Pot as a competitor to Grateful Bread or the furure Starbuck's. Different people like different places. Should I add the Safeway bakery to the list? What type of clientellle should we target with advertising and decore when we build in these pocket neighborhoods? A place to buy a dozen doughnuts on the way to work? A couple three soccer moms getting together with their kids? Lonely singles looking for a place to hang out? You tell me.

The next Top Pot outlet will be located in the Wedgewood neighborhood. Feaster

San Cristobal is our supplier. There's a great article on the work Jim kosalos is doing with the Mexican coffee growers at http://teaandcoffee.net/0803/coffee.htm

Coffee that is grown at lower elevations, where they slash, burn and fertilize is termed robusta coffee. That's the stuff that goes into Folger's Maxwell House. etc. Vietnam has flooded the coffee market with this junk and that is why the price is so low. Workers in Vietnam make about one dollar a day. Coffee grown at higher elevationns, usually below the rain forest canopy is Arabica coffee. It is shade grown and bird friendly. The farms are smaller and the yield per hector is a lot less. The farmers cannot afford pesticides or fertilizers. It is organic by default. If the farmer can shell out a few thousand dollars they can get it certified as organic. If the farmer works his tail off and keeps his plants healthy he is rewarded with the best grade of coffee. #1 Arabica. These are the guys who supply the Malinal for Top Pot. They get the premium price for producing a premium product. The coffee is also termed substainale. If you reward the farmer by paying him well, he will be back next year and the year after that. Moving into the political arena: When a group signs up with fairtrade, they get premium price no matter what the grade of coffee. They can do it because they have a guaranteed market. The last I heard, the FTO collected 20 cents a pound for buyers to put their sticker on their bags. That's 20 cents the farmer didn't get. The most informative and easiest coffee site I've found is at http://www.coffeeresearch.org/sitemap.htm Cheers Silent partner

I know that the percentage of certified coffee is high enough that Top Pot can say “Made with organic coffee.” Each month Top Pot uses more than a ton of Malinal coffee. The growers are paid more than they would get if they were fair trade. The story behind that is at http://teaandcoffee.net/0803/coffee.htm and http://www.malinal.com/background.htm Top Pot also sends a monthly check to Bob Howell and Vicky Flores to support their charitable efforts in Nayarit Mexico. Some of their story can be found at http://community.webshots.com/user/robertohowell Don’t look too hard or you’ll see a picture of me. It is interesting that with all the media hype about fair trade and organic, very few people ask if our coffee is certified. But then again, with all the media hype about eating healthy, people are still eating doughnuts.

I am sorry I have nothing to report on the location of the next Top Pot cuz the property owner hasen't sent the lease back yet Almost every day Top Pot gets phone calls from property owners wanting us to rent their space. If I won the lottery I would finance the building of a Top Pot at each and every place you guys suggested. It takes a lot of doughnuts to pay for a store. Stay tuned Silent partner

What great responses! Getting closer to securing a location for another store. The prospective landlord's attorney returned the lease agreement and asked Top Pot to approve some minor changes. Still no signature from them so it ain't official yet. I hear Krappy Kreme is opening their South Seattle store any day now.

The active Top Pot partners Mark, Joel and Mike The counter area of the 5th avenue store. Mark and Mike built all the cabinets and installed the terazzo floor Top Pot hopes to open another 5 to 8 stores during the next 3 years. August is the target date for the next one. I might know later this week where it's gunna be.

Hmmm. what about Wedgewood? Charbuck's is going in at the old Godfather's building. Think Top Pot could compete? As a sidenote: Has anyone noticed that the doughnuts are less oily? Another sidenote: Udub and Swedish medical centers will soon be selling Top Pot doughnuts somewhere in their facilities. Be sure to have a couple before you go upstairs to have your stomach stapled. Feaster

What area of town should the next Top Pot be located? How should they spend their money? Comfortable chairs? Books? A wider menu? Terazzo floors? Cool display cases? The list goes on. What would cause you to walk the extra bloc or drive the extra mile?

Many thanks for the feedback on Top Pot. The demand for product continues to challange the managing partners. A steep learning curve for sure. But progress is being made and every week the volume increases. The business got some notice in the press: http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0342...f_turf_bros.php I love the concept of neighborhood coffee houses. Places where people can escape to to read a book, meditate with their laptop. meet with friends and neighbor (there's a difference?) or meet someone new to share ideas. Where should the next Top Pot be located? Grease for peace

Behold the beautiful woman underneath the sushi! What a wonderful life story she must have to share. To the right person. Unfortunately it is not me. Guess I'l have to settle for the yellowfin tuna. I am happy that my patronage has provided her with a means to express hrself and to provide the income her lifestyle demands.

I apologize Mamster. You are correct.

The 3 voting partners of Top Pot own Top Pot on 5th Avenue, Zeitgeist at 609 Summit Ave E; Elliott Bay Cafe below Elliott Bay Books, Bauhaus on Capitol Hill, and Gold Cup espresso in University Book store. They did own Zeitgeist in Pioneer Square along with Brian. Brian wanted to go in another direction so the 3 voting partners of Top Pot gave him their interest in Zeitgeist in exchange for his interest in the other places. All of the above use coffee roasted at 5th Avenue. All of the above use pastries baked at Elliott Bay Cafe. All of the above use doughnuts made at 5th Avenue. There are other places that use the coffee and doughnuts and coffee from 5th Avenue but I don't have the list of who they are. I do know the list is growing. Does this help explain things? Are there other details in particular you are interested in?

For you that have visited Top Pot or Bauhaus on Capitol Hill, these are the type of places the owners have experiance with. The flagsip store on 5th has knd of blown them away. How many dozens of doughnuts to make, how many pounds of coffee to roast, how many sandwiches will be sold, how many staff to bring in? Then there's the wholesale doughnut operation. Almost every day brings a new challange. A new, larger doughnut display case has been built and should be in by next Tuesday. The metal window frames that sit on top of the ceramic block walls that seperate the front area, the bakery and coffee roasting areas are being installed now. Gina, the manager is taking the weekend off. Mel, the head baker is taking the weekend off cuz a friend died, Neither has had a day off since the place opened 2 weeks ago. More than 25,000 doughnuts have been sold so far. Last Sunday morning my son and I stopped in and the place was pretty full but it had a coffeehouse feel about it. Not the long lines of people buying dozens of doughnuts to take out. I liked that. Howard Schultz came in later, asked a lot of questions, and left with coffee and a dozen doughnuts. Hmmm. I wonder what he's up to. Howard. Are you there? Please enlighten us. Some of you on this board and some of my friends have commented that the doughnuts are greasy. Actually what they are is oily. Because customers are voting with their pocketbooks, I do not see a change in recipe anytime soon. I'm glad everyone likes the decor. I do too.

The doughnut business is still strong. Soup and sandwiches start on Friday. A new display case is under construction. The building department doesn't like the railing on the mezzanine stairs. The customers (of course) dictate where the place is going. Deciding how many baristas and bakers to bring in is a challange. How does everyone like the coffee? Feaster

A much more relaxed atmosphere today I'm told. The doughnut case only allows for display of about 1/3 of the available offerings so ask if your favorite is in the back. Another kink to work out.

Mamster. You waited in line 45 minutes. I waited 8 hours. I showed up at 8 AM to meet the inspectors. By 9:35 everything was signed off and the place is ready to rumble. the baristas know where everything is and how the various machines work. The bakers have been working since 3 AM and we have doughnuts stacked to the ceiling. The other partners are nowhere to be seen and I hang around to see what happens. Lights going out, pipes bursting, that sort of thing. The doors open a little bit before 10. The first customer " I'l take 4 dozen yadda yadda doughnuts." It wasn't too long before I realized things weren't going according to the plan. I called my wife to come on down and lend a hand. Together we did what we could to help the baristas and the bakers. They planned to bake and sell 80 or 90 dozen doughnuts. They sold 190 dozen doughnuts. People were carrying out 4 or 5 dozen in a stack. The bakers were ready to leave at 10. They worked to 3 and called it quits. I left at 4 and the stock was rapidly dwindeling. Tonight they are planning to bake 250 dozen. Just in case. My take on all of this: I do appreciate the fact that people like the doughnuts and they buy them to take to the office. But what kept me going through all the ups and downs of this project was the idea of an airy space where people would meet, peruse the books and each other and have some coffee and maybe something to chew on. Belltown is a unique neighborhood of condos, hotels and office buildings. People from lower Queen Anne walk through on their way to work. Top Pot offers all these types an oppertunity to meet each other and share. To be blunt; I hope it evolves from a wholesale type doughnut outlet into a community resource. We will see. Thank you for yor kind words Mamster. Michael Klebeck is a retro kind of guy and he was very specific about the look and feel of the place. Scorchedpalate: I don't know why The Rep reneiged on their press release statement. As far as I know Top Pot has honored their commitment to wholesale customers. Bob Bean, The Rep's spokesperson's email address is robb@seattlerep.org Thanks Slent Partner

I just saw a couple other messages on the board that need replies. When Mr. gourmet showed up there were not any doughnuts in the place. Mel, who transferred from the Summit shop to take over the doughnut operation on 5th Avenue, was busy working on equipment glitches and the bakery workers hadn't arrived yet. The Summit operation will continue to produce doughnuts but only for the Summit location. 5th Avenue will take over the wholesale operation and, of course, produce for the 5th Avenue store. Two 5 or 6 hour shifts each night. One for wholesale and one for retail. The menu consists of coffee, doughnuts, other pastries (from the bakery at Elliott Bay Cafe), soup, sandwiches, and soda, tea, and juices. Mike and Mark klebeck are brothers and together with Joel Radin, operate the business. Brian Yeck was part of the show but decided doughnuts weren't his thing. He now owns Zeitgeist in Pioneer Square. He sells our coffee, doughnuts, and pastries. Mike and Mark also own Bauhaus Studios, a custom cabinet contractor. When they aren't working on their own projects they do woodwork for other clients. They used to own Kid Mohair which is now The Baltic Room. They did all the woodwork there. And me? A year ago if anyone told me I'd be in the freakin doughnut and coffee business, I'd tell them they were freakin crazy. I'm someone who feels very lucky to know these guys. I'm their silent partner. coffee_n_doughnuts@comcast.net

The plumbing inspector decided to take the day off. He (she) is supposed to be at Top Pot at 8:30 or 9. Top Pot plans to be open around 10 AM tomorrow.

Hmm. I don't see any doughnuts in this picture. Health and building inspections tomorrow then Top Pot can open Friday.

The Frugal Gourmet stopped by today for a doughnut. He saw the article in today's Seattle P.I. ( http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/food/138787_...7_dining10.html ) and got excited. Sorry. Top Pot needs the health department's seal of approval before any doughnuts are given out.

I will drop by Thursday and make sure Top Pot will be open on Friday.

Hey Girl! Where did you find that article? I want to send it to my mom! Everyone in my office will be at Top Pot when they open their doors on the 12th. feaster