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Barista Magazine | November 2021 

Creative Cafe Service Solutions

In February and March 2020, café owners faced sudden shutdowns to their businesses with no end in sight, and no idea what their business models would look like on the other side of the pandemic. When they were allowed to open for business again, specialty-coffee retailers had dreamed up all kinds of creative solutions to the new rules of service. 

“When customers stumble upon the shop, sometimes they’re surprised to see that we’re not letting anyone inside,” says Sarah Weaver, owner of Bandit Coffee Co. in St. Petersburg, Fla., where, as of press time, there were no mandates banning indoor service. Bandit’s model is pictured in the top left image. 

“Some ask questions such as, ‘Aren’t you allowed to be open 100% right now?’ Yes, we are, but we don’t have to be. I’m so grateful that we have this autonomy to make decisions as a team that affect our lives.” 

“Prior to the pandemic, our café was known as having a narrow, crowded, buzzy, and packed interior,” Sarah of Bandit continues. “January and February were our busiest months in our four years as a business. Our contactless pickup model allows us to keep up order volume. 

We also diversified our income streams: a Wine Club for monthly bottle pickups; contactless events like Bandit Does Burgers, a weekly burger night we offered in the spring; and special one-off pop-ups like milkshakes made with malt syrup by a local brewery (Cycle Brewing). 

Orders come in from our website, plexiglass walk-up window (our old front door), or on the phone. Our barista prepares the drinks, a runner finishes them and expedites orders to our pickup tables.”

Above, barista Cassidy Mathews works the service door at New Moon Café / MoonBeans Fire Roasted Coffees in Aiken, S.C.“Our dining room is super tiny and we get incredibly crowded, especially on the weekends,” New Moon owner Christine Tomasetti-Sherrer told us. “There was no logical way we could keep our staff and customers safe during the pandemic. It was a tough decision to make, but we decided to suspend service inside and move to walk-up service until the COVID-19 numbers are under control in our area. 

This walk-up door really solved a lot of problems for us. We built and painted this fun faux door to slide into place while our front door is propped open. It has an air curtain hung on the inside to keep the flies out and the heat/AC in.

”At left, a happy customer shows off The Jug outside of Denim Coffee Company in Shippensburg, Pa. 

“The Jug is a do-once jug with the option of a customizable latte or cold brew,” says Marleigh Chaney, a coffee specialist at the company. “This serves as a great option for our regular customers who do not necessarily want to get delivery every day. They are essentially set with their Jug for the week! Our method of preparation ensures that there won’t be separation and the coffee quality is not compromised after a few days.”

Over at Evermore Coffee Roasters in Burlington, N.J., founder and owner Lauren Vaxmonsky created a whole new service model by designing the “Offices at Evermore” concept in her roastery space. 

“Spring and early summer went fairly smoothly but foot traffic took a big dip in August and September, and we really started to feel financial stress,” Lauren says. “We knew we would have to introduce some additional revenue streams to keep our business going.Ironically, around that time, one of our regular customers asked if we could rent our seating room/roastery space for a business meeting. So we went back to (an idea she had for building a co-working space before the pandemic), ‘The Offices at Evermore,’ and began to wonder if it might be something we could introduce in our current space. 

We worried some of our customers might balk at the idea of paying to sit in a space they come to sit for free, but we also came to realize this service wouldn’t be designed for those simply wanting to sit and hang out in a coffee shop. 

We would design it for those looking for a quiet and comfortable yet professional space to work out of or meet with a client. 

To make it even more appealing, we thought about ways to elevate the typical coffee-shop experience, and came up with several of what we call ‘office perks’: table service, high-speed internet and printer access, and beverage/food discounts, for example.” 

Kristina Olson, coffee-bar manager at Bootstrap Coffee Roasters in Saint Paul, Minn., recalls that while curbside service worked well for customers at the beginning of COVID-19, “All of us missed those personal connections we made inside the shop. When our walk-up window was installed, we heard so many joyful cheers from guests who had missed us, too. 

Now we can catch up at the register or while handing off their orders, while still keeping our indoor bubble intact and remaining socially distanced.”She continues, “We will keep using the walk-up window even after we’ve safely reopened our doors. Post-COVID-19, it will remain the perfect pickup spot for guests stopping by with their dogs, with kids in strollers, or pushing their bicycles. 

In the winter, it allows guests who have ordered online to hop out of their car, grab their coffees, and get back into the car (and out of the cold) in 60 seconds or less.

We have immense gratitude that we are able to continue serving coffee and making connections in these ways.”