Cafe Getaway

Food Truck Rally & Art Walk in Tarpon Springs

2011-12-09T13:47:00.001-08:00

Tarpon Springs, home base of Cafe Getaway Mobile Espresso, plunges into the latest food trend this weekend with its first Food Truck Rally & Art Walk, December 10th, 11am-3pm. The event will span several blocks of Tarpon Avenue right downtown. This is the first Food Truck Rally to take place in North Pinellas.

The Food Truck phenomenon, which has been taking the culinary world by storm elsewhere in the country, arrived with a splash this past month with Mayor Bob Buckhorn's Tampa Food Truck Fiesta. Since then Food Truck Rallies have taken place in both St. Petersburg and Largo.

Cafe Getaway was pleased to have participated in the second of Mayor Buckhorn's Food Truck Fiestas last Wednesday at Joe Chillura Park in downtown Tampa. The weather was gorgeous and office workers streamed out into the park to enjoy tasty treats from eleven different food trucks.

It was great fun for us to dabble our toes in a different market and to meet some of the other folks in the biz. We met several important people in Tampa, such as Joe Lopano, the new CEO of Tampa International Airport, and Jeff Houck, food critic of the Tampa Tribune.Being foodies ourselves, we sampled as much as we could from the other trucks, and quite frankly, Tarpon Springs is in for a treat.

MAKE A DAY OF IT IN TARPON SPRINGS

While you are on Tarpon Avenue, take some time to check out the delightful antique dealers that line the street, the wonderful Back in the Day Books bookstore, and the Tarpon Chamber's new digsat 111 E. Tarpon Ave, which are shared with a gallery of local artists.

It's also a great time to make note of the Avenue's great eateries and music spots, especially our favorites: Manolo's Mediterranean Bistro, Currents, Undergrounds Cafe and, just around the corner on North Safford Street, Zante's. These are old-fashioned restaurants only in the sense that their proprietors all give very personalized service.Tarpon is not just about Greek food, and eating out is not just about the big restaurant chains!

WIND UP THE DAY IN CRAIG PARK

After the Food Truck Rally winds up around 3pm, stroll a few blocks west to Spring Bayou and around to beautiful Craig Park where Tarpon Recreation will be hosting a Christmas Festival with music by the popular band The De'Lei'd Parrots and Christmas gift shopping available from an assortment of craft vendors. Then, at dusk, Tarpon's Annual Lighted Boat Parade, will begin with decorated boat traveling the Anclote river into the bayous and ultimately into Spring Bayou.

Cafe Getaway will have rolled right on over there with you, and we will have a steady supply of hot chocolate and other warming drinks to keep your evening going!

Tampa Mayor Buckhorn's 2nd Food Truck Rally Includes Cafe Getaway

2011-12-09T13:03:00.001-08:00

The Food Truck industry that has been exploding onto the culinary scene across the country has been making a splash in the Tampa Bay region this past month. The City of Tampa just hosted its second monthly Mayor's Food Truck Rally in Joe Chillura Park, and in previous weeks there have been rallies in St. Petersburg and in Largo. Cafe Getaway was pleased to participate in the Tampa Rally. Not only were we introduced to several movers and shakers in the City of Tampa, but we met for the first time some of the other folks doing what we do -- putting culinary treats on wheels -- like Tacos Bus, Wicked Wiches, Maggie on the Move, Killer Samich and others.

Tiffany with Tampa Airport's new CEO Joe Lopano

Cafe Getaway debut's at My Bob Buckhorn's second Tampa Food Truck Rally

The 2011-12 Farmers' Market Season

2011-12-09T12:32:00.000-08:00

As the 2011-2012 season gets underway in Tampa Bay, Cafe Getaway has again decided to make the Dunedin Green Market on Saturdays and the new Tarpon Sunday Market on Sundays the mainstay of our weekend schedules.

The well-established Dunedin Green Market takes place downtown in dog-loving and (fortunately for us) coffee-loving Dunedin, FL, just a few miles north of Clearwater. The market is located in Pioneer Park, which is just east of the Pinellas Bike Trail on Main Street. This shady quadrangle is a perfect place for a market, and the assortment of vendors is as mouth-watering as ever. Keep track of the market schedule at the Dunedin Green Market Face Book Page.

The Tarpon Sunday Market, under new management, is back in business in front of the striking Mother Meres Mural at the junction of Tarpon Avenue and Pinellas Avenue (Alt. 19), after operating its first few weeks in the lot behind the Historic Train depot. Although it was nice to be alongside the busy Pinellas Bike Trail, most participants felt the location was too out of the way, and the City of Tarpon Springs has moved us back to the Meres location. You can keep track of the Tarpon Market's schedule and information on the Sunday Morning Market of Tarpon Springs Facebook Page.

Another Season!

2011-12-09T12:20:00.000-08:00

OMG! Is it really possible that a whole year has gone by since our last Blog post? Blame it on a successful business and competition for our Internet attention by Facebook and now Twitter.

Yes, Cafe Getaway is moving in the techno era. Both Don and Tiffany have Smart Phones, and Gwen has an IPad. Cafe Getaway has an active Facebook presence where we try to post all our upcoming events and markets, and lately we have added Twitter. It is amazing the connections to foodie interests in the Tampa Bay region and with fellow Food Truck businesses that Twitter has brought us in a very short time.

We hope YOU will follow us on both!

Cruisin' through the Hot Summer

2010-08-12T15:30:00.000-07:00

The last Blog post may have been in February, but Cafe Getaway has been rolling along without stop...well, almost without stop. There was a short break in June for Don to get arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. That went so smoothly, though, the break was hardly needed. He enjoyed the time off, however!

Our weekday routes have been our primary activity during the summer. Florida doesn't stop just because the snowbirds have gone away! The people who live and work here are mighty glad to see Cafe Getaway's cool blue truck roll in, and our smoothies, frappes, and iced drinks have clearly been the mainstay.

A highlight of the summer season has been the monthly Music on the Beach concerts, held (usually) the last Thursday of the month on Tarpon Springs' lovely Sunset Beach. The beach's new bandstand was opened in April, and the music is mostly smooth summertime rock and roll. There may be no other event that suits these retired sailors' psyches so well as sunset music events on a gorgeous beach. For info on remaining concerts this season, be sure to check our Cafe Getaway Facebook Page

Otherwise, we've been taking the weekends pretty easy, doing lots of family visiting. All that will change very soon with a jam-packed Fall calendar. More on that soon.

We Now Take Credit Cards!

2010-02-15T20:18:00.000-08:00

It's a big step, but we have finally taken it! Yes, Cafe Getaway now accepts THE BIG FOUR: Visa, Mastercard, AmEx and Discover!

Although customers at the weekend special events and farmers' markets usually come ready with cash, customers on our weekday routes working in shops and offices or watching their kids at soccer practice quite simply don't. On our very first day with the machine, 20% of our business came from credit card use!

New! A Weekday Route

2010-02-05T11:31:00.000-08:00

In mid January we at Cafe Getaway launched a whole new phase of our business: a weekday route to service businesses in northern Pinellas County! We got a great start with several companies and small businesses along the picturesque highway Alternate 19 between Palm Harbor and Tarpon Springs. And we are now expanding our range to service "Big 19" from Dunedin to New Port Richey in southern Pasco county.

It's been a big mental leap to switch from the full-day or multi-day set-up of most of the special events we have been doing, to the more lean and efficient arrangement required to maximize the in-and-out nature of the truly mobile service. For example, for the route we dispense with the easels and the big display menus, the condiment tray set-up, the awning as well as the trash can (since customers take their purchases indoors with them!)

Additionally, trying to build and balance the schedule is a challenge. For example, one customer has a company-wide break time, so we need to be on site promptly for that 15 minute window. The employees of another take staggered breaks, so the receptionist sends out an email blast to the employees when we arrive out front, and we stay for a half hour to accommodate them. In a third we pick up (or receive by phone) a pre-assembled order, whereupon we deliver the drinks to the reception area, while in small storefronts, we rely mostly on the the businesses seeing us drive in.

Additionally, while some clients would like to see us once or even twice daily, others prefer that our visit be a once-a-week special event. And of course everyone would like us to there at the same peak times, during the mid-morning and mid-afternoon slumps! Almost makes you wish you had more than one truck! almost...

We could not do this without the participation of Don's daughter Tiffany Eberhart, whose organizing skills and years of restaurant experience have really whipped us into shape. Between the three of us, we are able to divide up the week's work so that we each get some time off. It's an ideal situation, especially for Tiffany whose demands as a mom require a flexible schedule.

Anyone reading this who might like to add their business to our route as it takes shape should call Don on the mobile number 727-366-5261.

Cafe Getaway at North Pinellas County Farmers' Markets

2010-01-05T11:50:00.000-08:00

As the 2010 Florida winter season gets underway, Cafe Getaway can be found participating in three of Pinellas County's weekly Farmers' Markets:

* The Sunday Morning Farmers Market in Tarpon Springs, corner of Pinellas & Tarpon Avenues (Alt 19), Tarpon Springs; Sundays, 9am-2pm (contact Gerry McLaughlin of the Tarpon Springs Business Alliance at 727-938-0078);

* The Oldsmar Downtown Fresh Market, next to City Hall on State Street, Oldsmar; Wednesdays, 9am-1:30pm. (contact: Laura Mataluni, 813-749-1260)

* The Largo Harvest Marketplace, Ulmer Park, 301 West Bay Drive, Largo; Thursdays, 9am-1pm. (contact: Tanya Fazekas, 727-587-6740 x 5015)

Just this past weekend (Jan 3), we were pleased to be included in the inaugural Tarpon Springs Market, and, given the most un-Florida like temperatures (30s-40s), I think most of the people who attended were glad we were there with our large selection of HOT beverages!

The new Tarpon Farmers Market features a great selection of vendors, including, of course, sellers of fresh produce, a local grower of organic greens (I loved my fresh kale picked just that morning), our favorite fishmonger (they probably don't call them that anymore, but it's too cool a word not to use!), and vendors of local honey, cheeses of the world, specialty breads, and bakery treats.

But filling your grocery bag is not the only reason to come to the Tarpon Farmers Market! Bring the whole family and plan to have your Sunday breakfast there or perhaps your after-church brunch! Or both! The Tarpon Market has drawn an unusually interesting selection of food vendors! Choices ran from pierogies, empanadas, and wood-fired pizza, to Belgian waffles and (my personal favorite) French crepes from the charming La Petite France. Despite trying to keep to a New Year's diet, Don and I managed to sample them all!

For lighter snacking there was kettle corn and our valiant friend Bruce of Penguin Ice selling Italian ices! (What's that saying,... "a good salesman can sell ice to an Eskimo!"?)

Market organizers set up tables and chairs so that shoppers didn't have to eat on their feet, and great music was provided by the band The Urban Gypsies.

The good news for us at Cafe Getaway is that all of this goes down well with a steaming hot cup of coffee, tea, chai or hot chocolate!

(To view a larger selection of photos from the Tarpon Market, please go to Cafe Getaway's album on Facebook.)

In addition to good foods and entertainment, the Tarpon Farmers Market also had several crafters, plant growers, and other booths about healthy living and the local community.

Farmers Markets like these are, in general, a great way to get outdoors and feel a part of your community. We hope to see you at one of the three markets we at Cafe Getaway attend, but if none are convenient, check out the following link to Farmers Markets in the the Tampa Bay area. The list doesn't seem to be completely up-to-date, but it'll be a great starting point.

http://www.tampa-real-estate-blog.com/2009/03/28/tampa-bay-farmers-markets/

Cafe Getaway is IN BUSINESS

2009-10-14T09:33:00.000-07:00

In the hustle and bustle of getting our new mobile espresso business up and running, we have utterly neglected the keeping of this Blog. But it has been a very busy couple of months!

THE FINISHED TRUCK ARRIVES

The truck arrived on schedule at the beginning of August. We had once thought we would fly out to California and drive it back ourselves, stopping, of course, to visit family and friends along the route. But we clearly hadn't bargained on all the preparatory stuff that had to be done by phone and at the computer to get the business up and going. Then, too, there was the thought of driving it all the way across the southern tier from California to Florida in the heat of August...at 8 mpg! When we got a good quote to have it delivered here by trailer, it was an option we couldn't ignore.

We did, of course, fly out to Camarillo to take official delivery of the completed truck at the home base of Seattle Coffee Trucks. Bruce Kosmala had done a wonderful job building our truck and he personally walked Don through the operation of all the systems. The truck is not so altogether different than a cruising boat, and Don being Don (and a veteran cruiser) was already coming up with things to add to make it even better. (Poor Bruce, I don't think he'll ever again build a truck for a cruising sailor.) But how cool it was to play with all the equipment -- the espresso machine, the brewer, the blenders and the shaved ice machine -- and know this time it was actually our truck!

ARTWORK

Once the truck was in our driveway, the big push was to get the artwork finished, printed and put on. After some initial stumbles in finding an artist whose vision gibed with ours, we were directed by a friend to www.logotournament.com. This is an online competition for graphic artists from around the world to compete in designing you a logo for you business. You give them some guidance, and they take it and run with it. We got over a hundred entries from all over the world! We ended up with two artists we couldn't decide between, but fortunately their two designs were very compatible.

Our primary artist ended up being young Andrew Lenzini of San Diego. Still in high school, Andrew made us his summer job, not only coming up with a logo we liked, but turning it into artwork for the truck wrap as well as designing our website www.cafe-getaway.com. We consider ourselves very fortunate to have found him. The other artist was Elysia McKay of Calgary, Alberta whose design better suited stand-alone applications such as the doors of the truck and stationery. We were able to negotiate a deal to get both designs.

THE WRAP

The next step was to find a company to produce and apply the wrap. The truck builder, of course, had a company Eyedentity Graphics that he customarily dealt with in California, but we felt we would prefer to have a relationship with someone close by, in case of future damage or changes. To make a long story short, we found Blackjack Wraps of New Port Richey. Our choice to go local has been a good one, since through them and their association with the West Pasco County Chamber of Commerce (Pasco County begins just a few miles north of us) we have gotten several good business leads.

GETTING OFFICIAL

Meanwhile, we did all the stuff required to get Cafe Getaway, LLC official. We got our Tarpon business license, had an inspection by the Florida Department of Agriculture for our statewide health inspection and went to State Sales Tax Class, among other things.

SCHEDULING OUR FIRST EVENTS

Also meanwhile, of course, we had to be trying to get ourselves into some events. We were somewhat worried that local events might be hard to get into, and this is certainly true for many where participating vendors get a lock on their product niche year after year or where the event contracts out the food vending to a umbrella management company, often a national one, where there is little room local vendors to squeeze in.

We got our first break from Netti of the Crafts & Artisans' Society. Netti organizes small crafts fairs all around our home area, and she has been very generous with start-up advice and information. She booked our debut event for Labor Day right here in Tarpon Springs, practically walking distance from home, and it could hardly have been a better spot to get started.

PRACTICE

However we weren't quite so bold as to show up for a public event without a little practice first. Sure, we'd made ourselves and our neighbors something from the truck most every day, but it's not the same as dealing with a line of people wanting an espresso, a smoothie or a snowcone all at the same time. So we planned a practice event two weeks before Labor Day right in the driveway. We invited everyone we knew -- friends, family, friends of family, neighbors, biker buddies and the ladies of my Jazzercise class -- to come by for a mock sales event where we would take orders, use the register, and fully produce as many items from the menu as possible.

And, God Bless them, they came. Despite a day of constant rain, nearly everybody we'd invited came by to order espresso, lattes, frozen frappes and smoothies, all while huddling out of the rain in our garage! Many people had two or three things! How fun it was to make everybody all that yummy stuff! The hardest part for us old yachties was working the cash register!

IN BUSINESS

The Tarpon show was equally a hit, and by golly the weather was gorgeous. Three really beautiful days! All three of us (Don's daughter Tiffany is an integral part of the team, with by far the most relevant experience!) worked all three days. We had our nice little uniform look (lime green shirts and brown aprons, with hats and visors embroidered by our Harley buddy Mike Reiker and custom Cafe Getaway buttons made by my womenandcruising.com ally Kathy Parsons), our giant menus from Staples, and a pastry case full of baked stuff from Lenny's (a famous Clearwater restaurant, known for its pastry baskets and owned by friends of Tiffany's). Once again many friends made the effort to come by and support us, but we also had lots of new customers to satisfy for the first time. I think that no matter what events we reach out to in the future, we will always have a soft spot for the craftspeople and vendors we got to know that weekend! (Below: John & Teresa of Holy Smokes Hot Dogs and Bruce of Penguin Italian Ices.)

Since Labor Day we have managed an interesting roster of different events in different places, from a Bluesapalooza music festival in Spring Hill to a Bikefest in New Port Richey to the YMCA soccer league in Clearwater. We've done well enough and had fun, even though most of our colleagues are bemoaning reduced attendance everywhere which they attribute, of course, to the slow economy but also to the persistent summer heat (90s!) We can't argue with that. We are sure looking forward to cooler weather and the arrival of the snowbirds! We're ready for them NOW!

Most importantly, the truck itself is definitely getting the good reception we believed it would (as the builder promised). Already we have people coming to us to invite us into their events, and weekends until the first of the year are filling fast.

KEEP UP WITH CAFE GETAWAY

If you'd like to keep up with what we're up to with Cafe Getaway, become a Facebook fan of our Cafe Getaway page at (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cafe-Getaway/120820656050?ref=nf.) Here I can more easily post a list of upcoming events you might like to attend as well as photo albums from events we've recently done.

For more info about our business, us and our menu, check out our great website www.cafe-getaway.com.

Cafe Getaway Mobile Espresso is Under Construction

2009-07-13T13:50:00.001-07:00

If you have happened upon this Blog or its connected website (www.cafe-getaway.com), then you are one of the first to get an advance peek at our new business -- a custom-built mobile espresso cafe truck. The truck itself is currently being completed in California, and, back here in Tarpon Springs, Florida, we are scurrying to complete artwork, devise menus, and sample coffees, while lining up a schedule of bookings for the 2009-2010 season.

The truck is due to arrive in Florida the first week in August in time for our first booking Labor Day weekend. If you have an event coming up for which you would like to have us in attendance, please don't hesitate to call or email: 727-937-0196 or info@cafe-getaway.com