Pastries & Coffees = Deliciousness

Thursday Night Tasting

Join us for a

Holiday Event...

Stumpjack Coffee &
Uniquely Yours Pastry

tasting

Thursday, Dec. 4...6:30-8:00pm
members $10*
nonmembers $15*

Sample decadently delicious seasonal coffees and out-of-this-world pastries specially made by Jennifer of Uniquely Yours Pastry Shoppe. Let us know if you are planning on coming.

Becky Markvart will be serenading us with beautiful Christmas music.

Rumors because we're jintrinsicly more talented?

This Monday morning I was doing some blog surfing, doing some catch-up reading of some of my favorite blogs, as I am wont to do on my day off (day off...what a concept)...including that of our friend and pastry queen extraordinaire, Jennifer Pasquill of Uniquely Yours Pastry Shoppe. Anyhoo, reading Jin's entry "The Anonymous Non-Customer," about some goofball who got bent out of shape over some newspaper coverage that Jin and her shop received sparked some carry-over conversation from one that took place yesterday in the Stump about some rumor going 'round that we're closing the cafe (not true). Jin's response to the "anonymous non-customer" was good (appropriate and funny), but what I'm primarily taking from her post is her decision to use her blog to address and inform.

So, let us address the rumor that Stumpjack is closing (not true). We've heard this rumor several times in the last couple of weeks since Kim and I got back from our brief, 3-day getaway in Door County. We are not closing. We have a full schedule of weekend music scheduled through the first quarter of the year (which you can check out on the Stumpjack Coffee myspace site calendar...and be sure to check it periodically as we will be adding things to it as they present themselves); we've got a whole bunch of new, fun things we'll be adding this year, such as tastings (wine, chocolate, beer, cheese, coffee, etc), game tournaments, open mic and poetry nights, cigar and coffee events, outside music events, an expanded menu, and a lot of other odds & ends...

We're looking forward to a great year of more fun, more events, even more quality in our menu and more community involvement in 2008. We're planning on attending both the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America) Conference in Minnesota in May and CoffeeFest in Seattle in September, in order to increase our skills, knowledge and proficiency in what we do even further (during which time, yes, we will likely be closed for a few days). So, Stumpjack Coffee Company is not only not closing, but is growing and planning for bigger and better things every month.

Being that Stumpjack is a gathering place, that third place, for people to meet and chat, we are invariably party to all sorts of things as part of the daily conversation. Generally, you ignore the negative and personally inflammatory talk because it seems that, more often than not, there is a personal agenda attached to those kinds of things that makes them inaccurate at best. I think that this recent rumor that we're closing was probably not started maliciously or with any specific agenda by anyone. What likely got it going was simply a misreading of the sign that we put up on the window before Kim and I went to Door County stating that we'd be closed for the week while on vacation. Or perhaps we got mixed up with Copper Kettle's closing as we're just a couple doors down from that establishment. Whatever...the point is that the rumor was probably just created by faulty information, misunderstanding and lazy fact finding.

But...

Sometimes rumors are in fact started with a less than honorable agenda. I addressed some of this before in my own personal blog, Stumptoons, a few months ago. Earlier this past year we also heard the same "I heard you guys are closing" line from a customer who said that it was told to him as a statement of fact by another business owner (which makes it all the more curious and disappointing...one would hope that certain people would have more sense). Last summer there was also a claim made online by someone in Manitowoc that we were using a large, well-known wholesale coffee vendor as our supplier (the issue was quality of coffee). We have always used Two Rivers Roasting, exclusively, as our whole bean supplier, and proudly so. This was clearly an attempt by someone who didn't like the positive attention Stumpjack was getting to try to spread some misinformation. While I suppose that kind of thing - defensive reactions and rumor mongering - are part of human nature when someone feels threatened, it's nonetheless a dopey way to respond (albeit sometimes entertaining as well).

Thank you, btw, to all of you good folks who asked us about this "closing" rumor and expressed concern about the validity of it. We truly appreciate your friendship and your appreciation for what Stumpjack Coffee has to offer...it means a lot. Oh, the "jintrinsicly more talented" line in the subject is from Jin's blog response to the lady who wrote her the nasty letter...cracked me up.

Food Porn Goddess indeed!

This past Saturday night was a fun night. Kerry performed for a small but appreciative crowd, and played a couple of his new tunes (one he said he finished writing the day before). Bobbi, Lowell and Doug stopped in to play cards and celebrate Doug’s birthday with a couple of Doodah Hops Smoothies (our beer smoothie that was inspired by an off the cuff challenge Doug made). Pat staked out his spot, chatting with Cheryl, our new friend from upstairs and later Arlie, who dropped in after work. There were a few new faces in the house, which is always nice to see. And maybe the best surprise of the night was when Jin (Jennifer) from “Uniquely Yours Pastry Shoppe” stopped in with her husband, David…I say best surprise because even though we’ve cross-linked each others blogs and have known about each other for a while, this was her first visit to the Stump…and she came bearing gifts!

And not just any gifts, mind you, but gifts of éclairs she made herself and that were absolutely the most fantastically delicious and fulfilling cream filled creations I have ever had in my life. Ok, listen, I’m a foodie, and I have had a fair amount of exceptional food in my life thus far, and so I don’t want to sound overly gushing or goofy just because someone brought in some yummies for me…and so when I say that these éclairs were exceptional, I mean that they were really exceptional…as in so good that they honestly deserved the sex comparison I blurted out. You know when you have something that is really above average and you enjoy it so much that you don’t want to keep it to yourself? You have to share that thing, that experience, with someone else because it’s just too darn good to enjoy alone and sharing it makes it even better. Well, after the first mouthful, as much as I wanted to keep those three or four éclairs to myself, I had to share them with everyone so that everyone else could enjoy this moment with me (well, not everyone…but Kim and Pat anyway). These things were just freaking awesome! And I am now on a mission to acquire this Queen of Pastry’s wares for the Stump.

Jin and David hung around for an hour or so, had a couple of vanilla caps and listened to Kerry.

Jin with the goods!

Now this is funny…I wrote that bit above a little earlier and decided that a picture would be cool to go with the post…so, I checked Jin’s blog in the hope that maybe she might have an image somewhere in her archives of some éclairs…and lo and behold, she has a whole new how-to post on these very ones (the ones she brought me) complete with pics (including her eating one…Food Porn Goddess indeed!). Check this out and be prepared to drool.