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I am surprised that only @Divadog mentioned banana pudding - my, my, how well I remember my first taste in South Carolina - would love a real recipe - up here in Canada one can get banana cream pie, but it cannot touch southern banana pudding.

Also, hush puppies, not the mass produced ones, but the lovely crispy, fluffy ones produced in small restaurants - bliss.

Frogmore stew or Brunswick stew - I have seen it called both, but I have reproduced it in Canada to rave reviews - I had to buy my Old Bay seasoning stateside, though I believe if you shop around in specialty stores you can find it now.

Deep fried okra, biscuits, shrimp & grits - need I go on - our vacations in the South necessitate a great deal of restraint.

I have mentioned before how lucky people in the South are, to have both sweet and non sweet ice tea available at almost every restaurant you enter. There is absolutely nothing nicer than to walk in from the torpid heat and humidity and have a large, cold glass of tea!

Tiffins ( Indian ) for best bargain lunch I would not touch with a pole. Too much hype and too little authenticity. Nothing Indian about it except the uncook like taste of its sauces and sweetishness of it., MSG comes to mind.
There are better bargain Indian lunches. Of course if you are a lazy SOB and rather stay put on ur butt then walk a block go for it, it does leave you full like a fool.
I give credit to its owner ( a Wharton grade ) whose marketing skills bar none is what makes the college a rave, another "Quiznos" franchise in the making.
But calling it Indian Cuisine....pluzze.

DiNic's was severely disappointing. It has absolutely nothing on Tony Luke's. Read more.

@PerkyMac I agree Duffield's is good but Zimmermans Farm on Salina Road is much better. There is nothing like getting corn still warm from the field to eat a couple hours later. It's so sweet and perfect.

The tomato should be grilled, the eggs fried, and where's the jam for the toast. And a nice cuupa!

Julie,

Sorry it's taken so long to post here!

I had a meeting with our library board and they are in total support of our coffee shop.

They are also understanding of the public's desire to have a place at the library for family eating.

While they had planned for folks to come to the library and buy items from the cafe and eat or drink at the available tables, they did not plan for people bringing their own food. Since this is a public library they would like to accommodate their patrons.

I think they have decided to amend our lease, with no extra cost to us, to include the 6 tables in the entryway. The four tables outside are to be for public use.

This really works for me as I figure the outside tables are least profitable. Here in Iowa they are not used at all during winter and later this summer it will be to hot to sit outside. The tables are metal. I have also stopped maintaining those tables to discourage people from using them! Since they are not part of the lease I feel it's not my responsibility to clean off the bird poop, except for my customers who want to use them, of course!

I highly recommend you meet with your foundation people, they support your shop, yes? and find out what their expectations are for your space. Let them know how detrimental to your business the practice of customers bringing food and beverage into your coffee shop. I know you said you chase them to outside tables, that is good and you must continue to do this. I would encourage you to put signage on your tables letting people know which tables are for coffee shop use exclusively (with the support of the library) and which can be used for the public (hopefully none of them) and be very vocal about enforcing this decision.

I personally told a lady unloading her fast food onto a table the other day that she needed to take it outside. She replied that it was raining (it wasn't!) so I told her she needed to take it inside and she did. I let her know those are my tables and to move on!

Yes the table had signage that said tables reserved for our customers!

Once you let people take over your space they will continue to do so. Most customers appreciate the signs and feel people bringing food in are rude.

Get the support of your library and enforce it!

By the by, I spoke with another library coffee shop and they pay a bit less rent that I do but they only rent the counter and the space behind it so the serving portion of the shop is library property but they still maintain it and ask people to leave if they are busy. They said while they allow people to bring in food and drink it is rare and they really hate it when people leave their trash to be cleaned up! Can you imagine?

Look forward to hearing how you're doing

Vicki

Julie,

Thanks for all your comments. I too have used the health department to discourage folks from bringing in outside items. However, when I checked with them the other day I learned they HAVE NO REGULATIONS regarding restaurant seating and tables. They recommend that the tables are cleaned and sanitized a minimum of every 4 hours! Consumers beware! Can you believe that? Behind that counter I practically have to wash my hands every minute and sanitize everything with bleach water after each use, but hey after it leaves the counter you all are on your own! It also turns out that my insurance already covers the outdoor and indoor seating areas so I will meet with the library to see how I can get those tables in the lease for as little money as possible. They are extremely interested in our success and I think are somewhat disappointed in the folks who said "if you build it we will be there". Not that we are struggling but I think that allowing people to bring in food and drink is very detrimental to what I'm trying to accomplish here. I will meet with them next week and keep you posted. For the most part if I ask people to leave they do so as they consider the library tables are something of a picnic ground. They do not know that I pay the library rent, how else would it work? There is another library coffee shop not far away and I know the owner, she has the same problem and I'm going to give her a call and see how she is handling this situation.

TTFN
Vicki

Julie, I did check your site and congratulate you on your success. I am interested in how your business is structured. Currently I pay rent to the library and have to pay insurance, to the tune of $1600 + per year, on the space that I rent which is less than 600 square feet. There are six tables just outside my facility and 4 tables outdoors that are not included in the rent. Several times since opening people have brought in food and drinks that have been purchased outside of my business. Lately I have put signs on the tables stating that they are for Cafe del Sol Coffee & Tea patrons only and that product from other sources can be consumed inside the library. I have had a positive response to these signs as customers think it is rude for people to bring food and drinks into areas that I maintain. I have also asked people to take their food elsewhere. Legally I have no right to do this as these are not included in the rent. To include them would be a huge increase, possibly not in rent, but in insurance cost. I feel food and drink being brought to tables that I maintain is rude and extremely detrimental to my business as I offer these items also. Any thoughts or comments on this?

Julie,

Vicki here! I would be very interested to know what you serve in your coffee shop. We have good loyal customers and all say they appreciate our being there. How many people do you have on staff? To many questions!

Vicki

It sounds like it's a small place, but for me, my advice would be to invest in good staff. Just because a 16 year old can pull some espresso, doesn't mean he or she can interact with the customers. I don't want flaky service, I don't want giggling employees who nominally pay attention to me while talking with each other. I love the idea of a daily quiz, first five people who answer correctly receive a free cup of coffee, or something to that effect. Hire genuinely friendly people without attitudes who are knowledgeable about coffee and not pretentious, and you'll have people coming back time and again.

This coffee shop is my business. Yesterday a meal, none of it purchased from me, was consumed at tables that I clean and maintain, also sandwiches were consumed and several people walked in with beverages purchased elsewhere. I serve all of these products that could easily have been procured at our location. Now, lets pretend you HeartofGlass, are the owner of my place. You pay employees minimum wage (yes they do need tips). I have just come into your place with a friend and my friend gets a cookie for $1 and I have brought in my own PB & J sandwich, which you can also make for me. I sit there with my friend and use your table, your internet, your napkins and ask you for a glass of ice water to go. How long can you stay in business when you have rent to pay and $50,000 in equipment as well as product to purchase that you hope to sell and employees to pay, utilities etc. After I have lingered a few hours using the net, I decide to leave and now you have clean up the table I used and sweep up the crumbs from the floor where I dropped my sandwich. By the way I also used your bathroom so you need to go clean that up also.

I would be interested in knowing how you keep this business viable.

Vicki

I'm thinking also of adopting a waitress/waiter style for awhile. Put menus on the tables and have approach customers at tables to see what they'd like to order. I think they'd get the message. Since our place is so small delivering the order to the table is no problem.

Also, lately the tips have been poor. We need a campy statement to put on the tip jar (ex. Tips for poorly paid baristas!) Something to get attention. By waiting on tables more tips might be left.

Vicki

FYI: We will make you a fresh drip coffee any time. I use the melitta cones. (This for chardonnay who might request this at the current coffee shop) Right now we just place then on top of the cups but if we overfill we don't notice. I know I can get a drip station but they are obnoxiously expensive, take up a lot of room and usually require drainage.