Cuvée Coffee Tour

Saturday, I had the privilege of visiting and touring Cuvée Coffee out in Spicewood, TX (west of Austin – even further west than where I live). Now, if you’re like me, you’re wondering how in the heck you pronounce the name and where it came from. It is actually a french wine term and sounds something like “koo-veh”.

It all started when Sarah replied to an email from Jodi (@tastytouring) and got on the short-list to bring a guest out to Cuvée for a little tour of the place which was organized by Jodi (kudos and thanks to her). Well, as it turned out, Sarah had to work and was not able to make it. She insisted that I (still) go, in honor of her. I am so glad that I did. There ended up being about a dozen of us there which made for a perfectly sized group.

Mike McKim is the owner and answered any and all questions about coffee, his business, his road to where he is now, etc. It is encouraging to hear his story, about how he went from a job in telecom, to roasting his own coffee for himself and friends/family, to selling espresso machines, to finally having his own coffee roasting company. He is “living the dream”, if you will, getting to do what he loves (it’s obvious).

On a business/marketing note, this was an awesome step forward for Cuvée. Mike and his wife spent 2 hours of their Saturday giving a tour of their roasting hub, which will trigger “word of mouth marketing” via the small crew that was there, to people that he may not have been able to reach on his own. I love that. He got me and others excited and educated about coffee and his business. We can’t help but spread that around – especially in a place like Austin.

Thanks for hosting us Mike & family.

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• p.s. Check out Eli’s post about the tour

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, that Cuvée also does 1-day barista training. How awesome is that? So coffee shops will send baristas there to get trained on techniques, etc. The goal is to ultimately use their current house as a sort of B&B for people to come from out of state and be able to get trained in the “skills of coffee-making”.

Happy Hour at La Condesa

S and I went out for date night last night. We went into town a bit early to dodge traffic, and I finished working at a coffeeshop. The shop just so happened to sell Love Puppies Brownies, which I have to say is a strange name for a baked good. We grabbed one for dessert and then hit La Condesa (@lacondesaaustin) for happy hour/dinner. Man was it good. We grabbed a table on the balcony and nestled on a pleasant Austin sidestreet tucked away from the hustle and bustle. I ordered the hanger steak and a mojito, and S got the tortilla soup and a chicken taquito. Overall it was a great date and great food.

Next on the list: El Naranjo which we have heard rave reviews about

Tomatoes are growing!

raised bed

planted in the Earthbox

planted in a 14” pot

I planted two tomatoes in my Earthbox at the beginning of April. I had the box for a year but hadn’t been hit with the reality that I could grow my own vegetables at home. This year was different. Maybe it’s that we live near so many great farmers markets and near great local food vendors. Good, real food, is in the DNA of this city.

So, I decided to go to Natural Gardener here in town, and I picked up a cherry tomato plant, and a celebrity tomato plant. Then, my mother-in-law gave me one of her heirloom plants that she grew from seed. I decided to plant the celebrity plant in a 14” pot and put the other two tomatoes in the Earthbox. [The Earthbox comes with fertilizer that you need and a watering "pipe" if you will, that puts water into a reservoir at the bottom of the container, that the plants pull from when they are thirsty.]

So, a month into my gardening, I have several tomatoes growing and looking healthy. I am somewhat surprised that I have had such good results from my pot, considering I hadn’t done it before and wasn’t sure if the plant would have enough room to grow.

We also filled in our raised garden bed in the backyard this weekend. I built a 4′x4′ bed of 8” tall boards, topped off with some rich Hill Country Soil from Natural Gardener. In the bed we planted red bell peppers, green bell peppers, jalapenos, and more tomatoes.

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La Condesa

Taken with Hipstamatic @ La Condesa in Austin, TX.

Rockstar Bagels in Austin

I decided to map out all the locations in Austin that sell Rockstar Bagels. I have not had one – yet – but my wife hears and reads that they are ‘the best’. You can also see the Google map here

View Larger Map

Austin Half Marathon

Sarah is running the Half. Good luck, I love you!

pray about moving to Austin

at the beginning of the year, we felt like 2009 could be “the year”
for us to move to Austin, so we began praying about it

My @Yelp success story

My wife and I are moving to a new house. It is almost ready for us, so we are really excited. With a new house, comes a new mortgage. Unless of course you are on Dave Ramsey's baby step #7 which would mean that you already have your home paid off and are sitting pretty, building wealth. We are not there yet – but one day soon enough we will get there. Today though, we still need a mortgage.

A little background: our previous home mortgage was with Wells Fargo and we were pretty happy with them. So I just figured, what the heck, I'll give them a call again. I definitely didn't want to go with Bank of America – I hear Dave tell horror stories about them all day long. So, I locked in a decent rate on August 2nd. Just under the 60 day mark before closing. Things were good. The rate was a little higher from what I had seen a couple months before, but I just rolled with it.

Fast forward to last Friday. In talking with my Realtor, it was looking like our house was not going to be ready in time for the original closing day. It was going to be pushed back about a week or so. Not horrible, but still delayed. This brought to mind my 60 day period for the locked-in rate. If closing got pushed back more than a couple of days, my rate could expire.

Now, I haven't really heard from Wells Fargo since I first locked in my rate. Yes, I received some documents in the mail to sign, and I have emailed with some questions, but it usually takes a couple days to get an answer. Nobody has reached out to me through the process. So when my Realtor emailed them to ask about extending the lock-in period, and she didn't get any response, that pretty much did it for me. I had to follow up, and one of them replied, saying that there would be a fee to extend the period.

This gave me a way out – since I was not happy with the service and I felt like they could have waived the fee if they *really* wanted to. It was still not too late to go with a different lender. Yesterday I knew that I needed to make some calls. I did a couple google searches, felt a little overwhelmed. Then it hit me… YELP!

My friend Roy has recently opened my eyes (again) to the power and usefulness of Yelp. I have been reviewing and bookmarking all sorts of restaurants. But, this time I wasn't looking for a new coffeeshop, or a great taqueria. Yesterday I needed a lender. Here is what I found. The first one on my list was a lender with (3) 5-star reviews. Granted, I know only 3 reviews is not that many, but all 3 of them were fairly substantial. So, I called them up. I gave the receptionist my short-story and then she asked "how did you hear about us?" I said "I actually found you guys on Yelp". For a second I was thinking to myself "she is gonna think I am a nut". But no, she made it sound like it happens all them time. And, she then proceeded to pass me on to the Loan Officer who is mentioned on Yelp as being awesome. Long story short, I locked in an even lower rate than before, and I am getting great, local service.

How do you use Yelp? If you don't I suggest you start.

You can find me here on Yelp.

seriously?! *this* is the new TX license plate that was *voted* on?!

via austinist.com

the nastiest thing I have ever seen

Going to Austin this weekend.
Sarah is running a 10K in Round Rock.
Hoping the new house has made some progress.
Looking forward to good food and good weather.
Jealous of all the fun things going on in ATX w/out me.
I will enjoy them soon.