Aldo Coffee Company

Annabella Tonight. Monday Hours. Rememberances.

It looks like we'll have some decent weather for the long weekend, and for Monday's parade up Washington Road.  There's something else to be thankful for in addition to thanking our veterans who've sacrificed so much our country.

We'll be open until 3pm both Sunday and Monday.

Tonight, we'll be featuring Annabella, a husband/wife keyboard/drums duo from Georgetown, Texas who are passing thru on their way East.  They play a very relaxed style of ambient music that will lower your blood pressure.  They'll be on stage from 8-9:30pm tonight.  $2 suggest contribution, please.

Finally, if you're planning on frying up some chicken or making a big ol' salad for your weekend cookouts, we've some fresh made bread crumbs and croutons on sale here at the store, made this week using some of our leftover Mediterra bread.   The crumbs are whole wheat, the croutons both whole wheat and rosemary-garlic made from Mediterra Bakehouse foccacia.  Either will taste much better than pre-packaged croutons on your Caesar or other salad.  We even eat 'em straight out of the bag.

Washington Road Biz District Gets Stormhoeked

Well, at least some of the biz district did anyway.  Those business owners who attended last night's biz blogging seminar were enthusiastic about the prospects of blogging their businesses and asked all the right questions. 

Best of all, everyone got to taste some Stormhoek wine - the only folks in all of PA to have had that opportunity to date.  We served up some of Stormhoek's Pinot Grigio, Sauvingnon Blanc and Pinotage. 

It seemed everyone enjoyed the wine, perhaps partly because it was free, but mostly because they were easily as good as many bottles of California wines we've tried in the $15-$25 range.  We imagine Stormhoek will be priced more competitively - although that means little in PA where we still pay an 18% "Johnstown Flood" tax on every bottle (we'll gladly give our vote to whomever kills that tax - and we'll actively campaign for any candidate who vows to disband the LCB as a retail operation).

Thanks also to Mike Woycheck of Pittsburgh Bloggers and Erik Dahl of the Dahlpod Podcast who were on hand to ably assist with explaining the importance of local aggregators and the emergence of podcasting as a legitmate marketing tool.  That both Mike and Erik, along with the other bloggers in attendance, believe in the promise of a blogging business district, tells us we're on the right track.

Now to get all the other businesses here to understand...

Blogging for Business Wednesday Evening

This post for Uptown Mt. Lebanon Washington Road business owners only.  Please do not contact us if you have not already received a previous invitation to attend.  The following is a closed event.

If you haven't yet RSVP'd for tomorrow night's business blogging session featuring Stormhoek wines, please do so by noon tomorrow.  We have a strict limit on guests (30 maximum) and we've got a couple of folks wanting to bring associates.

Drop us an email to aldo AT aldocoffee DOT com or just drop by to RSVP by noon.  Thanks.  Please include what business you represent.

The concept is simple:  The more businesses in our little business district that blog, the more publicity we'll get which should result in more foot traffic - which we think is a benefit for everyone. 

The presentation will take a little more than a half hour of your time followed by some Q & A with local bloggers we've invited. 

You will learn something that can help your business.  Whether you use that knowledge and opportunity is up to you of course. 

Regardless, you'll get to taste some Stormhoek wine.  And since we have the first case to arrive in Pennsylvania, you'll be guaranteed to be the first one in your social circle with bragging rights.

Summer?

Given last night's frost advisory, we feel lucky that we're behind schedule planting the basil and other herbs we keep on our patio out back (aka Il Portico Aldo).  Hopefully we'll get to that this coming weekend.

But make no mistake, summer has arrived.  How do we know?  Well, 24 ended last night.  And the Sopranos ends next week.  And the Buccos are already out of the pennant race.  So there's nothing left to watch on TV, thus no reason to stay inside.  (The Bucs are more enjoyable on the radio anyway.)

Washington Road First Fridays start next week as well - and we'll have local legend Don Aliquo Sr. on hand for the first street festival of the summer.  We hope to have our new Smoothie and Summer Drink menu out by then.

Meantime, we'll be closing out Spring this Saturday with Annabella, a husband-wife duo from Texas, who'll be on stage here from 8-9:30pm.  Come on out and enjoy a great pot of French pressed Peruvian or Aldo House Blend and dessert.

Peru Micro Lot: Tingo Maria

Ah, today we are brewing an Intelligentisa Direct Buy micro- lot of fine Peruvian coffee: Tingo Maria, grown at 1500-1700m altitude in Central Peru.   It is a wonderfully flavorful  coffee with bright acidity and a clean, sweet finish. Intelligentsia's buyer and roaster Geoff Watts talks more about this coffee and the Peruvian coffee scene from his  experience at the Peru National Coffee Competition here.

Plumb(ing) Annoyed

Some days life is just full of plumbing problems.  On Mother's Day, the dishwasher at the store cut out.  Problem was a large particle found its way through the screens and filters into the drain pump, resulting in an annoying leak.  We spent the better part of Sunday taking the dishwasher apart to fix it - only to learn that the part now has a crack in it and needs replacing. 

If you brought your mom in on Sunday and had to endure paper service instead of ceramic, now you know why.  We apologize for the inconvenience.

Searching for Aldo

One of the tools we get with our blog lets us see what visitors use as search terms to find aldocoffee.com.  It is a useful feature.  But, I found one this morning that gets a prize for something (not quite sure for what). Someone searched Google (not using the quotes) for: "a person pours a cup of of hot coffee,intending to drink it in five minute later.to keep the coffee as hot as possible, should she put cream in it now or wait until just before drinks it?"  Yep.  How's that for a specific search? We came up first on his/her Google search results.   I think the answer is yes although it isn't going to make our FAQs.   But it is one hell of a physics question, isn't it?  Entropy  -  Rich, remember that?

Entertainment for Thursday Cancelled - Friday Jazz On with Ken Karsh & Co.

Got a call from Jack Erdie, he's not going to make it out to play Thursday night.

However, you don't want to miss jazz guitarist extraordinare Ken Karsh, who will be accompanied by local guitar teacher Mark Shuttleworth.  Be there 8pm sharp Friday for an evening of fantastic guitar vibes you won't soon forget.

Appreciating Slow Food

Awhile back, Sam the Investor urged us to join the Slow Food USA organization, which is the national branch of the worldwide Slow Food Movement.

What is the Slow Food Movement?  From their site:

Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic organization that supports a biodiverse, sustainable food supply, local producers, heritage foodways, and rediscovery of the pleasures of the table. Carlo Petrini founded Slow Food in 1986 in response to the opening of a McDonald’s in Rome’s historic Piazza di Spagna. Since then, Slow Food has grown into an international movement with more than 80,000 members in 100 countries worldwide.

So we joined and have been impressed with what we've learned. Sam also passed our name onto Marlene at Slow Food Pittsburgh and since that time Melanie and I have been getting a lot of invites to local food events.  As most small biz owners can appreciate, we've had to pass on these invites because we're working just about all the time. But last night we made ourselves get out and go to our first Slow Food event.  And it was delightful.