Nemo's will be on the Lunch Bunch show!

If you are a long time reader of our blog, you might remember that a local TV show (Mike Boyle’s Restaurant Show) did a 20 minute segment on Nemo’s Coffee right after we opened. It aired over and over again for several weeks, here in Colorado Springs and in Denver.

We have always been hesitant to sink money into print advertising. The exposure by print media is very limited, and the costs are extremely high. Why pay a very high price to put an ad in a paper that goes city-wide, when our target market is the 80909 and 80910 zip codes? We have marketed Nemo’s via word of mouth, mostly, by keeping our customers happy. We also use Facebook to invite new people to Nemo’s, identified as potential customers by where they work (Memorial Hospital, Olympic Training Center, medical complexes on Printers Parkway, etc…).

We have an opportunity to work with Mike Boyle again in June. He is going to broadcast live from our location, as part of his “Lunch Bunch” tour. He broadcasts from a different location every Saturday, and the host restaurant provides a special deal on their products. The radio station is KVOR 740, so our specials have to be based on a 740 system. Here are the deals we will be offering:

$7.40 2 sandwiches and specialty iced teas
$3.70 sandwich and specialty iced tea
$2.96 2 homemade breakfast burritos
$1.48 single homemade breakfast burrito
.74 scones
.74 medium specialty drink (lattes, mochas, caramel swirls, etc)

The sandwiches will be Tracy’s chicken salad sandwich. She pressure cooks chicken in the shop, and then shreds it after it cools. She then mixes in mayonnaise and spices. The sandwich is served on either a croissant or organic sunflower wheat bread, with provolone cheese, dried cranberries (craisins), purple onion, and romaine lettuce.

The breakfast burritos are VERY large, and are also homemade on site. We use Jimmy Dean sausage, real scrambled eggs (we crack the eggs! We don’t use that egg in a juice container product), potatoes, cheddar cheese, and homemade pico de gallo (salsa, for my friends from the Midwest).

Tracy also makes the most incredible scones from scratch. She even grinds her own wheat! Some of her signature scones are ‘lemon ginger’, ‘raspberry white chocolate’, ‘cranberry orange’, and dark chocolate espresso.’ She has many other original scones, and she is always experimenting with new versions.

We also have other pastries, breakfast sandwiches, homemade soup, salads, fruit smoothies, etc.
…and don’t forget about our private conference room with available projector.

New X-Rays Today

Well, I got new x-rays today, and as I already knew from the way it feels, my clavicle is not healing well. It has been 3 1/2 months since my bicycle wreck, and there is very little new bone growth at the break site. I did re-break it twice after the original accident, but hey, who's counting???

Here is a photo I took of the lcd screen (x-rays are digital these days) in the doctor's office:


The clavicle should be a solid, one piece, horizontal bone going from the sternum to the shoulder. As you can see, mine is a total train wreck. The break did not line up end-to-end to heal. The right piece of the clavicle went under the left piece, and that is how it fused together. This x-ray was taken today, and as you can see, there is very little bone growth. The doctor expects to see a lump of new bone growth around the entire break site. Mine has almost none... The amount of overlap between the pieces is significant, also. The dimension from my neck to shoulder is now two inches shorter on my injured side than it is on my normal side.

Another interesting thing to note is the top rib that is angled down and overlapping the second rib from the top. I ripped that rib away from the sternum in 1988. I never went to the doctor, so I never really got to take a look at it. I knew the rib was moved to the wrong place because of the immense pain, and the weird lump on my chest. It healed over time, but in the wrong place. It is interesting to see an x-ray of it now, 21 years later.

So, what's next? Well, I go back for x-rays, or possibly a cat scan, in six weeks. I suppose we'll make a decision then on whether or not surgery will be required to re-break it and install a metal plate. Sweet...

Gotta run,
JD

Nemo's 2-16-2009

Tracy and I (and Carl, one of our new employees) provided coffee and espresso services at the Stargazer Theater and Event Center for the Tyrone Wells concert Friday night. We had a lot of fun, and look forward to doing more events at Stargazers.

We have had pretty solid sales days lately. Even with the doom and gloom that is being spewed by the government and the media, we are showing solid 10% or more growth compared to last year. That is great news for us! Showing growth during such a downturn in the economy is a real blessing...

My collar bone is just not healing very well. I am functional, but definitely not healed. I get new xrays later this week, and I'm expecting my ortho doctor to suggest a surgical repair. I'm not opposed to that because I know it is what is needed to get this injury back to some type of normal state. However, starting from square one again, though, is disheartening. Uugghhh... Bummer...

We recently swapped out artwork in the shop. Thank you soooo very much to Nikki Connon, who showed her beautiful paintings here for so long. We really enjoyed having her bigger than life oil paintings in the shop. And it was so kind of her to give Tracy one of her paintings! How cool is Nikki?

Joseph Bishop is now showing his work, which is wonderful. What makes his artwork even more extraordinary is that Joseph was born with a lobe of his brain missing. He has never walked, never talked, and has involuntary motor control issues. His paintings, however, are completely amazing and let's us know there is a fully functioning, thinking individual at work. A lesson to be learned is to never assume ANYTHING about someone who appears to be disabled. God places talent in everyone, regardless... Joseph has discovered his God given talent and has given us some wonderful images to see... I'll post a few photos soon (don't have a card reader with me tonight).