What's Happenning?

It has been an extremely busy month but Insomnia is now well underway and things are becoming relatively sane again. We have just welcomed local photographer James M. Clark as the first to exhibit with us and are thrilled with the pieces he has chosen to show.
August and September promise to be exciting as well. We'll be launching our web site, working with our great friends at Fratello to build an "Insomnia Blend" espresso, and we'll be bringing in some new coffees (still keeping these a surprise for now). Also look for extended hours as Theatre Season starts up. We may have one or two other surprises up our sleeves just to shake things up and keep life interesting. We look forward to seeing all of you in the next little while.

Day off?

With another week under our belt we were feeling energetic so we spent Sunday preparing 8 dozen gourmet cupcakes for a catering order. Lots of them were in boxes of two, so it took a while to fold all the boxes. We downed a pot of Kenyan while we were at it. The cupcakes made were Chocolate Decadence, Oreo Cookies and Cream, Bluberrylicious filled with lemon and Pink Velvet with cream cheese icing. Yum. Once made, we delivered them with time to spare.
While we were at it, we hooked up our wireless modem so we can now provide internet access for next week. Look forward to seeing all of you tomorrow.

Crossing the Line...

It's hard to believe we haven't blogged in over a week. There has been so much happening and we have been running so hard that we just didn't have a spare minute to do it. Thanks to all of you for a great opening on Canada Day and for a great first four days. Opening day was baptism by fire as we were lined up out the door and packed to the rafters. We ran out of milk minutes before the fireworks started and got to watch them out the window as we collapsed on the couch. Stampede Parade day was also very interesting when we got to see a car driven up the steps of City Hall and the street was taped off by police. Never a dull moment. We also have tons of new friends who we've met at Insomnia.
We have tentatively set our hours to 7-5 weekdays, 9-3 Saturday and closed Sunday (even we have to sleep sometime). Let us know what you think at feedback@insomniacoffee.ca
Looking forward to seeing all of you next week when we'll be adding light lunches and starting our gourmet cupcakes.

They're here...

Yesterday the long anticipated GB5 arrived. Amid lessening construction debris and noise, our machine was installed near the end of the day by Steve from National Cappuccino. Thanks to John, Russ and Jason our first shots were of the Idido Misty Valley (new from Fratello) which was a grand pleasure after the last few very long days. So much so, that we sacrilegiously used a normal coffee cup because it was all we had on hand but oh was it good. Along with the Marz, came all its friends. The Swift and Simonelli grinders, Fetco tower and Luxus carafes and most importantly our new filtration system that will keep them all healthy. Today will be the final day of construction at Insomnia and with one week to go we are really excited.

Raising the bar. . . literally

Plenty of changes have happened at Insomnia in the past few days. The walls are painted. Crown mould is up. The stainless is in. Even the oven, dishwasher and ice machine are tucked into their spots. But perhaps the most exciting change was today's arrival of the bar, created by the folks from BF Woodwork. It really is fantastic - from the custom stain and design created by Bruno to the fabulous display case built by the guys in the shop that will soon feature some tasty treats. Its installation definitely signalled to us that we are close to becoming a coffee bar, even if there are still ladders and drop cloths everywhere. If that wasn't enough excitement for one day, the folks at GraniteWorx capped it off by installing our intense coffee granite. It was so great to see the little bit of Calgary sun reflecting on that gleaming stone. Tuesday will prove to be another action-packed day as the espresso machine and the rest of the coffee accoutrement's are arriving. We are bringing down the French Presses so we can enjoy a cup of Kenyan at the end of the day.

Steam heat. . . .

Wow. We spent a couple hours with Corey at National Cappuccino today working on the La Marzocco GB/5. We again went over proper machine maintenance, then Corey pulled us a couple of shots of espresso. That's when the fun really began, he gave us a demo, then turned us loose steaming milk. One would think that should be an easy job, you are just heating up milk, right? Wrong, there are so many things to remember. Purge the steam wand. Make sure it's on the right angle. Insert wand into milk. Hold the pitcher straight. Listen for the proper pssst noise. Make sure the milk's hot but not too hot. Find that mythical right temperature. Set down the pitcher. Don't forgot to purge the steam wand again to clean off the milk before it dries to an impenetrable brown crust. Then go back to the pitcher, tap and swirl it to eliminate the bubbles. Watch for separation. Then pour it into the cup.
Oh yes, and while all that steaming is going on, make sure you pull a proper shot. As we have a semi-automatic, timing is key. There is no automatic stop. It's all about keeping an eye on that too. Did we mention we were steaming milk at the same time? Needless to say, at the end of two hours, we had some decent tasting cappuccinos, but nary a rosetta in sight. A pear, maybe. More practice is definitely needed before we get to decent latte art. Alright, enough blogging, back to the steam wand.

Getting Ready To Go

Today was a great day. Our plumbing passed inspection and the walls were closed up. The taper is in tomorrow morning and we should be painting within a couple of days. We are still on track for opening on July 1. We arrived home to find our go cups had been delivered so we unboxed them and took some pics. They look fantastic. Thanks to 4imprint who did them for us. We have something special planned for them...