Roast Master Cafe Baakens

Last Thursday (March 22) two of our Coffee Crawlers celebrated their birthday.  What are the chances of THAT happening?  Rhetorical question or not, I got answers from both Lou and Keith... no surprise there!  Well, it just so happens that, with 23 people in our Crawl group on Thursday at Roast Master Cafe, the chance of two people sharing a birthday is just over 50%.  Lou showed me the whole statistical formula that determines this percentage, painfully reminding me of all that I forgot from that one stats class I took in college!  Anyway, yes, there were 23 of us there to help celebrate Margaret's and Fran's birthdays.  Those enjoying the Sumatran single origin Guatemalan coffee (and other beverages) were birthday girls, Margaret Zoetmulder and Fran de Beer along with Dale Mitchell, Sandy Venter and her granddaughters, Sarah and Rachel, Keith de Beer, Gail Darne, Stella and Beryl Dawson, June Nash, Marie Nash, Leanne Waller, Sylvia Mynhardt, Colleen Le Roux, Antoinette Rose, Elaine Watson, Nomusa Nkomo, Les Baldwin, Fr. Dominic Griego, Matthew Nazer, and Beth Vieira.

This Week's Crawlers

Roast Master Cafe Baakens is located at 1 Bridge Street, on the corner of Upper Valley Road and Brickmakerskloof in South End.  The cafe opened its doors to the public on Oct 5, 2011 and has quickly become a popular PE spot to have breakfast/lunch seven days a week.  The shop's hours are weekdays, 8-5 and weekends, 8-3.  It was no problem for manager, Sarah Ward, and the Roast Master staff to accommodate our unexpected group as the cafe seats about 100 patrons inside and on the patio outside.  Our barista, Veliswa, has had a number of years of barista experience so easily kept up with our first, second, third rounds of coffee orders.  During the course of Thursday's Crawl I had two excellent double shot cappuccinos.  I ended up having to run a 5K when I got home so as to work off the jitters!

Meet the Manager
Sarah Ward



Meet the Barista
Veliswa



Sarah busy roasting the beans

At first glance, Roast Master Cafe looks like your typical coffee shop but after a few minutes to look around and a couple of questions posed to the staff, we discovered two unique features of the cafe:  1. they roast their coffee beans daily on site,  2. they offer the following courses through their on site Coffee Academy: Coffee Appreciation, Barista 101, Intermediate Barista, Advanced Barista, Roasting 101.  The two-hour Coffee Appreciation course looks like a lot of fun for the average coffee lover, and it is also a great idea for a corporate or team event or a private party.  For info re: the Roast Master Coffee Academy visit their website at  http://www.roastmaster.co.za/   or send email enquiries to:  baakenscafe@roastmaster.co.za  or call 041 581 1682.

Now with a group the size of Thursday's Crawl it's hard to keep track of the conversations at the tables so I gave up trying early on and just sat back, munched on a bagel and talked tennis and parenting with those around me.  Of course, at one point, we all joined in a rousing chorus of "Happy Birthday" for our two guests of honor.  Happy Birthday, Margaret and Fran!  As the morning waned a bunch of us needed to get up and move around so we took a stroll next door to check out the micro brewery which opens daily at about 10 for coffee, drinks and light snacks.  Perhaps a Crawl at the brewery lies somewhere in the future!

~Thank you to Sarah and the Roast Master staff - tremendous service for our large group with no notice!
~Thank you to Linga Fan for your recent comment on the Linga Longa post.  It's good to get updates as the
   Linga Longa Cafe goes through its renovations.
~Happy Birthday to my nephew, Brenden (March 28)
~A tip from the "How to Win Money in Bar Bets" website - ... in a group of 50 random people there is a
  97% chance that two people will share a birthday.  Now, go out a win some cash with that info!!!

Until next week,

Ellen