FAQ's

Disclaimer: Sorry about the layout of the text of this blog.  I spent forever trying to fix it and we want to go to the park.  I have no idea what the problem is, but it can't be user error!

Liam and Courtney just returned from a week in Destin. I stayed home and ate frozen pizza, spent some good times with friends and slept in, until 8am! Here are some great pics from their trip.

I'm just about ready to start crawling!

I am biased but this picture belongs in every picture frame that is for sale worldwide

Trade you my sifter for your bottle...playing on the beach with Cousin Kingston

Hammin' it up with Mom 

Playing with my big cuz's Gunnar and Jansen...

For a strong, balanced tan, make sure the undersides of your arms 

get sun also

The way to relax when you only get 3 naps a day, is a dip in the pool

And just for the fun of it here is a couple funny video links of Liam.  

This one is him doing an impression of a Richard Simmons workout 

video.  And this one is a valiant effort at crawling.  Enjoy!

Ugly Mugs Update

We get asked a lot of questions about our coffeehouse on a daily basis.  

Sometimes, you can tell people are sincerely concerned, other times 

you can tell people are thinking 'what the heck are you doing?', and still 

others ask with a sympathetic tone as if they are thinking 'oh, were so 

sorry, did you know that 80% (or whatever) of businesses fail.  I do have 

to say we have had overwhelming support of our concept and for pursuing 

our dream.  So here we have decided we would take a few minutes and 

answer some of our most frequently asked questions.  And we mean it

when we say frequently. If we answered it here it  means that at least ONE 

person has asked us this question.  

When did you decided to do this?

For the five years that we have been together, we have always talked 

about the idea of opening a coffeehouse and standing there together 

watching people talk, read, write or do whatever they do at one. Then 

we lived in Charlotte together and learned (at least I did) from our friends 

there what real love and community meant. When we had the opportunity

to come back and live in Nashville, we were torn actually because we loved 

Charlotte. But we prayed and talked and decided that we would attempt to 

come back to Nashville and see if we could apply what we had learned in 

Charlotte back 'home'. We did not expect to do it this quickly upon returning,

but who are we to decide when 'right' time is. This feels right, so here we go.

Why a coffeehouse?

We love coffee! And Courtney has taught me to love tea...and people. Life 

goes by really fast and coffeehouses just seem like a place to slow down for 

a while. I also found thatthe business world seemed to be full of superficial 

relationships. Most relationships are based on some sort of agenda (this 

person is a client, that person can help me advance my career, etc.).  Not that 

opening the coffeehouse will change anything for me, but it will be one more 

place in the world where, we hope, other people will develop true relationships.

Are you worried about opening during a weak economic period?

NPR called and asked about this. No, not really. But this is probably the 

question I have received the most. It is a great question too. Early on, I had

a touchy-feely answer about coffeehouses being a place to get away from 

feeling like the economy is weak. "You know, we're selling $2 cups of coffee, 

not $20,000 cars, " I would say. But I've been asked that so many times, I

actually did some research on it and it turns out that historically speaking, 

coffeehouses are recession proof. Coffee is an 'affordable luxury' that has 

allowed the industry to grow even in times of a slow economy. You will actually 

see companies like Starbucks and McDonald's increase their marketing/advertising 

budgets during weak economies to compete more for those dollars that are spent. 

What does happen though is that consumers scrutinize the value they got

for every dollar spent. You had better make that $4 spend at the coffeehouse feel 

like an good spend of their dollars or they won't come back again.

What is your location like?

We are in a brand new mixed-use building that will eventually be one of several 

buildings in a development. Our building will include a restaurant, smoothie/juice 

shop and a couple of office type spaces. The second floor of our building is eight 

apartments/flats. There are two popular restaurants across the street. It is a 

walker-friendly neighborhood with a school close and plenty of houses, and it's 

on a bus route. All in all it's very good.

What is your decor going to be like?

Clean, contemporary, a little brighter than a lot of coffeehouses are. We strayed 

away from the browns, blacks and dark reds you see in many coffeehouses for a

more modern feel. Leather(ish) furniture, booths, bar seating, lots of natural light 

coming through our vast windows. Stainless countertops...get the picture?

Will you...

Have free Wi-Fi?

Yes - I don't understand how you couldn't these days.

Have live music?

Yes - this is Nashville. Know someone who wants to play, email us at 

music@uglymugsnashville.com. We will support local singers, songwriters, 

artists, writers, etc is as many ways as we can within reason.

Have food?

Yes - but not tons. We are only a restaurant as classified by the government. 

We are a coffeehouse. But we will have options that go well with coffee and tea.  

Most will be prepared outside of our walls so that we can focus on our coffees, teas 

and atmosphere. More to come on that...

Roast your own coffee?

No - that is a whole other business that many coffeehouses have in addition 

to running a coffeehouse. We love the process. It is artistic, scientific, detailed 

and many other things. But like I said before we want to focus on one thing and 

we will leave the processing of coffee and tea up to people who are the best 

available so that we can bring the best quality to our place.

Can I get free coffee when I come in if I know you?

Jarod: No

Courtney: Yes

Liam: Goo ga bhlue

Sorry these pics aren't very exciting. You can see the drywall is going up.

The hope is that this week the space will be painted, we'll get pics.

Then the flooring should be done and equipment moved in!

Next week, the floor should be completed.  You can

see the front door on the left, then a set of windows 

that will have bar seating overlooking the sidewalk, 

some landscaping and the parking lot.

We're trying leave as much original character of 

the building as we can, like leaving as much exposed

concrete ceiling and these columns raw.

Picture this, a warm summer evening and the garage

door on the right is open, there's someone performing

music in front of the opening and your sitting with friends

having coffee and a chocolate cupcake with fluffy mint icing 

(provided by The Sugar Bar).  Doesn't sound so bad does it.

See you soon.  Peace and love, 

TDT

No Politics, Just Updates (finally)

Well April blew by without us updating this blog at all. Thus breaking my goal of posting once per month. I have no idea where the month went. But I can't remember doing much critical thinking during April, so I can spare you some random deep thoughts about nothing and just provide some general updates. 

The Trio

Growing Up

Liam has been doing great! He's sitting up now and playing with his toys by himself for a few minutes at a time. He's laughing a lot, sleeping well at night and will pretty much hang out with anyone. We were pretty sure he was allergic to everything including oxygen for a while, but after a visit to the allergist where they pricked him with 13 potential allergens it turns out he's not allergic to much. He also made his first big trip back to my 'hometown' of Joplin, Missouri. He got to meet his great G-G-Ma, great grandpa, uncle Jamie and aunt Staci, and one of his great aunts and uncles and a cousin who has the same name as him. It was a good time, but you can't help but feel like a bad parent when you're strapping your kid in a carseat for 8-9 hours straight. 

Having fun with dad.

Sitting up all by myself and playing with huge blocks.

Not sure what is going on here actually.

Sportin the new hat mom picked up for me.  I prefer to have it in my mouth.

Cracking up with my cousin Lanie.

How sweet is that?

Growing Old

Courtney and I have both had birthdays since we last wrote. She's now only a year away from 30! Luckily, I have one more year to prepare for that. We gave each other great weekends of fun. Mine included dinner at one of Nashville's best steakhouses and tickets to RENT. Courtney's included dinner at a great local restaurant, a manicure, pedicure and barbeque with her family. I also managed to survive having all 4 of my wisdom teeth taken out. I'm not going to lie, it pretty much sucks. But the part I thought would be the worst, being artificially put to sleep, ended up being the best part.

Saying 'Goodbye' to remembering 50 passwords

We are both about to be finished (for now) with corporate America. Courtney's last day at Tractor Supply Company is May 30 and my last day with my agency is May 29. We are looking forward to starting our "work all the time, $0/year salary with no benefits" job. Actually, there are many benefits to being with Liam more and feeling like were going to be doing something that we are meant to do. Somehow going against the grain of what society seems to 'expect' from you is appealing too. Although something we would not do if we weren't sure that we were asked to do it.

Ugly Mugs

Construction

Lots of people have been asking about the status of the coffeshop and looking for pictures. For a while we have been waiting for things to happen on the construction side that were triggering many more things. They are starting to happen. Just this past week we got a floor. Our expectation is to be opening around the first of July. Here is a few pics of the space. Just wait until you see the 'after' pictures.

That is our space.  The big opening on the right is where a garage door has gone in, and the small opening in the middle is where our front door is.  The windows on the left will have bar seating at them looking out the window.

A pretty good shot of the inside of the space.  You can see the garage door on the left and front door right in the middle.  

Courtney making me an espresso.  She is standing pretty much right where she will be when she is really making it!

The Doves

We had the opportunity to cater the green room at the Dove awards a couple of weeks ago. We served coffee and tea to to the crew and talent for two days.  This was very cool. It was our first public appearance as a business and I think we made a good first impression. We met some very cool people and were very fortunate to have the opportunity. I hope we have more of them!

Our setup at the Dove Awards.  We served regular and decaf coffee and 3 kinds of loose leaf tea.

Our first day serving people together.  We were excited.

The banner we hung at the Doves trying to get our name out there. 

That is our logo scrolling across the TV during the telecast of the Doves.  No one probably saw it, but I don't care you who are that is cool.

Contact

We now have the beginnings of a website and myspace page up for Ugly mugs. Here are the links:

www.uglymugsnashville.com

www.myspace.com/uglymugsmusic - if you're into the myspace thing, hook up with us on there.  It will be a great place to see what's going on at the shop once we're open.

We'll be back soon with updates on life and the continued progress on the shop. And hopefully, when Courtney will be home more, she can blog again. At least then we can all read something worth while.