Coffee Journey 澳洲咖啡之旅: Café Bolle

This café isn’t fancy. You won’t be attracted by the decoration. Yet, it tells you something more important: the passion of the owner in running the café and the good teamwork of the staff there to provide quality service which win the favours of the locals living in Neutral Bay. Today, I sat silently at a corner of the outdoor area. Loyal customers seemed to be familiar with the café, food and drinks. Perhaps visiting the café became part of their life of the week.

Otto, the owner, really had a good memory. He readily recalled the names of the loyal customers and could even remember their usual orders. This is called ‘respect’.

Otto shared that it was uneasy to win the locals’ trust initially when he took over the café in March 2004. Was that because of the myth that ‘Coffee isn’t Asian culture and therefore Asian people can’t make good coffee’?. Yet, he was so determined to run the café by starting with learning every single detail of coffee brewing and café management. Every early morning, he goes to the café for the barista role to make sure that customers get coffee with consistently good quality. This is called ‘passion’.

Café owners know that café management involves a lot of teamwork. Here, I could observe the high morale of the team. They were cheerful and attentive to the needs of the customers. In addition, Otto is ready to send the staff members to attend barista training to ensure that they get proper coffee knowledge and the necessary barista skills. This is called ‘professional’.

If you think Asians don’t know coffee, please visit this café. Single shot Vs double shot? The different tastes brought by full cream milk/skimmed milk/soy milk to espresso-based coffee? The special flavor of organic coffee? … so much that you can learn from this well-knowledged and dedicated café expert.

Real coffee doesn’t necessarily come from well-decorated café; but the hands of dedicated and passionate baristas and/or owners!

這咖啡店不算得精緻，你很難會被它的裝潢所吸引。然而，它告訴你一點更重要的：咖啡店東對咖啡店的熱誠，及員工團隊合作共同達至有水準的服務，這些足以令這咖啡店贏取在Neutral Bay小區居民的鍾愛。今天，我坐在店外露天的一角，細心靜看常客，他們對咖啡店、食品和飲品都很熟悉，或許，光顧這兒成了他們每星期生活的一部份。

店主Otto的記性很好，他不但能記得常客的名字，甚至記得他們常點的食品及飲品。這就是「尊重」。

Otto說在2004年3月接管這咖啡店的時候，一點也不客易，特別是要贏取顧客的信任，也許，這是大部份人都以為咖啡不是亞洲的文化，而亞洲人大槪不能做好的咖啡。然而，Otto很有決心把這咖啡店搞好，他親自學習沖煮咖啡的每個細節，以及咖啡店的經營管理。每天清早，他就跑到咖啡店當咖啡師的角色，確保顧客享用一杯質素穩定而高的咖啡，這就是「熱誠」。

咖啡店東主都知道咖啡店的經營管理涉及團隊工作，在這兒，我可以觀察到他們職員團隊很好的士氣，他們面帶笑客，而且很細心留意顧客的需要。同時，Otto不時把員工送去作咖啡師培訓，讓他們得到合適的知識及咖啡沖煮技巧。這就是「專業」。