That’s right folks, the Great Lakes is having a barista jam being hosted at the Intelligentsia Roasting works in October. The MadCap crew will be there slingin spro with all the beautiful Great Lakes baristas. Its going to be wicked fun.
Blog
Rapid Growth Media
- August 13, 2008
- MadCap Shorts
- 1 Comment
This is being posted on rapidgrowthmedia.com tomorrow. Thanks to Andy for the sweet video.
Un poco piu
- August 4, 2008
- MadCap Shorts
- No Comments
Things continue to progress in our little MadCap empire. Beans have been ordered, furniture is being selected, and Ryan and I have new hairstyles. We will soon be introducing a coffee cart to the stoop of our 98 Monroe Center location. If we have a machine, the beans, and the itch to sling ‘spro, then it seems most functional and rational that we get started. Of course, this is a great opportunity to acquaint ourselves with the downtown wanderers, professionals, and visitors that may boast an interest in our coffee preoccupation.
Some impromptu gratitude: Many thanks to the friends, family, and professionals that have made the experience thus far fun, creative, and inspiring. We are looking forward to pouring you the latte of a lifetime.
New Grand Rapids coffee house owner plans to offer high-end drinks
- August 4, 2008
- MadCap Shorts
- 5 Comments
Article taken from Grand Rapids Press, written by Chris Knape.
GRAND RAPIDS — A high-profile downtown corner will be home to an upscale coffee shop right
next door to, you guessed it, another java joint.
MadCap Coffee, 98 Monroe Center NW, plans to roast its own beans, host local music and emphasize
the quality and beauty of it drinks over the size of the cups they come in. It is expected to open in
October.
The cafe signed a lease for the ground floor and basement at the northeastern corner of Ottawa and
Monroe Center, which has been empty since Two Choppers deli closed in 2006.
Its next-door neighbor is Local Mocha, a shop Steve Sumners and his wife, Mary, have owned for
three years.
MadCap is the idea of Trevor Corlett, a former Cornerstone University student who left school to get
into the coffee business.
Before returning to Grand Rapids, he was a partner in Moon Monkey Coffee Company in
Bourbonnais, Ill.
If all goes as planned, MadCap will join more than 10 places selling high-end coffee within a few
blocks, including six on Monroe Center.
“For a lot of people, it seems pretty stupid,” Corlett said.
“I’m pretty aggressive in what I’m doing right now,” he added.
“Our vision and what we do with coffee is pretty unique to this area,” Corlett said. “I’m pretty excited.
Competition is kind of a good thing. It helps differentiate us from everybody else.”
MadCap’s plans are being hatched on the heels of the closure of Four Friends Coffee earlier this
month less than a block away.
The owners of burger and hot dog restaurant Johnny’s Lunch are planning another coffee shop in the
old Four Friends, 136 Monroe Center NW, by fall.
Local Mocha will adapt and, hopefully, survive, Steve Sumners said.
“It’ll definitely be a challenge, but I guess we have to continue to market that we are local and we
support many of the local businesses more than the other shops,” he said.
“We just hope that our regulars do continue to frequent our store.”
Corlett expects MadCap to stand out by offering a comfortable place to relax, roasting its own beans
and educating customers about the quality of coffee drinks, none of which will be larger than 16
ounces.
“The type of coffee we’re doing tends to be a little pricier,” said Corlett, noting he hopes to sell the
shop’s fresh roasted beans to some higher-end restaurants in the area.
“The great thing about coffee is it can be as complex or nuanced as wine or microbrewed beers
nowadays.”
Baristas will be trained to prepare the beverages, with some producing “latte art” — drinks topped with
decoratively poured steamed milk and froth.
Several former Moon Monkey employees plan to join him at MadCap, Corlett said.
“It was really important for me getting started from the moment we opened the gates that I had people
behind the bar that were trained and ready to go,” he said.
The storefront was renovated and the 1,500-square-foot main floor gutted after Two Choppers left.
The building is owned by VanderWeide Properties LLC, a company owned by members of Amway
co-founder Rich DeVos’ family.
The End of the Beginning…
- May 10, 2008
- MadCap Shorts
- 5 Comments
[ Cue “Show Me What You Got” Single] It is my sincere pleasure to introduce you to our endeavor. Considering our lack of acquaintance, we will need to run through a lot, so bear with me. We’ll hit up the personalities of this effort soon enough, but I’ll lay down the primary details first. We have loved our Moon Monkey Coffee Shop. She has served us well as she fostered the development of our skills. What can we say, though? It’s time to grow up. We are growing up and out. Ladies and Gentlemen, competition, and downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, we are packing up our passion, skills, and sarcasm to bring you an exceptional coffee experience in the form of MadCap Coffee Company [ and Bad Ass Roastery]. With confidence akin to that of our friend, Jay Z, I may say that we will own it. Opening day lattes and capps will be marked with tulips and triples, as will be the standard everyday thereon out. We want you to vicariously live through us as we build this shop from the ground up. We are fusing our life into coffee for the sake of its perfection. We believe in the personal, communal, and global purpose of coffee; our joy comes from sharing it with others.
Without any further deliberation, I’d love to introduce you to the [soon to be] faces of MadCap Coffee Company.
-We will obviously begin with Trevor Corlett. Owner, barista, and Godfather- this man is why we are all here. With eight years of coffee industry experience, our boi has the coffee and entrepreneurial skills to show. He taught himself everything about the business from roasting to machine maintenance. His managerial skills have been compared to those of Empire Records [needless note: Trevor possesses an nonsensical amount of 1990‘s movie trivia in his skull] , nonetheless his commitment to coffee and its application have guided us down the caffeine trodden path of coffee culture. A.k.a. If our lives flop, we are holding him liable. This weekend, he will be competing in National’s with Ryan Knapp. You can identify him by the seemingly impenetrable watch he always wears. Titanium alloy, perhaps…
-Ryan Knapp is the right hand man. His job description encompasses roasting, training, and dominating the bar. Ryan has only had this love affair for about a year and a half, but his potential is unrivaled. Trevor passed off roasting to Ryan last year, and he has thrown his heart into every roast since. Ryan is serious about coffee, and to his credit, he won’t let us forget it. He is always reading, researching, and blogging about how he may further the quality of our product. He will be competing along with Trevor this weekend at National’s, and he may be spotted by his illustriously authoritative beard.
-Laura Feldman has, up to this point, been the secret shift leader. A promotion is underway, so I will update you with her official function. Off the record, Laura is quite the mediating factor in this whole equation. She is calm and cool like no other, and she holds more than her own (could that be an expression?) behind the bar. She has been, and will continue to be, proactive in addressing environmental and sustainability issues within the community. Laura has a unique contribution to MadCap’s story. Through credit manipulation and hard work, this girl is graduating a year early to move to Grand Rapids and start the shop. Laura may be found if you follow an incessant complaint about the weather. Our Cali girl isn’t too fond of snow, wind, or drizzles. It’s a good thing she’s moving to Michigan.
-As for myself, self-description is never any fun. I will cordially introduce myself as Naomi, and leave it at that for now. I have the authority to do that. I am the one writing.
Please, stay in touch, friends. This is going to be a brilliant chain of events, and we want you there from beginning to end. Speak soon!
Naomi
