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The first coffee shop

Fenster Cafe | 20 December 2022 | 08:00

This is a separate and quite interesting story, but let’s talk about it in the context of creating the best coffee shop in the world. So, working on Kaffee von Sascha, I knew for sure that this was my “training” coffee shop.

In fact, of course and quite frankly, I needed money. Well, I had some savings, but to live in Vienna you need money regularly and a lot of it. I chose this type of activity to earn it. I understood all the risks and dangers and was ready to lose. The main purpose of the first coffee shop is both earnings and training for further movement forward.

It was quite difficult for a beginner to find a room, equip it, register it and so on. But everything was done and now the first visitors came. It was scary and unusual, and at the same time incredibly interesting.

I still don’t understand why all those people drank the coffee I was making, because it was something completely different from what is called “incredibly tasty”. Every day I was trembling with self-doubt and fear that today something would be wrong again and the visitor would not come to us again. But people came and ordered coffee.

In the beginning I was a big snob. I could refuse sugar. I could laugh when ordering an Americano, especially with milk. I constantly tried to persuade visitors to order only black coffee – espresso or filter variations. And I didn’t care that they would leave and never come back. Actually, that was partly what happened.

We had cheesecakes and two other sweets. Visitors took them with pleasure, and I tried to avoid selling anything other than coffee. We even had breakfasts for a while and a lot of people came to them. But it annoyed me even more and we eventually cancelled them. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that the cheesecake and other cakes that Nina baked were incredibly tasty and many people came for that. It is a pity that Nina does not see herself as a pastry chef.

A little bit about the coffee shop itself. It was small: 50-60 m2, with about 20 meters left for guests and about 10 for the bar. There were 8 seats – that’s how many were allowed for a coffee shop without additional permits for a large establishment. There were 6 more seats on the summer terrace. There was no toilet for visitors.

As for the equipment, I could not afford many expensive toys. It was a fairly classic La Marzocco Linea PB for 2 groups, coffee grinders: conical Mazzer Koni, and so on in trifles. Later I bought a Victoria Arduino Mythos 1 coffee grinder. It’s funny, but on the filter I had an old Mazzer SuperJoly, which I bought from the Pirates. This legendary coffee grinder, with which the Pirates started, is still at my home and grinds coffee properly.

In the first year I bought coffee from the Pirates. Every week I used to ride a trolleybus with bags to them (we had a direct connection) and brought fresh coffee. I am very grateful to Werner and Evelyn for that!

While working in the coffee shop I got my basic skills, experience, awards (strangely, not deserved, but 3rd place in the Austrian Barista Championship in 2016), and most importantly – the idea to create the best coffee in the world in the best coffee shop in the world. I got to know all those who helped and help me to be who I am. I got a very important achievement – my first experience.

But, strange as it may seem, the first coffee shop was not only a training one. It laid the foundations of something very important – a reputation. Until now, and it’s been more than 4 years since I sold it, almost every day people come to Fenster and either remember that I had a coffee shop on Pilgramgasse or even ask how things are going there, believing that the coffee shop is still mine. And all the time when I do something (a new coffee shop, for example), they often talk: Sascha, who created Kaffee von Sascha on Pilgramgasse.

However, two years after opening the coffee shop, I sold it. That’s right. The formal reason was that I started working on another project and I had no possibility to combine Kaffee von Sascha and Schrnk (more about it later). So…

But in fact, I was taking a step forward and it seemed to me that there was no other way than to sell Kaffee von Sascha.

It was a good, funny, pleasant, sometimes sad, and very important two years. Without which nothing could be further. And I am grateful to fate that everything happened as it did. Many people believed in me, believed and still believe in me. Maybe that’s why I never stopped and never went off this path.

I’m going for coffee ?

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