Jessica McCarrel

What is Kaffeeklatsch?

Kaffeeklatsch is a German word it means coffee gossip. It’s sort of an old-world term that is still used in two ways. One is sort of a word that you would use if you’re having coffee with your grandma. And then the other klatsch was a kind of newspaper akin to the Calgary Sun so the kaffeeklatsch is sort of getting together and talking about the news of the day — talking about the klatsch. So that’s literally what kaffeeklatsch means. It usually refers to females to females getting together and gossiping. So I really like the word both for its meaning and the double letters — my name being Jessica McCarrel I’m obsessed with double letters. Kaffeeklatsch the store is a 25-square-foot coffee nook in CommunityWise.

Have you always been obsessed with coffee as well?

Not as a coffee geek. I think that arose fairly recently but I was a hardcore fan of Phil & Sebastian and the third-wave coffee movement that sort of occurred in Calgary. I noticed that within this building CommunityWise there was a lack of a gathering spot and it being community spaces it felt like a missing element of the building.

How did you decide to open a coffee shop?

Haymarket Cafe and Bookstore was going to lose their non-profit status and I felt really sad about this because I really loved that organization and I wanted to bring it back but it was sort of too late. So they were just like “why don’t you start your own coffee shop why do you need to be Haymarket?” So that got me thinking. Then Phillip he’s part of the staff collective at CommunityWise he said “well we have this closet.” Like offhandedly. And then I got serious about that.

Did he mean it when he said it?

Oh he totally meant it but I think what he meant was because I was talking about a coffee cart at that time what I think he meant was that I could store it in this closet. But once I got in and started buying things I realized that with coffee there’s a lot of things that you need a lot of product that goes with coffee and it was surpassing the amount of things that could fit on this coffee cart and so I kind of built the entire thing inside the closet. Then when it came to electrical things I realized that a cart is actually not that mobile because of its sheer electrical needs. So I just sort of more permanently set myself up in the closet but it is still portable so it can be taken to other spaces. I took it out to Nuit Blanche.

So the stuff that’s inside the closet can go into the cart?

It’s pretty streamlined in the closet but it’s even more streamlined when I transport the cart — I take off a grinder and move over some things. The cart itself is in the closet.

Is it a bike cart?

I would love that that would be amazing and I know it’s been done but I don’t know how they do it. I can’t imagine.

So is it just a trailer that you hitch to the back of a car?

That’s still a big question mark. I rented a U-Haul to bring it down for Nuit Blanche but I’ll need a more permanent set-up.

Was it challenging trying to figure out how to fit everything?

Things were challenging but we just built the coffee cart to fit that space. As things came in and I knew I had to put them somewhere I just put up another shelf. It just grew really organically. It was a challenge because I don’t really know how to use tools.

Tools electricity….

Plumbing.

Business? Is this your first business?

Yeah unless you count being an artist.

That does count yeah.

I mean I really do think ACAD (Alberta College of Art and Design) trains you to be an entrepreneur and it’s really not that different. I think that my non-profit administrative background plus trying to figure out how to be an artist really helped.

So this is a pop-up coffee shop so this will not be the permanent location?

No it won’t. We’re sort of testing each other out CommunityWise and I. They’re starting a 10-year plan for the future where they’re planning on renovating the kitchen and stuff like that and they might want their own coffee shop so they’re kind of seeing how it works.

Why CommunityWise?

I don’t have to pay for the closet [laughs]. But I’m giving them one per cent of my earnings which considering what the rent is here — I would have been paying $25 a month or a little more. But because I’m not exactly a non-profit they’re allowing me to use the space and then I’m giving them one per cent of my gross earnings. They’re making more money than they would have received if they were just charging me rent depending on how well I do. I wanted to support them and I wanted a supportive environment to test things out before really being a public face. This is really low overhead low investment. Aside from the assets and setting things up it’s really just the investment of my time.

Do you have plans for how long you’ll be here or where you might go next?

I work rather slowly. I mean in my business plan I have loose plans for the future. I think I’m going to use the mobility of the cart to kind of test out neighbourhoods and see where might be a great place to set up and then depending on how things go in a more stable environment and then a more travelling environment to see if I’d prefer to proliferate the city with more mobile options or if I’d want a brick-and-mortar.

You should park in front of a Starbucks.

I know. Starbucks is famous for doing that for setting up in front of a mom-and-pop store and seeing how long they last.

What kind of coffee are you using? I’m assuming you’re not roasting your own beans.

You wait [laughs]. A friend of mine does and she’s invited me over to do a session. There’s some wonderful coffee being made in Calgary. There’s some wonderful coffee being made nationally and internationally so I sort of looked at my options and I phoned a lot of places and got an idea of their price points and how I could work with them. I decided for environmental and for a bunch of reasons to pick a local roaster at least to start. I chose Caffe Rosso. They have three coffee locations and have been a coffee shop for seven years and they’ve been roasting for about a year and a half. I chose them over some of the bigger roasters like Fratello and Phil & Sebastian because I felt they were sort of a young organization that I could grow with.

Do you ever get claustrophobic?

A little yeah.

But you have this nice sitting area as well.

Yes and no. This is a communal space so it’s technically not part of the coffee shop but I fixed it up so that you can sit here and enjoy it. Before this was where you would pile chairs and there was a table that wasn’t used.

So you don’t have to buy a coffee to sit here.

No.

How has the reception in the building been?

Really good. People are having meetings here which is really great. And there’s been good support from the coffee professionals the coffee industry — I guess the coffee geeks. One guy came and said “I’ll come back and train you” because I literally trained at Caffe Rosso to learn how to make coffee. People from Phil & Sebastian come and people just help promote and they’re just really genuinely fantastic people. They love coffee and they want more good coffee options.