Live tunage this Saturday night

Saturday night at 7:00pm...Derek Pritzl !
Did you see today's Weekend Edition in the paper? Mighty nice article on our pal Derek Pritzl (by Helen Clarke...that gal is a fine writer) and great photos (they have some excellent photographers at the HTR too...the photographs of 2007 insert in today's paper is great, a very nice bonus). Anyway, come on by Saturday night to see and hear Derek perform.

8 Questions = Free Coffee

Ok, I think we'll wind the "8 Things About Stumpjack" contest down this weekend...so, if you haven't done it yet you've got just two or three more days to maybe win that pound of Guatemalan. Remember, we'll ship it out to you too if you're outside the area here. Scroll down to the post below and answer the 8 easy T/F questions.

Abide, people...

Images from Nate's Friday art reception

Click here to visit the Flickr images from Friday's opening reception for Nate's "Robots, Monsters & Rockets" showing.

Will add some images from Becky's Saturday night gig when Doug gets me the disc of pictures he took (in the next few days).

Tonight Live Musica!

Tonight (Saturday) Becky Markvart will be performing...7:00 pm. You may have seen the very nice article and photos of Becky in last week's Weekend Edition of the Herald Times Reporter. Becky's always a fun gig.

Also, in case you didn't know, the 3-person play "Art" is scheduled to be performed at the Two River Community House for three succeeding weekends in February. Tonight sometime during Becky's gig the cast is going perform a scene from the play here at Stumpjack, which should be a blast.

The opening last night for Nate's photography exhibit was great...nice crowd and a lot of compliments on his photographs. We'll put some pictures up from last night as well as some from tonight, in the next day or two. Scroll down and answer the contest questions...the future of the free world is at stake...along with a pound of fine Guatemalan.

8 Things About Stumpjack Contest

In my never-ending quest to make use of (read "steal") any good or fun idea that comes down the pike, I am copying the format of a contest from Jin's Jintrinsique blog (which you ought to check out yourself...you might win some sweets). In fact, I'm pretty much just copying and pasting her entire game rules and outline almost word for word.

The Set-Up:
I'm going to give you 8 bits of info about Stumpjack Coffee.

The Catch is:
Only some will be true; some are absolute lies.

To Play:
YOU need to guess which are which.

The Fun Part:

He/she who wins gets a pound of outstanding Guatemalan coffee for free! This coffee comes the estate of Antigua Azotea in Guatemala and is expertly prepared by Two Rivers Roasting to a lovely full city roast.

The Rules:
One guess per person. The names of those who have the most correct guesses will be tossed into a bowler hat & one winner will be picked. It'll be our pleasure to ship the Guatemalan directly to your home or office anywhere in the U.S. or Canada. (Please Note- Canadian residents may be subject to an import fee before being allowed to accept your package; this fee would be solely the winners responsibility.)

Remember:
You don't have to be a blogger to play! Simply leave your choices (either 'true' or 'false') in the comments section after the post along with your first name (or nickname); should you win you can contact us by email with your shipping information.

A Confession:
This idea for the contest came from Jennifer Pasquill, who in turn got it from someone by the name of Dashing Dan.

Winner will be announced:
In a week or so... let's see how many peeps we get to play!!!

1) Radio programming has described the Stumpjack critter as a shy, highly intelligent animal who has a keen nose and is attracted to the aroma of fine brewed coffee.

2) The Stumpjack Coffee Company building was first built in the late 1800s and operated as a bordello for sailors and merchant seamen of the Great Lakes.

3) Stumpjack Coffee Company has as its inspiration a small cafe in southern Italy that opened in the years immediately following World War II and was operated by two former GI's who loved the country and decided to stay after the war.

4) The Stumpjack Coffee Co. neon sign that adorns our front window was created over the course of several weeks by a neon artist who now resides in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

5) The murals on the walls behind the counter in Stumpjack Coffee Co. were uncovered during renovation of the space and have as yet been unidentified as to their creator.

6) Stumpjack Coffee Co. uses several different roasters for its coffee, some located as far away as Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington.

7) Numerous musicians have performed at Stumpjack Coffee, including local artists Becky Markvart and Kerry Michaels, Pat DiNizio of the Smithereens, blues guitarist John Will Balsley, and Chicago jazz guitarist Miles Milborn.

8) According to company archives the original documentation and partial domestication of an actual Stumpjack, whom our logo represents, is credited to one Lester V. Smith.

Rumors because we're jintrinsicly more talented?

This Monday morning I was doing some blog surfing, doing some catch-up reading of some of my favorite blogs, as I am wont to do on my day off (day off...what a concept)...including that of our friend and pastry queen extraordinaire, Jennifer Pasquill of Uniquely Yours Pastry Shoppe. Anyhoo, reading Jin's entry "The Anonymous Non-Customer," about some goofball who got bent out of shape over some newspaper coverage that Jin and her shop received sparked some carry-over conversation from one that took place yesterday in the Stump about some rumor going 'round that we're closing the cafe (not true). Jin's response to the "anonymous non-customer" was good (appropriate and funny), but what I'm primarily taking from her post is her decision to use her blog to address and inform.

So, let us address the rumor that Stumpjack is closing (not true). We've heard this rumor several times in the last couple of weeks since Kim and I got back from our brief, 3-day getaway in Door County. We are not closing. We have a full schedule of weekend music scheduled through the first quarter of the year (which you can check out on the Stumpjack Coffee myspace site calendar...and be sure to check it periodically as we will be adding things to it as they present themselves); we've got a whole bunch of new, fun things we'll be adding this year, such as tastings (wine, chocolate, beer, cheese, coffee, etc), game tournaments, open mic and poetry nights, cigar and coffee events, outside music events, an expanded menu, and a lot of other odds & ends...

We're looking forward to a great year of more fun, more events, even more quality in our menu and more community involvement in 2008. We're planning on attending both the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America) Conference in Minnesota in May and CoffeeFest in Seattle in September, in order to increase our skills, knowledge and proficiency in what we do even further (during which time, yes, we will likely be closed for a few days). So, Stumpjack Coffee Company is not only not closing, but is growing and planning for bigger and better things every month.

Being that Stumpjack is a gathering place, that third place, for people to meet and chat, we are invariably party to all sorts of things as part of the daily conversation. Generally, you ignore the negative and personally inflammatory talk because it seems that, more often than not, there is a personal agenda attached to those kinds of things that makes them inaccurate at best. I think that this recent rumor that we're closing was probably not started maliciously or with any specific agenda by anyone. What likely got it going was simply a misreading of the sign that we put up on the window before Kim and I went to Door County stating that we'd be closed for the week while on vacation. Or perhaps we got mixed up with Copper Kettle's closing as we're just a couple doors down from that establishment. Whatever...the point is that the rumor was probably just created by faulty information, misunderstanding and lazy fact finding.

But...

Sometimes rumors are in fact started with a less than honorable agenda. I addressed some of this before in my own personal blog, Stumptoons, a few months ago. Earlier this past year we also heard the same "I heard you guys are closing" line from a customer who said that it was told to him as a statement of fact by another business owner (which makes it all the more curious and disappointing...one would hope that certain people would have more sense). Last summer there was also a claim made online by someone in Manitowoc that we were using a large, well-known wholesale coffee vendor as our supplier (the issue was quality of coffee). We have always used Two Rivers Roasting, exclusively, as our whole bean supplier, and proudly so. This was clearly an attempt by someone who didn't like the positive attention Stumpjack was getting to try to spread some misinformation. While I suppose that kind of thing - defensive reactions and rumor mongering - are part of human nature when someone feels threatened, it's nonetheless a dopey way to respond (albeit sometimes entertaining as well).

Thank you, btw, to all of you good folks who asked us about this "closing" rumor and expressed concern about the validity of it. We truly appreciate your friendship and your appreciation for what Stumpjack Coffee has to offer...it means a lot. Oh, the "jintrinsicly more talented" line in the subject is from Jin's blog response to the lady who wrote her the nasty letter...cracked me up.

Valentine's Day

Join Us For A Romantic Evening of
soft music, candlelight, flowers,
fine wine & chocolate
at the first annual

Stumpjack Coffee
Valentine Evening

Thursday, February 14th
7pm - 9:30pm

Sample 6 different wines with chocolate pairings.
Includes a bottle of von Stiehl Valentine Wine.
Music by Becky Markvart.
$30.00 per couple

Limited to 8 couples.
Reserve, in advance, your private table now!

Stumpjack Travel Mugs

We just got our Stumpjack Travel Mugs in and I am rather pleased with the way they look...shiny, insulated silver aluminum with a solid black handle and the Stumpjack logo in dark brown on both sides. Sharp.

You can get one of these for $16.95 and a free latte, cappuccino or brewed coffee to fill 'er up with right away. In addition to that, every time you bring your Stumpjack travel mug in for a drink instead of using a paper to-go cup, you'll save an extra dime on your drink. We're trying to cut down on disposable cup use (good for the environment and helps lower our cup and lid expenses a little bit), so use this travel mug every time you come in for a coffee to go, save a dime (hey, it adds up!), help the environment and look cool whilst doing so.

Celebrities at Stumpjack

Stumpjack Coffee has been visited by a few celebrities over the last year and a half we've been open, and yesterday we enjoyed the company of Corduroy the Bear, who was accompanied by his good friends Elizabeth and Emilia (and Baby Jaguar). Elizabeth apparently had to take Corduroy to all of her favorite places and take a picture of their visits for a school project, and here they are at Stumpjack yesterday. Thanks for visiting us girls!

Validation feels nice

I've been saying this about competition and Starbucks for a long time..."right next door please."

click here: http://www.slate.com/id/2180301

Vacation Notes

Here's a few notes from our little get-away last week: http://stumptoons.blogspot.com/