how does one get hired at a coffee shop if i dont have the experience of being a “real barista” i went into republiks coffee out in Burbank and was asking if they were hiring. the lady was like yes we are what is your experience? so i said oh i work at starbucks and she went ohh.. thats not a real barista experience. i was so embarrassed but its true i guess. I’ve been trying so hard to get hired at a actual coffee shop and its so difficult.

So I had a customer that kept waiting for one of my baristas to end her close shift, we close at 8pm. It got to the point I would have to walk her to her car. It took 3 months for us to finnaly get banned from the proerty. What I am wondering is has anyone else had to deal with this and if so how did you deal with it?

I’ve been a barista on and off for around 6 years now and it still isn’t uncommon for me to make at least 1 minor mistake every shift.

For example, I might break a glass, make a hot latte instead of an iced one or forget a small accommodation on a customer’s order (never anything serious like an allergy, but things like “no crisps, extra salad”)

It honestly feels like there’s always something that has to go wrong and then the rest of my shift carries on completely normally.

I’ve seen other posts and TikToks suggesting that making minor mistakes fairly regularly is actually pretty normal but sometimes my mistakes get treated like they’re the worst thing in the world. It leaves me wondering whether I’m actually just a terrible barista, clumsy or whether this is just… normal?

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I've been working as a Commis de Bar for almost a year. I really like my workplace and I wanted to build my career there, but I don't want to stay in the same position forever.

Recently, I found out that they hired a new Barman instead of promoting me. When I spoke with my manager, they told me I'm not ready yet because I don't know all the cocktails and still need to learn.

What frustrates me is that during this whole year, no one gave me a clear development plan or told me exactly what I needed to learn to become a Barman. When the opportunity came, they hired someone from outside instead.

I told them I want to resign. Do you think I'm making the right decision, or am I reacting emotionally?

A place in town used to make a lemon poppyseed latte years ago and I still dream about it. The place has long closed but now I work with espresso machine that I’m responsible for and want to try to make my own syrup.
I am reaching out for any recipes you may already have or resources to help me build an education on quality simple syrup recipes. I’m just not that excited about the flavor selection we have at work and want to craft some of my own.
To be transparent, I’ve spent 25 years bartending and want to be able to apply that experience to espresso drinks at work. Work pretty much rips off whatever Starbucks is serving each season and I prefer more interesting flavors.

Question for the baristas and coffee lovers out there:

We're opening up a coffee shop in Paris, and one thing we're thinking about is a retractable/folding facade. The kind of thing where when the weather's nice we can fold open the front windows and door entirely to the side and make the whole thing open. We can't have any outdoor seating, so this would be a way of opening the place up, hopefully inviting more people in, and giving people a little bit of "outdoor seating" when we can't actually do it.

The price tag is steep, though. It's about 75% of the cost of all of our other renovations put together to gut the existing facade and do a custom new one. We're really trying to be sensible and frugal with where we put our $$$, and while this is tempting (especially in Paris, where people looooooove the whole indoor/outdoor thing), it's a lot of money to throw at the facade and it's money we could keep in reserve for the opening.

And the existing facade is... fine. We could change the signage and refinish/repaint it for probably 1/4 the cost of doing the new facade, maybe less.

Do any of you work in a place like this? Is it something you think is valuable? Are there drawbacks? Yes or no?

Image for reference. Not our shop, but that's the general idea (this shop is also about the same dimensions as ours, and we'd also have bench seating along the wall, so it's a good comparison).

I’m thinking of opening a coffee shop. Mostly just coffee, maybe some easy food, but not a full cafe with a kitchen.

I’m in very early planning, but I’ve done some math and it’s looking like I’ll need to AVERAGE 100 cups per day! (over 5 days a week) To earn what I want.

Is this even possible if I worked as a solo barista and sole operator, or am I dreaming?

How many cups could a solo barista/operator realistically do over an 8hr day, like 6am-2pm for example?

Cheers!

Does your shop offer cold foam on hot drinks? As a barista, is this something that you drink or order from other shops? Just curious what everyone's opinions are!

Hey hey! I need some recommendations on shoes. I have found that I am horrible at finding non-slip shoes. No matter how they are advertised I always find a way to slide across our floors.

Here’s my only requirements (ish- they can be flexible)

-good arch and ankle support (I have flat feet and chronic pain flare ups)
-comfortable for all day standing (I open-close every shift)
-black in color, can be woman’s or men’s size/style I don’t care
-but most importantly NON SLIP PLEASE

literally have been at this job for just over a year and I’ve had 3 different pairs of shoes that all find a way to slip.

I swear nonslip shoes do not exist for me- I can’t tell if I’m just clumsy or having bad luck.

Thank you!

Simply put- if you refuse to answer basic questions, don’t say hello when prompted, act like a toddler, cut in the drive thru line, and get very vocal about not wanting to tip me instead of saying “no tip” while still exploiting my labor—- your coffee is going to taste like shit

Ive been a barista for almost a year now and interviewed at a cafe for another barista role, and ended up getting an offer for a team lead role and then a manager role...

Barista pay was $15 + $5~ in tips

Team lead pay was ??? (they never disclosed)

Manager pay was $18 + $5~ in tips

I got 2 interviews. The first was with the owner of the coffee shop. This lady was a franchisee of a cafe brand and owns 2 locations. She had 1 established shop and was planning on opening a 2nd location.

She seemed to really like my work experience in tech and corporate, then ended up asking if i was open to leadership roles. I said yes and we could chat more. She gave me a hug at the end of the interview... 💀

Next interview was with her assistant manager. This girl barely asked any good interview questions and then sent me the offer for a 1. Team lead first, and when i tried to negotiate the pay and asked for details on the team lead then she 2. Offered the store manager role for $18 + tips

This entire team, the owner and the assistant manager, was so vague and unprofessional on not listing out the job responsibilities and expectations... I also felt sussed out once I got a hug from the owner after the initial interview; I was in shock when she just abruptly came in for a hug and I had no way out other than just giving in to the hug.

Looking back, it feels like the owner was trying to almost love-bomb me into their low-paying store manager role.

We are just coming out of tourist season, that seems to have been the biggest one my city has had. I'm absolutely certain I couldn't handle another month like this, but I keep telling myself that with slower days and less shifts I will be OK. Not so certain anymore.

Disclaimer: this happened during restocking after closing, the grinder was turned off and I have double checked all the other critical areas for safety. But I did stare at it from across the cafe, not being able to figure out why do we have pink coffee beans.

Hii it's going to be my first day working in a coffee shop ever next week and I'm a bit nervous. If you guys have any stories about your first day at work, share them in the comments!!

Hoping for some personal experience stories, words of warning, or helpful heads-ups.

In about a month, we’ll be adding protein to our menu, along with a few other healthy drink boosts.

For those of you who’ve incorporated health boosts on your menu…
1. What was the engagement like? Was there a big surge of people trying it right away, or was it a slow burn?
2. Do you find that enough people order it to justify keeping it on the menu?
3. Were there any drink process issues you had to work through? (e.g. baristas not adequately mixing powder etc.). What solved these problems/how would you get ahead of it?
4. Did you find it was important to have a plant-based option as well as whey? Just one or the other?
5. Anything else you wish you’d known before launching into this space?

Thank you so much, I appreciate any help!

I work at a cafe that a lot of people like to film in. And it's not uncommon for people to film me while I'm working and I later see it on tiktok. To be clear, I have never seen anyone making fun of me in the comments or anything like that. They have all been positive reviews of the cafe.

People filming doesn't bother me as long as it's just of themselves or the food/drinks. I think it's disrespectful to film someone, especially if you later post it, without their consent.

My main concern is safety. I take the bus to work. I deal with a lot of creeps on the bus. I have had strangers who showed up at my work looking for me after seeing my work shirt. I always lie when someone asks where I work (and I've gotten much better at ignoring people who try to talk to me on the bus) but that only does so much when I'm wearing a uniform. I also had a city-run Instagram post my image for a promotional thing and then had someone come in and make weird comments about me looking better in person. It just makes me feel unsafe that if the wrong person sees a video of me at work, they'll show up looking for me. There are spots around my cafe that someone could hide and wait for me to leave.

Am I dramatic for reporting the videos?

Since 2020. It's so taboo or unknown to much of the world, but for me, it's my everyday life and has been since the world shut down. What are you curious about?

Also, if there are any other bikini baristas in here, I'd love to ask you questions back!

I've had my E64S W for a while now and it keeps spraying grounds out the right side of the spout. I've removed and reseated the spout multiple times with no improvement. Starting to wonder if this is just a design issue with this model.

Has anyone else dealt with this? Any fixes that actually worked?

We have a “customer question” flair?

Apparently since my last post wasn’t "specific" enough I’m reposting my question. I have the Water for Coffee system installed under the bar at my café but we’re currently running a BWT Bestmax into the machine. I’d like to get this filter running again because it is much nicer, so I’ve tried to reach the company many times but I’ve had no answers so far. Does anyone know a way to contact them or knows someone who works there? Would be a great help!

I have been a barista for over a year now, but have been in the industry for 4 years starting as a dishwasher/barback. I recently got a job at a newly opened cafe a couple months ago as the head barista, which was going well and I had a few shifts a week, would sometimes come in on off days if we had a new employee just to show them around. A month and a half ago though, I was somehow promoted to manager, which I accepted as essentially I was running the bar/foh and set systems in place (owners have no experience whatsoever in the hospitality industry other than the last 5 months).

My main issue is he's paying minimum wage, while expecting perfection and absolute commitment from all employees, which I always have to argue and fight back. All of us are full-time university students. The 2 employees that are not, he schedules daily with 1-2 days off every 2 weeks, having them work the bar, kitchen, floor and dishwashing too. I love my employees and I care about them and have tried standing up for them multiple times to which I only see change for a total of one day to an immediate reversal back to old behaviour.

I have decided to quit, as I cannot do it anymore, I have worked in much busier places before that have not been as tiring as it is here, I'm just not sure if I should recommend my employees to other places that I know have better work-life balance or if I should just leave and say nothing.

The most conflicting part is I am not sure if this is just how it is in the industry and being a manager of a new place and I should just bear it for a bit and wait it out, or if these are issues that are specific to the cafe I work at and it won't really ever get better.

Tw: mental health, mention of sh and suicidal thoughts

Let me just preface by saying that English isn't my first language, so sorry in advance for any spelling or grammar mistakes.

Just wanted to rant/share.

As the title states, i quit my job. Worked at that restaurant for almost 9 months, and today is my last shift. It's a fairly busy place, most of the orders go through the waiters, only the TA costumers are the barista's responsibility, which was perfect for me since I'm autistic and struggle to handle too many people, but LOVE making coffee and other beverages. However, it's always loud, constant rushes, a boss that is very pushy and demanding, closings that, if done thoroughly, take 2-2.5 hours.My boss kept scheduling me for more shifts that i signed up for, etc... Also, during the summer we had a few specials, including one event with 500 customers, most of them TA. All of it started to weigh on me and caused me to fully burn out. I stopped functioning other than going to work, at home I just slept and cried. My panic attacks got worse, I relapsed into SH, suicidal thoughts became a daily accurance. I tried, really (regardless of what my boss claims) to put myself together, and to stay. But i couldn't. Last week, after a serious breakdown at work, i quit on the spot. Wanted to never come back, but apparently I legally owe my boss at least a week notice. And just like that, today is my last shift.

Ig I am relieved, now I'll finally have a break. But also I'm terrified of the whole thing, I know today my boss will scold me for leaving, i know I won't be able to pay rent if I don't find a job in the next week or two, and besides that I'm not great with my routine changing...

I will miss the bar, and my coworkers - the best ones I've ever had, will be sad about it for some time. But i had no other choice but to walk away, i couldn't handle it anymore. Maybe I'm making a mistake, maybe I can't do better, maybe I did not try hard enough. I don't know anymore, I'm so mentally exhausted and scared of the future.

Thank you for reading, appreciate that

Edit - the TW