The future of restaurant finance is here: Oakland man pre-pays for $1000 of beer
Two restaurant groups -- one for hippies, the other for hipsters -- are raising money by selling pre-paid gift cards in advance of opening, with a face vale 25 percent above the price, the Oakland Tribune reports.
The pioneer of the trend was Cafe Gratitude of SF and Berkeley, the vegan restaurant where the waiters tell you how wonderful and empowered your aura is but sometimes need to just bring the damned food, already.
Now Oakland's Awaken Cafe is copying the business model, hoping to raise $125,000 toward the $495,000 they need to open a coffee-by-day, beer-by-night abode at the former Golden Bull, which was known as a great place to buy a 40 oz container of Budweiser and listen to NWA on the jukebox.
The kicker is, they have only sold $14,000 in gift cards so far, and 19 of the 22 cards were to friends and family,
But what redeems the whole story and saves it from being a free advertisement for Awaken Cafe Investor Relations is one "Larry Biggie" of Adams Point, who allegedly bought $1,000 in gift cards.
That's a lot of organic beer, Larry.
Full story: Cafe's patrons hold key for capital
The pioneer of the trend was Cafe Gratitude of SF and Berkeley, the vegan restaurant where the waiters tell you how wonderful and empowered your aura is but sometimes need to just bring the damned food, already.
Now Oakland's Awaken Cafe is copying the business model, hoping to raise $125,000 toward the $495,000 they need to open a coffee-by-day, beer-by-night abode at the former Golden Bull, which was known as a great place to buy a 40 oz container of Budweiser and listen to NWA on the jukebox.
The kicker is, they have only sold $14,000 in gift cards so far, and 19 of the 22 cards were to friends and family,
But what redeems the whole story and saves it from being a free advertisement for Awaken Cafe Investor Relations is one "Larry Biggie" of Adams Point, who allegedly bought $1,000 in gift cards.
That's a lot of organic beer, Larry.
Full story: Cafe's patrons hold key for capital
Labels: restaurants
posted by Ryan at 5/16/2007 05:13:00 PM Link
1 Comments:
I just wrote something about the ephemeral Awaken Cafe and saw your catchy headline, so added a link here http://www.ibabuzz.com/nightowl. I cover "night life" in Oakland for the Trib. I'm curious what your thoughts are about the cafe, besides just their funding base (beg, steal or borrow if you really want something, I say). On one hand, that dark corridor where everything but Joyce Gordon's gallery closes up at the stroke of 5 p.m. needs something like what the cafe is supposed to become. OTOH, the place sounds like it's going to be a little precious and prancy, which is what the city wants for SOBO and, really, the whole city. It could be really good for downtown. Or?
Post a Comment
<< Home