LIHU‘E — Soon after 9 a.m. Monday, doors to Kaua‘i’s first Seattle’s Best full service cafe will be open to the public at Borders Books and Music. “I’m excited,” said Helaine Perel, manager of Borders. “Since the other cafe closed,
LIHU‘E — Soon after 9 a.m. Monday, doors to Kaua‘i’s first Seattle’s Best full service cafe will be open to the public at Borders Books and Music.
“I’m excited,” said Helaine Perel, manager of Borders. “Since the other cafe closed, it’s been really hard here. We’ve got the educator appreciation specials going on, but things have slowed down considerably after the cafe shut (down).”
It has been about six weeks since Starbucks closed the doors on its operation at Borders. Since then, the cafe has been renovated and remodeled to reflect the motif of Seattle’s Best Coffee.
“We’ll have a short blessing at 9 a.m., and after that, Seattle’s Best will be open seven days a week as long as Borders is open,” Perel said.
Operating hours will be from 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. until 10 p.m. on weekends, Perel said.
“We’re going to try and see how that works,” the Borders manager said. “We may adjust the schedule a little once we see how people adjust to the new cafe.”
Carol Kim, the Seattle’s Best opening manager, has been working with the new staff for the past several days, training them in drinkology and other aspects of the cafe.
“They’re going to offer fountain drinks in addition to coffee so training is quite involved,” Perel said. “They’ve been training all week.”
An aspect that excites Perel is the local sourcing for products in the cafe.
“We’ll have at least three choices of sandwiches made by Gaylord’s daily,” she said. “There’ll be desserts from Icing on the Cake at the Kukui‘ula Shopping Village. And, on top of all that, there’ll be two sizes of Dizzy Lizzy cookie offerings.”
Perel said Kara Hamada has been named as the cafe manager, and a former cafe worker is one of the owners of Icing on the Cake so that source is especially exciting. She noted that among the staff are several of the workers from the former cafe operation.
Kim said the Borders cafe is the first Seattle’s Best full service cafe on Kaua‘i and doesn’t rule out future stores opening.
The Kaua‘i cafe joins a network of other Seattle’s Best full service cafes including one on Maui, one on the Big Island in Hilo and two on O‘ahu, all located in Borders stores. Kim said there are also a network of franchise partners offering other locations on O‘ahu.
Seattle’s Best Coffee, now a Starbucks subsidiary, got its start at the Wet Whisker on Seattle’s Pier 70 when Seattle was not yet established as “the center of the coffee universe.”
The founder of Seattle’s Best purchased a secondhand peanut roaster and started roasting Arabica coffee in search of a simple brew — bold and full-flavored, but also smooth and mellow, according to the company’s Web site.
Following the coffee craze, a taste-off among the major roasters to find the “best cup of coffee in Seattle,” saw his coffee earn first place, and the name Seattle’s Best Coffee was born from this honor, according to www.seattlesbest.com.
