Archive for the ‘urban grind’ Category

The Story of Bottled Water

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

I promise that the next Urban Grind will not sell bottled water. I have cared about this for a while and it is time I got serious about it too. The whole bottled water thing really is crazy. Just the price we pay is crazy enough. But thanks (again) to Annie Leonard we have a great little animation that spells out the situation to make it easy for us to make the decision to stop drinking bottled water. I really do hope that you check out The Story of Bottled Water. I also can’t wait to see a Doco called Tapped on the same subject.

Posted in alternative media, design, environment, inspiring, movies, urban grind, zeroWaste | 1 Comment »

TEDx Brisbane Update

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

TEDx Brisbane was nothing short of a raging success. It was a big day for all but the coffee flowed well with a lot of help from friends and the wonderful team (also friends) at Di Bella Coffee who donated their time to support TEDx Brisbane. A big well done and thank you has to go out to Paul Fairweather and Carl Lindgren who put the whole event together. Simply an amazing job.

Posted in alternative media, friends, inspiring, local community, peace, urban grind | No Comments »

TEDx Brisbane next weekend.

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

So TEDx Brisbane is almost here and they have just released the Speaker List and it is a cracker. This is going to be a great TED event and right in our back yard. Very sad if you are a TED fan that missed out. I can sympathize with you as Urban Grind in partnership with Di Bella Coffee is sponsoring the event with free coffees for attendees which means that I will be lucky to see any of the talks on the day. I am honoured to be able to support such an event as this but have you seen that speaker list? It is going to be an inspiring day. And we have Carl Lindgren & Paul Fairweather to thank. They have done an amazing job putting it all together.

If you do have a ticket. Be sure to get there early and register first. Once registered you can head down to the Ideas Worth Spreading Tent and get a free coffee. Coffee will also be offered free for both morning tea and lunch time breaks.

To get in the mood for TEDx you could check out this amazing talk by Aimee Mullins. Such an amazing women.

“Adversity is just change that we have not adapted to yet.”

Aimee Mullins: The opportunity of adversity

Posted in alternative media, design, environment, friends, inspiring, local community, personal, urban grind | No Comments »

Surprise!

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

I just read a short story about throwing a surprise birthday party on a train. It made me so happy that my eyes watered and I wanted to share it with you too. The idea of strangers in a small room like a train carriage reminded me of Urban Grind – Paddington and West End. I am going to suggest it before you do. Urban Grind on a train carriage could be very cool. Anyway, one of the things I always tried to do at Urban Grind was to start conversations. My best Urban Grind days were the ones where I could stand back and look at the room and everyone was so engrossed in conversation that it was noisy and I didn’t matter. And honestly the worst days were the ones where the room would be full but virtually silent – uncomfortable. No energy, lifeless.

Surprise! by Improv Everywhere. Well worth the read.

Posted in design, family, friends, funny, inspiring, local community, peace, personal, urban grind | No Comments »

Happy New Year 2010

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

For a long time now I have been very proud that Urban Grind has been successful but for longer than many might realise I have also been aware that Urban Grind has been unsustainable. In retrospect only, that would seem like things for Urban Grind are not good but in fact they are better than ever. Urban Grind is in my heart and if you know me well enough you will know that it has been a personal journey for me, not just a business. And it’s not over yet.

So as you might be aware by now Urban Grind New Farm closed it’s doors at the end of 2009 and will not be re-opening at the beggining of 2010. It’s time for a break and a regrouping. In simple terms this is not the end of Urban Grind. It is going to take us a little while to regroup but we are working on our return and will be back better than ever.

I have learnt a lot from my mistakes over the years and along the way I have discovered other directions in which I want to take Urban Grind. I can’t wait to re-open Urban Grind and show you what I am talking about. In the meantime I will keep this website/blog going. I will also be working at the Di Bella Factory which is going to be great. Obviously I love Di Bella coffee as I have been serving it for about 8 years now. I also have a good friendship and a great respect for Philip Di Bella so I look forward to working more closely with him.

For me Urban Grind is more than just trying to make great coffee. Of course that is really important as anything less would be just embarrassing, but for me Urban Grind is a way of life and an experience that I want to keep having. Only one thing has made this experience as wonderful as it has been and that is people, and the amazing relationships we were able to have with them. From the single moments with a stranger that have taught me life lessons, to the life long friends we made, Urban Grind has been about the interaction of people – community. To all in this community I am most grateful for your help, your willingness to interact, your bravery to be yourselves and to challenge yourselves. There would not be enough pixels on this computer to properly thank everyone that has meant something to me over these years. But to Rachel my loving partner, Urban Grind would have never been without you. To Adz, Brendan, Carl, my brother Dan & Sophie, in particular – Thank you. To so many more – Thank you.

Now in looking forward, lets keep in touch.
twitter
facebook
blog rss/email
mailing list
0408 10 11 40
email – it’s in the picture

Posted in customers, family, friends, local community, personal, urban grind | 11 Comments »

the map magazine 2009/2010 eat drink awards

Friday, October 16th, 2009

More voting to be done if you have a couple of spare minutes. This time we have been lucky to be nominated in a couple of categories for the map magazine 2009/2010 eat drink awards. Best Coffee is obviously the one we would love to win. So if you think we are the best you can vote for us here. Thanks.

Posted in alternative media, customers, urban grind | No Comments »

Best in the City Awards

Monday, October 12th, 2009

We have been lovingly nominated for the award below:

Best Service to Make You Smile
In this digital age of automated existence, sometimes we forget to value the important stuff like good old fashioned face-to-face service. Whether it’s a pizza made to order, artworks out of lattes or a waiter who remembers you’re crazy for creamed spinach just like your mum used to make, this category showcases service that makes you bust out a smile and tip like it’s actually a pleasure! Vote for us in Brisbane

It is an honour to be nominated in this category because while we love serving great coffee end hope that is an experience that you walk away feeling like you have had. For me personally there has always been more to Urban Grind than just that.

So if we have ever managed to make you smile please vote for us.

If we haven’t, watch this then vote for us.

Thanks

Posted in alternative media, customers, friends, local community, staff, urban grind | No Comments »

Recycle your Batteries at Urban Grind

Monday, September 28th, 2009

Did you know that over 8000 tonnes of batteries end up on Australian landfill each year? You can start recycling your batteries at Battery World today or at Urban Grind if that happens to be more convenient for you.

As far as I understand it you can recycle all batteries from watch batteries to car batteries at Battery World though Urban Grind can only really accept up to D sized batteries. So check those desk & kitchen drawers and dig out those old batteries that you just knew would have been environmentally uncool throw in the bin. We are collecting now.

I would like to thank Albion Battery World for getting us set up to collect batteries.

Oh and seriously… you should be using rechargeable batteries anyway. No excuses (that I am aware of anyway).

Posted in environment, local community, urban grind, zeroWaste | No Comments »

PARK(ing) Day 09

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

It’s that time of year again where you find a good car parking space, put down some tarps, roll out your turf and invite people to PARK. Urban Grind’s park will be in Harcourt St this year from 7am till 11am. For me PARK(ing) Day is about many things but mostly about starting conversations because that tends to lead to those other things anyway. What? Anyway…

It all started here… www.parkingday.org
Find all of the Brisbane PARKS here… www.brisbaneparkingday.com

That time of year is this Friday the 18th of September 2009. Thanks Simon.

Posted in art, design, environment, inspiring, local community, politics, urban grind | 8 Comments »

Bring your own cup for a Takeaway Discount

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

This is from a local office. I am told that this is a little under five days worth of cups between three. While impressive two things stand out to me. The first is that they are obviously awesome customers and for that I am grateful. Secondly, that is a lot of wasted resources. Like wow!

So as of tomorrow, if you bring your own cup we will give you a takeaway discount. In this way we can say thank you for being regular customers and see if we can’t reduce some of this waste. Common sense conditions apply.

Posted in customers, environment, local community, urban grind | 3 Comments »

• « Older Entries