Friday, June 25th, 7:30 PM at GlobeTrippin. Come out for the rent party to help raise funds for West Harlem's local coffeehouse, GlobeTrippin, so that they can stay in business during these tough times. $10 donation at door, free food, silent auction and raffle. Call 917-860-5629 for more information. GlobeTrippin is located on 1689 Amsterdam Avenue, between 143rd St and 144th. Tel.(917) 860-0237. Nearest subways are the 1 or A,B,C,D train at 145th Street. Photo by Ulysses. www.globetrippin.com
Thursday, June 24, 2010
☞ DRINK: The GlobeTrippin Fundraiser
Friday, June 25th, 7:30 PM at GlobeTrippin. Come out for the rent party to help raise funds for West Harlem's local coffeehouse, GlobeTrippin, so that they can stay in business during these tough times. $10 donation at door, free food, silent auction and raffle. Call 917-860-5629 for more information. GlobeTrippin is located on 1689 Amsterdam Avenue, between 143rd St and 144th. Tel.(917) 860-0237. Nearest subways are the 1 or A,B,C,D train at 145th Street. Photo by Ulysses. www.globetrippin.com
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Since when do for-profit ventures do fundraisers for themselves? I thought that was for non-profits.
ReplyDeleteSince the economy tanked.
ReplyDeletesurvival of the fittest. last time i checked, businesses were not charities. obviously this place is doing something wrong, including opening at noon on weekends. unheard of for a coffeehouse. time for them to close up.
ReplyDeletethey can't close fast enough. good riddance!
ReplyDeleteWow...why the negativity? They open at 8am, not noon, Tuesday through Sunday. If you're going to be a wet blanket, at least have the correct info!
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, people on this blog and in Harlem complain, complain, complain about not having any downtown services and amenities and then when something does come to the neighborhood, they don't patronize it. If you want restaurants and coffeeshops and bakeries and bookstores, support fledgling owners who are trying to give them to us!
10:07, Where does personal responsibility come into the equation. This WELFARE mentality is the #1 Harlem problem. This posting is about a welfare event for a private business that may lack business competence, acumen, and skill or talent. Do you think the owners are better off this way? This event only enables them to perhaps not look at themselves, their business model, pricing, quality, service etc. and not have to place the lens of scrutiny onto themselves.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they signed the lease only a fool would sign, maybe they don't know how to source supplies, there can be a myriad of reasons why they cannot stay afloat. Does this business have a track record of sponsoring the community or donating to the community in any way? A youth program, team, the parks? Is there evidence this business, separate and away from their operations, makes an effort to become woven into the fabric of their community?
Will the business open their books to all they are asking to contribute? There's a good chance it's hopeless, a lost cause. Maybe the real hole they're in is like being in massive credit card debt. How do you make a valuation on determining if they are worthy?
If a business comes to Harlem and makes a ton of money, good for them, Dinosaur BBQ prints money, great for them. If a business comes to Harlem and can't make it, it's unfortunate, but that's the way it goes sometime. You live and learn, perhaps this business will, retool, and come back smarter. Lots of done just this, the amount of restaurants that have done this in Manhattan is endless.
Heck, the great Marcus Samuelsson & his Red Rooster coming to Harlem? Well Marcus and his partners had a failed effort called Merkato 55 in the meat packing district.
Yes, the great Marcus Samuelsson restaurant went out of business, kaput, finish, done, failed. The reasons are not my business. Marcus Samuelsson did not have a "rent party" or beg the community for money. I gotta a feeling it was a learning experience for him, he learned, got smarter, took his licks, now he's back. I gotta feeling he allow for the same same errors and mistakes of his last failed effort.
That's how it works, that's why this coffee shop can't close its doors fast enough. Sometime people, going out of business, failing, is a good thing. There would be no Red Rooster coming to Harlem if Marcus was busy trying to keep Merkato 55 afloat. Thank god Merkato 55 failed and closed allowing Marcus to focus on Red Rooster. That's how it works ya'll.
If a place is going to have cultural events like book signings and poetry slams and what not, it would seem to me that the nabe should have a vested intrest in keeping the lights on. Hence the rent party.
ReplyDeleteIts not like there's a glut of those places around here.
Jeeze 8:36, mean-spirited much? They are asking for contributions and having a gathering with a raffle and a silent auction, free food. If you don’t want to support them don’t go.
ReplyDeleteCan't believe the attitude of all you negative folks posting comments on this blog. Do you expect any small businesses to make it in Harlem? Do you even want any to make it? If you refuse to at least stop by and show some support for struggling small businesses, why would anyone ever want to try to open a business in Harlem?
ReplyDeleteAnon 8:36 Have you even been to this place before? Do you personally know the owner?
"This posting is about a welfare event for a private business that may lack business competence, acumen, and skill or talent."
KEYWORD: may
Just because the business is failing doesn't mean the owner is an idiot with no business acumen. If a certain music album isn't selling does it mean the musicians suck and the album is no good? Possibly but not necessarily. Maybe the market for that type of music hasn't been around for a while and no one has given it a shot yet. Maybe people only listen to whats being played on the radio and not whats being made by struggling behind the scenes musicians.
As far as I'm concerned this blog is not about welfare. Its about discovering all the hidden gems around Harlem that I haven't had time to discover myself. There is nothing wrong with promoting local business, struggling or not.
I checked again and they open at noon on weekends. Not a good business decision for a coffeehouse, in my opinion. I'd love to have a local place for morning coffee and to read the newspaper on the weekend, but that is not an option here.
ReplyDeleteMarcus has Aquavit and often a successful venture floats an additional newer business. As for Harlem residents,folks complain about lack of services and then dont support well-run , sophisticated lifestyle. Support is tied into the appreciation of your real estate investment and reason for being in Harlem. Things can go south quickly. People say what happened to such & such. Well, did they support? Often not or seldom. We can all recondition ourselves to supporting small businesses more, like other parts of Manhattan do that can rely on the immediate neighbors. Often owners are the ones who use personal lines of credit & resources to bring texture and amenities to a neighborhood. All you as a resident have to do is SUPPORT and not go elsewhere for everything.
ReplyDeleteFunny thing about all of these posts... no one claims to have ever patroned the place. I'm not hearing anyone say that the coffee sucks? Sounds to me like they've lacked visibility. As for the anti-fundraising sentiment... sounds like the "fundraising" event is getting noticed. Any marketing strategy that gets noticed is a good strategy. Why don't the negative know-it-alls get off their hinies, and check out the coffee, and let us know what they think.
ReplyDeleteharlemstyle said, "and then dont support well-run , sophisticated lifestyle".
ReplyDeleteWrong. harlemstyle assumes and extends to harlem business owners competence, business acumen, & style, and harlemstyle is suggesting it's the community at fault if these businesses fail. harlemstyle is NONSENSE!
Harlem Tea Room (HTR) was featured in Oprah's "O" Magazine, the epitome of sophistication and style, as harlemstyle would assert. Fact is it was a train wreck from the start and should have gone out of business as it did. HTR tried to force down the consumers throat their vision, consistent with British culture of "high tea" at noon. If you went to HTR on the weekend, you had no choice, you could not order from their menu, HTR had a fixed menu and you were forced to order tea, crumpets, and finger sandwiches - per British standards. It was awful. Everyone I know left the place hungry every time. The owner (Patrice Clayton) was UPTIGHT, wonderful woman, smart woman, horrible host. The place had an aura of tension when the owner, Patrice was around, always. The point? Unlike and counter to what Harlemstyle claims, often business owners are half the problem. Unlike what Harlemstyle claims, the community was not at fault for not supporting HTR, they deserved to go out of business. Inflexible menu on weekends, etc., uptight owner, and more reasons.
Emperor's Roe, the Champagne & Caviar Bar owned by David Mills? Harlemstyle would surely claim this an establishment of "style and sophistication", right? Well the owner opened and operated the place with NO Air Conditioning. No A/C, none, can you imagine? Here you open a Champagne and Caviar bar and you don't even have the wits to have A/C installed? Any wonder the place was only open a short while? This bonehead move was only the tip of the ice berg of problems with that place.
Dancy Automotive, can you have more style and sophistication than selling Bentley and Ferrari cars? How dumb, in a city where few have cars, much less $150K cars that get 5 mpg. How dumb was that?
So you see, Harlemstyle wants to blame the community for not supporting "sophistication and style" when in fact, often it's the business owners that are the bonehead, incompetent, clueless people in doing what they are doing. Harlemstyle wants to attribute and defer entitlement to business owners, based on nothing, zero.
Just because you open a business in Harlem, and were successful in your previous career, means nothing about your ability to own and operate a Harlem business. Patrice Clayton and Harlem Tea Room, David Mills and Emperor's Roe, Dancy and Dancy Automotive, 3 Harlem sophisticated and stylish business, owners all clueless and DESERVING to go out of business. Ad to this list the guy with the Harvard MBA that opened Gospel and last I heard is bleeding money and he's losing his shirt. The list is long.
Meanwhile I've never been to Melba's and it not be packed. Dinosaur BBQ on the weekend? The wait is 2-3 HOURS! There's a reason certain businesses in Harlem flourish, and it has NOTHING to do with sophistication and style. Often the very problem is the OWNER of the business, and I'm willing to bet that's the case with Globetrippin.
Anon 10:07 here,
ReplyDeleteI do go there a couple of times a week and am speaking as a FAN of Globetrippin. Wonderful exotic teas, great pastries, muffins, cakes, desserts, usually some really cool and interesting neighborhood folks who are invested in seeing the place survive.
To the person who is angry about the hours, the woman who runs it works by herself, cooks everything herself and is trying her hardest to keep it afloat. She can't be there 24-7, at this early stage it's just not possible. Maybe it will be in time. Be patient.
This event was not welfare. Your $10 contribution entitled you to food, drinks, good company and a raffle ticket with great prizes.
If you have so much "valuable" and "constructive" criticism (in quotes to reflect sarcasm...), go to Globetrippin and lend your expertise to the owner. Give her suggestions. She'd probably be grateful. Just do something other than be a wet blanket praying for Harlem businesses to close.
Most businesses start out small. Heck, even Starbucks was a LOCAL Seattle coffee house, an independent business, not a chain, that experienced growing pains and had to rally community support before it could grow and flourish.
Dinosaur and Melba's are packed, you're right, but they weren't always. They started SMALL and GREW OVER TIME. It's not magic. It takes hard work and dedication to start a business. It takes community support. I for one intend to support Globetrippin and any other small business in the nabe that provides good, reliable, clean service and makes the community better.
Not every establishment is for every one. I don't drink. I hate beer. But I'm as excited as some others on this blog to see that a Bier Garden is opening soon. More businesses lead to a more vibrant community. Perhaps Globetrippin isn't your style. That's life, it's OK, but don't try to ruin it for the rest of us with your public negativity.
Perhaps Globe Trippin' isn't many people's "style". Therefore it will close. That isn't negativity...that is reality. A charity mentality will not help a business to succeed.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Dinosaur has always been packed.
ReplyDeleteAnon 10:07 said, "This event was not welfare. Your $10 contribution entitled you to food, drinks, good company and a raffle ticket with great prizes".
ReplyDeleteYou make is sound like a catered party. If the owner can pull this off for $10/head, and have money left over for the real purpose and cause (to say afloat in business), then this owner should close Globetrippin ASAP and open a catering business. Or this person has found their niche as an events fundraiser, an event planner.
Sounds like this event was more successful than the very business it was held to save. People find their calling through all sorts of ways and it took this owner failing at a coffee house to find their real calling, "event planner / fund raiser".
Wow- I love Globetrippin! It's open in the morning during the week, it offers great food, great teas, and great baked goods! I sit and drink, have a nibble, read my paper, do cookie painting with the kids, and generally appreciate it as a business and a community space. Patronizing a place doesn't equate to charity, and businesses have special events ALL the time to drive traffic to the door. The negativity directed at Harlem busnesses is a great way to keep the neighborhood from flourishing. I was at Globetrippin this morning for coffee, and will be back later to see what she has on for dinner! Glad to support a fabulous local spot.
ReplyDelete