seven am

Rolling right along

2009-06-04T20:20:00.007+10:00

It's been a while since updates from me. However, I am happy to say that I have caught up with Jase tonight and we have spent a bit of time making a few changes to the blog (have you noticed a few new features) and I have been hearing all the news.

Like me, you'll have been wondering what's the latest with Jase and the crew at seven a.m.

Work is rolling right along.

Paperwork is lodged with the council.
The floors are cemented.
The kitchen is nearly ready for assembly.
Stairs are built and lead to the upstairs area.
Bar construction is underway.
Works have begun in the courtyard.
And there have been lots of things going on in the background also.
Here are a few pics to show you how it's all coming along.

Food for thought:
If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.

J. R. R. Tolkien (1892 - 1973)

One foxy Logo indeed!

2009-06-02T15:26:00.002+10:00

It is with great pleasure that I can now present the new and final logo for seven a.m. A huge Thank You to Allan Fox for his mad logo skills. He had created a logo that I think reflects the relaxed atmosphere of the café, whilst working in extremely well the name of the business.
As always, with everything to do, your feedback is welcome.

Location Location Location!

2009-05-12T07:00:00.006+10:00

The lease has been signed and works are now well under way.

The location for seven a.m is perfect. Bay Street Port Melbourne.

It doesn't get much better than this.

It's a beautiful and established community, a combination of long time residents and newcomers. A busy business district during the week and on weekends the local community is always out and about. Add into the mix the visitors who come to the popular seaside suburb to hang out and soak up the atmosphere, and there is always something happening.

It is perfect in so many ways and very much like what Jason and Ben are hoping seven a.m to be. A welcoming atmosphere, with a strong local feel, new and innovative and yet a retreat from the hustle and bustle. The sort of place where you go to grab a coffee on the run and decide to take a seat and stay for a while. A breath of fresh air...

The cafe is being built from scratch. From the ground up. The floors, walls, kitchen, amenities, court yard and even an upstairs area are in the plans. It's all go in Bay Street, Port Melbourne right now and there's no shortage of work ahead. Some of you may already have dropped in to see the beginnings of the works and you'll know exactly what I mean. It's a good thing Jase and Ben are so enthusiastic, passionate and open to hard work - because they're going to need to be.

So while Jase is busy with all the paperwork and building works, and Ben is deciding how to set up his kitchen and plan his menu, I have been asked to keep you up to date, to let you know how it's all going at seven a.m. My name is Jacinta. I am a friend of Jason's and he has asked me to help out with the seven a.m. blog. It's a great honour and a little bit daunting too.

Over the coming weeks, before the grand opening (hopefully around the end of June) that's exactly what I hope to do...

Next week I will introduce Ben the chef for seven a.m. I caught up with him and Jason last week and I suspect they are enjoying the beginnings of a beautiful bromance.

Over the next weeks, I'll tell you about their 4 essential ingredients and give you a secret look behind the scenes. I will also introduce Jason's gorgeous wife Jaq (and her art wall project) and Ben's beautiful partner Meg.

For now, this is where you can keep up with developments, watch Jase and Ben on this new path and find out when help might be required. Later, this blog will become a sharing space. Where menus will be listed, reviews posted, Ben's hints published and where special offers can be downloaded. So keep in touch. This is just the beginning.

This blog is for Jason and Ben to keep in touch with you guys! And to hear back from you too. So leave comments, feedback, suggestions... ask questions. If you don't hear from them for days, drop by and see what it is that is keeping them so occupied and don't forget to say hi.

The start of something beautiful

2009-05-03T12:34:00.003+10:00

I big thanks to those who made it down to 155 on Saturday morning. Everyones enthusiasm was really inspiring.

Photo Frames

2009-04-28T10:02:00.002+10:00

This is just a quick post to let everyone know that we are now accepting donations of frames for the photo wall. Doesn't matter what size, doesn't matter what colour, doesn't matter how daggy it is. We'll take it. It's hoped that the variety be a part of the charm!

If you've got any unused photo frames lying around, just let us know. We'll do our best to pick them up over then next few weeks.

Hope you're all really well.

Questionnaire Results

2009-04-14T08:02:00.011+10:00

Hello, hello, hello.

Ok, so it's been a little while since I've posted, but that's for a good reason. I've been working pretty hard on getting the cafe premise confirmed, but more about that later.

I'm please to announce I've finally got some quantitive data from the questionnaire that I sent out back in January. I unfortunately made the mistake of doing the questions by email and this resulted in very randomised data. Whilst it was very interesting to read through all the responses (and I did read them all) it made analysing the data very difficult. So basically, what I had to do was translate and input some of the data into a spreadsheet to gain a better understanding of whether people really wanted coffee bean choice or not. Below are a few graphs to give you an idea of the info I got out of it:

Most people considered the order of 1. Food, 2. Service, 3. Atmosphere then 4. Beverages to be correct and alot of people said that weekday brunch was pretty much out of the question. I reckon FT work might have something to do with that!

We had a number of really great meal suggestions. For example, Salt & Pepper Calamari on Rocket with a Chilli Mayonaise was a standout item. We also had lots of people wanting really tasty salads. I can't guarantee we'll be able to cater for absolutely everyone, but we'll do our best!

Website presence seemed to be neither here nor there, so we'll just keep a simple site up, with out current menus. Plus the blog will hopefully live on.

A HUGE THANK YOU needs to be extended to everyone who participated in the questionnaire.

Brandon Boyd

2009-03-25T11:00:00.002+11:00

The following is an excerpt from a bio draft that was published on the Incubus website back in 2001. It pretty much sums up my approach to the project:

"The easiest thing in the world would be to repeat the same equations that worked for us in the past, but with repetition would come demise."

Toilet Wall

2009-03-20T22:42:00.001+11:00

It's just amazing where you can draw inspiration from. This was on a the toilet wall in a pub in South Melbourne. Cool huh?

World Builder

2009-03-16T21:21:00.001+11:00

World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.

The move to blogger

2009-03-16T21:08:00.001+11:00

If tumblr allowed commenting, the blog would probably still reside there, but I'm always interested in feedback, so blogger seemed to be suitable!

Welcome to the blogger blog for seven a.m.

An update of how things are progressing will be published this week.

Portrait

2009-03-03T20:37:00.000+11:00

My kind of portrait.

via www.thesartorialist.com

Website

2009-02-25T20:39:00.001+11:00

Yay, domain and website holding page is up.

Yeah ok, it only links to the blog, but, at least we now have our place in the world wide web!!!

www.sevenam.com.au

The Update

2009-02-24T20:35:00.000+11:00

For anyone that hasn’t heard, I didn’t get the Toorak premise that I had applied for. I was bummed for a bit, then I moved on. It just wasn’t meant to be, I guess.

So, I’m now back on the hunt for the perfect location. With a fairly specific set of requirements, my choices are a little limited. But, I’m a firm believer, that if you focus on what you really want, you will get it.

The really exciting news is that I got seven a.m. registered and couldn’t be happier about it. The name and concept comes from a few different places:
The first is the play on words, ‘let’s have lunch at seven a.m.’ I think the play could make it kinda cute (perhaps witty) and somehow memorable.
The second is about getting up and on with your day. It’s the ‘early bird catches the worm’ sort of thinking.
And the 3rd is inspired by the lyrical genius that is Brandon Boyd of Incubus. In the song 11am, he opens with the line ‘7am, the garbage truck beeps as it backs up and I start my day thinking about what I’ve thrown away’. Not only is it a cleverly written line, but it also suggests that we should chase our dreams and not waste a day of our lives.

I’ve also been looking at wine lists, coffee suppliers, talking menus with the chef and general setup stuff!

I’m also hoping to have the questionnaire results out by the end of this week. I have read through all of them, but it’s a bit of a task to compile it into assessable data.

That’ll do for now. More news to come as it happens.

Hope you’re all well.

Today

2009-02-19T20:34:00.000+11:00

Today is the tommorrow you worried about yesterday. And all is fine.

Almeria, Spain

2009-02-16T20:32:00.000+11:00

Stunning landscape footage of Almeria, Spain; by Vicente Sahuc.

Almeria 2008 from Vicente Sahuc on Vimeo

Frame Wall

2009-02-16T20:31:00.000+11:00

We’re going have something like this in the café. Maybe not quite as big though.

via www.daniel-everett.com

Videos

2009-02-16T20:28:00.001+11:00

Great time lapse of growing grass
Golden sunset or sunrise on the lake.

Logo Concept

2009-02-16T20:24:00.001+11:00

Encapsulating all that we are…

I love the purple socks

2009-02-16T20:22:00.001+11:00

via www.thesartorialist.com

Very initial name/logo concept.

2009-02-14T20:19:00.000+11:00