Rollin with the changes
Ever since it opened in 2013, Reverie has been constantly changing. This probably comes from the desire to build something we love and understand what our community thinks about it. We try to listen to all criticisms (we have a whole collection on our various social platforms to enjoy reading, or not) and try to respond appropriately, trying to remain as rooted in what we value. We’re constantly trying to answer the questions, “Is this the right thing for the business? Is this what the customers really want? Will this help make our community stronger? Is this something we are proud to share?”
Andrew Gough, working at Reverie (E. Douglas Ave. location).
Over the years, we’ve really been lucky to succeed in what we now know are turbulent times for our community. Perhaps our curiosity to create unique experiences and our drive to be “better” every day is what has allowed us to expand into the shoes we now wear. We know our customers generally share this sentiment, and it’s allowed us to experiment with the unknown with some great success and some failures.
For instance, take our choice to move into our flagship location. I could describe at least 10 reasons why it was necessary to move and upgrade our facilities. And while just about every aspect of the move was great, though long-delayed, one major part had a different outcome than we hoped.
Reverie’s food program, which started off as an incredible hit, simply didn’t work the way I had hoped. It’s sometimes painful to remember back to the menu we created. Our former Chef Stephanie Hand absolutely killed it with the brunch inspired menu. Well-designed menu, quality ingredients, executed consistently, and quick…these are all things that we value in our coffee business, and we did a nice job with it in our food program.
Roasted Panzanella Salad used to be on Reverie’s brunch menu.
So what happened? If you remember, in early September, we suddenly stopped our brunch food program and nighttime eats because it simply wasn’t profitable. We determined we had a labor problem to contend with, and it was evident in the volume of business we had for brunch. The main key was that we had tried to do something that had never been done in Wichita, and realistically, not been done many times in America. Table service specialty coffee shop is simply not a thing in the U.S. While I know our community is sophisticated enough for servers and white linen napkins, our customers were telling us they just wanted to come into the café and order with the baristas and enjoy their experience the way they are used to.
The customers were telling us what we needed to hear. And while we developed a new following for our food, we needed to get back to our roots and place the focus back on our specialty coffee service. We lost two part-time employees right away, one who was leaving at the end of the year anyway. And we were able to train most of the rest to be baristas. We set out to make changes to our food program that made sense for our business and customers.
Swift changes were made to accommodate our new service model. Reverie no longer offered tableside service and the customers started coming back. We designed a simple menu of fresh-made sandwiches, soups, and salad, but left a bunch of room on the table for improvement. Our food sales plummeted, but coffee remained strong (no pun intended). Business always gets crazy during the holidays and it took five months of retooling our basic menu to get to the place we are today.
Fast forward to today, our new menu was created carefully to keep offerings simple in design, but complex in flavor. We’ve upgraded a few of the previous items with improved flavors, such as the Herb Roasted Turkey Club with pesto mayo and Havarti and roasted tomatoes. And you can enjoy an espresso rubbed smoked brisket sandwich or a legit Cuban sandwich made with three types of freshly prepared pork. Our kitchen still creates delicious soups each day to accompany the sandwiches, and I’m proud to say it’s some of the best in town.
Being a coffee shop first, breakfast is an important meal of the day. We’ve always had a great selection of daily baked scones, muffins, and other specialty items (like the best cinnamon roll I’ve ever eaten). And in the last few months, we’ve added a variety of fresh frittatas, which fill the desire for a warm, eggy delight (and low carb & gluten-free).
Deluxe Breakfast Sandwich, on the new menu at Reverie (E. Douglas Ave. location).
This new menu is crowned with a breakfast sandwich that rivals the best in town. Made with ham, bacon, egg, two types of cheese and a slathering of homemade jam, the Deluxe Breakfast Sandwich is probably the thing I’m most excited for. It’s epic. The sandwich covers all bases…. it’s sweet and salty from the jam and pork; warm and cheesy with the crusty toasted bread securing its contents. This is the first release of this sandwich, though we are working on additional options to roll out in the coming weeks.
It’s been a while since our team (and customers) have been excited about our food offerings. We have a level of expectation for our coffee service, so it makes sense to keep the food at the same level of great. And we’re excited for the customers who have been requesting more food options to get what they are asking for. Any time changes are made, expect a few hiccups. But our hope is our customers recognize the value we are placing in our food program and keep coming back to see what’s next.
Lastly, I’d like to bring the conversation back to a statement written at the end of the second paragraph. I mention “some failures.” It’s important, in no matter what you do, to recognize where failure fits into your big plan. Without failure, you’ll never discover your limits. You can never live to your full potential. How you handle failure is what really matters. We get the opportunity to learn from these mistakes and make it better. We earn more experience through wins AND losses. I’m proud to work in an environment where people are willing to experiment with opportunities. So long as we are focused on the things we value, we will be successful, even if it looks a bit different than what we set out to do.
See you in the cafe soon. If you see me wandering around the shop, be sure to say hi. I’d love to know how you are doing and what you think about the changes we made. Thanks for your support.