Greetings from Mozart's Coffee Roasters

If you live in or around the Austin area, the odds are that you will visit Mozart's at some point. I work at Mozart's, it's a good job, pays the bills, the free coffee is nice.

Mozart's is an Austin "hot spot"...on any given night we can be very very busy. The following things are a few tips that will make your time in line and while ordering go more smoothly. More importiantly, things behind the bar will go more smoothly as well which definitely affects the quality of our products.

Here they are, these are for the most part just minor annoyances but on busy nights the effects are amplified:

#1 Mozart's is not Starbucks. As a result, we do not have frappuchinos...if we sold frappuchinos, Starbucks would sue us. Our sizes are not Starbucks sizes, they are Small and Large, spelled out in English and in a non-deceptive way. If you order a "tall" drink at Mozart's the first thing that comes to mind for us is that you want a large drink. That is because at Mozart's we're not trying to screw you over and make a small drink sound large by giving it a name like "tall".

#2 Don't order a Macchiato and expect to recieve what is called a macchiato at Starbucks. A macchiato at Starbucks is not a macchiato but simply a caramel/vanilla latte. A real macchiato is simply espresso and cream and that's what we serve at Mozart's if you order a macchiato.

#3 When ordering a drink it is best to specify if you want that drink to be small or large, because they have different prices and we have to push different buttons, make a different number of espresso shots, charge a different price, use a different cup, and steam a different amount of milk depending on whether or not the size is small or large. If you do not specify a size then we'll ask you but that gets annoying when you have to do it 100 times a night.

#4 If there is a sign on the second register that says "Sorry this register is temporarilly closed, please vist the other register", then the register is temporarilly closed and you need to place your order at the other register. On certian nights we only have three people behind the bar, which unfortuntely makes opening the second register virtually impossible, reguardless of how long the line is.

#5 Espresso is simply espresso. It is highly concentrated coffee that comes in a little cup. This is importiant to know before you order an espresso, only to be miffed at the tiny cup that it comes in. Espresso is the stuff that we put into many of our drinks, such as lattes. If you don't want straght espresso then a latte is recommended.

#6 If someone behind they bakery case asks if you want anything from the bakery, they aren't kidding. If you order a drink they will have to refer you to the register where drink orders are taken because that's where all of the extremely noticable drink stuff is (I'll admit to commiting this act myself out of ignorance when I went to Mozart's before I started working there).

#7 Concerning tipping: Tipping at a coffee shop is more of a nice thing to do rather than a requirement (as it would be at a resturant). We don't make $2.13 an hour, however we in most cases don't make more than $6-7 an hour so we rely heavily on tips to help us pay the bills in Austin's high (by Texas standards) standard of living. Most people at Mozart's would probably agree with the following philosophy on who should and shouldn't tip and when.

- If you are a College Student, especially one without a job but needing one and are not funded heavily by your parents or other sources (A situation that I have been all too familar with), you definitely don't have to tip, you're paying enough for the coffee and dessert (which you probably shouldn't spend money on if you don't have a job) itself in this situation.

- If you are a student with an economic background such that your parents are paying for your education and giving you money to spend freely, espeically if you have one of their credit cards, then you should tip...because you're not tipping, your parents are. The unfortunte problem here is that often students in this socioeconoic situation have not had to have a job and have little understanding of what it is like to pay the bills (Sorority and, to a lesser extent, fraternity type students are generally the least likely to tip from my observations even though they are often the most economically free students) and so they don't see the need to tip, perhaps because they assume that our economic situations are no different than theirs...or because their parent's haven't yet taught them the concepts of financial responsibiltiy and generosity because they have never faced financial adversity. Good evidence for this theory can be found in the fact that women under 30 by far tip less than men of the same age, often because of the "daddy's girl" syndrome that exists in suburban America today.

- If you are a student that has a job but are financially independent then tip at your discretion. If you have a job you are probably more likely to tip anyway because you understand what it is like to work for a living.

If you are still reading then thanks and I hope I didn't come off as whiny or complaining...I'm just trying to put the knowledge out there because most people simply do not know some of these things and, thus, cannot be greatly faulted for doing them.