My email box has been going absolutely crazy this morning. But for once it’s not SPAM.

Yesterday, Caffeine was mentioned on South African financial portal moneyweb.

In an article by blogger Mike Stopforth, Caffeine got a mention right in the beginning.

Here’s the part about Caffeine…

“Caffeine can be found at 11 Regent Street in Seapoint, Cape Town. It’s the latest addition to a growing number of Caffeine coffee shop franchises in the Mother City. What differentiates this particular watering hole from its competitors is the attention Caffeine is getting thanks to a very clever marketing initiative by the owners and a whole whack of blogging buzz – citizen journalists writing about it on the web in personal journals and websites.”

For the full article on moneyweb, visit:

http://www.moneyweb.co.za/blogs/mike_stopforth/656774.htm

At around 12 yesterday, Lisa and I were patiently waiting at the Caffeine in town to watch the judges score Caffeine in round 2 of the Choc O Bloc Festival. And then the judges arrived. But not just the judges – they brought the Marketing co-ordinators of the competition, the scorers, and a host of chocolate fans to watch the proceedings.

And a few minutes later it was all over. They had tasted Joe’s famous chicken chocolate dish (I need to be more of a foodie so I know the exact term, but I know it is a mexican dish with enough ingredients to fill an encyclopedia).

And Joe sms’d me later in the day (I think he must have sms’d the whole world, as everyone I spoke to a few minutes afterwards already knew) – CAFFEINE had WON!!!!

For those of you who don’t know, Joe started cooking this particular chicken chocolate dish the EVENING before. Anyone who stays up the ENTIRE night watching food deserves to win in my book.

Well done Caffeine and Joe and everyone else who was involved…

Every second Wednesday morning at 7:15am we have a group of awesome people coming through to the shop to network and share ideas – the “Caffeine Business Breakfast Club“.

The theme this Wednesday is The Art of Business on a Cape Town Canvass. You’re very welcome to come join us!

…

Did you know that if you mention Caffeinespot in you blog (good or bad, it don’t matter) you get your muffin and coffee fix on da house? Mahala!

This week, we’d like to welcome to the blogroll: small-business developers Ideate; shaken not stirred Barbedwire, a certain Terence Drake, and of course, Mr. Drupal himself – Adrian Rossouw. Free muffins and coffee abound!

Breaking News! From the 3rd of July through the 8th, Caffeine will be taking part in the Cape Town Chocolate Festival. City restaurants and cafes will be loading chocolate based specials on their menu to see who comes out with the winning entry. We will be adding a CherryFlava Muffin (named after the blog), Panettone Bread Pudding with dark chocolate in the center, and a Chicken Molle (Mexican influence).

I may even throw out a batch or two of my semi famous brownies. The specials will also be available in Sea Point and Hout Bay. See you there.

Lastnite some of Cape Town’s alpha-geeks were at Caffeine swapping some next-level ideas.Among them were bloggers Conrad (aka Geekspin -the guy behind BarCamp CapeTown); Adrian Rossouw (Bryght guy and core developer of Drupal), Rafiq (the original Web AddiCT); Max Kaizen (the genius connector); Jerith (Amazon.com) and Dave Duarte (tech marketing maestro).

We also had input from Al (owner of a wireless technology company), Ashleigh (Light Speed Development), Charles (FineBushPeople and FreedomToaster), Nick (JigSoft), and Laurence (Mindspring).

Photo: Al, Ashleigh & Nick …. Hhmm

When a group of like-minded people get together like this, big things can happen. Ideas can get developed and the group can decide to support projects and help them succeed.

Copious amounts of coffee fuelled the session – which went well into the night.

Note: thanks to the original Web AddiCT for the photo. We’ll add links later – the shops too busy to do it now:-) We didn’t get all the URL’s – sorry guys, we’ll put em up next time.

Some of Cape Town’s techno-cogniscenti will be coming to visit us on Thursday evening, around 6 O’clock.

This might be a good place to be if you’d like to hook-up with some software/hardware/market-maven type gurus.

We’re looking forward to witnessing business at the speed of conversation (<< as per Dave Duarte’s journal).

Drop a comment if you have any special requests and we’ll do our best to accomodate.

Two new addtions to the blogroll*:

- The Muso (blogging on independent music happenings in Cape Town)
- Christine Stander (Search Marketing and Web strategy blog)

*You might want to sample the new Cherryflava Blackforest Muffin when you come in to get your free fix;-)

We were totally blissed this morning to see a Caffeine write-up on Cherryflava, one of our favourite daily blog reads! Well worth adding to your favourites, Cherryflava gives delightfully readable commentary on the latest branding, culture and business 2.0 trends and happenings. We look forward to your insights at the next business breakfast meet (and of course, the cherryflava muffin and a strong coffee is on the house).

More high praise came from the blog of Craig Jamieson (interactive media designer and digiguru). See you at the next CBBC Craig – we'll have your rooibos espresso waiting for you;-)

We can also happily provide a muffin and coffee to technophile trombonist Jerith for the linklove he sent our way. Thanks!

Our little network is expanding! One of the great things about promoting our shop through the blogosphere is the cutting-edge type people that it attracts… Which attracts more cool people… And so the virtuous cycle goes on. The next CBBC is certainly going to be an interesting/mindblowing experience all over again!

Hungry? Why not save the Caffeine menu on your computer, so you always have a tasty meal just a phone call away.

       
     Click to enlarge
Download a printer friendly menu (pdf)

Caffeine BusinessBreakfast Club met this morning… I've honestly never encountered such fervent, sincere idea-sharing between business people before.

Stuart tried to put a bit of pressure on everyone to declare outright what business they want from each other. It was a great idea – and then as usual everyone started swapping ideas about everone else's business (and ordering multiple cups of extremely buzzy coffee!).

Wow, with the likes of market futurists, economists, psychologists and venture capitalists you can imagine the mental energy that was buzzing around.

No doubt that this is the most energetic and interesting networking meet in town. It's still quite small though (about 10 people every second Wednesday)… so you're super welcome to join in the conversation. Leave a comment and we'll get in touch. 

Bonus: if you mention us on your your blog the caffeine-fix (+muffin) is free!   

Another winner: 

We'd like to welcome Mark Forrester (website design & hosting) to the blogroll – and look forward to seeing him in-store for a complimentary muffin & coffee.

At the suggestion of my fearless "Tech Guru" Dave Duarte, it apears to be time that I had some input on the highly popular site.

I am American born and bred, with a background in marketing and finance. After a number of years with Morgan Stanley I decided to explore the world.

First stop, Australia and a contract as marketing director for The Perth Mint. Eventually on a flight from Sydney to Perth I chanced to sit next to a stunning girl from JoBurg and the rest is history. I suspect that she was actually part of a clandestine branch of the SA government called the Ministry for Improved Inbound Migration. I should have picked this up when the houskeeper kept referring to her as Miim!!

So we opened the first Caffeine on Riebeek street just over a year ago. Given that it is between Moulin Rouge and Adult World I think alot of people thought I was out of my mind, but that little shop has a feel all it's own and can get quite buzzy around lunchtime. Caffeine Hout Bay came on line early in March and with a large, sunny, outdoor seating area is a great place to spend a lazy afternoon. And now we are in Seapoint and I am personally committed to melting the ice in this little corner of Cape Town. We pride ourselves on warm friendly service, good food at great value, and a comfortable setting, and the hardcore coffee. We run a list of specials that is constantly changing, fresh muffins, soup, quiche, and different items that draw on a world of influence.

Take time out of your day to pay us a visit, if you do nothing more than enjoy a cup of our custom blended coffee I guarantee you will be glad you found us. Drop us an e mail and we'll add you to our e mail list that covers specials and specials events.

We'll be waiting for you. Joe Gibialante

You're likely to find me making muffins >>>