Lakota Training:
From Front to Back! (5)

Down to the Basement!

When you get to the bottom of the steps, you run right into the basement freezer. This is where you'll find bread, salmon, and any other back-up frozen items. If you become responsible at some point for stocking bread or other frozen items, please make sure to rotate stock.

Fresh goes on bottom so that older stock gets thawed and used first. Please don't make the mistake of thinking it's okay to pile fresh on top of old, just because it's frozen. Old is old; old is not fresh!

If it gets overlooked, please have someone show you how to rotate the frozen bread. If everyone knows how to do it, the bread will always get put away before it thaws.

Another point to remember is that we save all of the empty bread boxes. They are perfect for wholesale mail order and...they're FREE. In business nowadays, free is a rare and beautiful thing!

These and any other boxes that aren't completely covered up by printing and/or labels from previous use are to be stacked neatly in the furnace room. Everything else gets broken down and tucked into the cardboard recycling. It's in plain site near the recycling area. Who breaks down the boxes? If the box is in your hands, why not do it yourself while you're there. It's just one more thing that someone else doesn't have to do.

The Furnace Room:

To access the furnace room, do a U-turn at the bottom of the steps and go all the way back and to the left. Wow...is that monstrosity really a furnace?! Yes, it is. There are also some fuse boxes that you may need to access from time to time if a breaker pops. They are located in the darkest recesses of this room to the right from the door and on the back wall. Watch for the boogey-man.

We use this room primarily for boxes, new and used, and back-up cases of filters. Our basement is very old and it leaks. The water runs in a steady stream across the middle of the furnace room floor. That is why, whether the floor is currently dry or not, it's very important to stack everything on top of the old coke trays provided.

The Recycling Area:

Back out to where we started, you'll find all of our recycling bins. Lakota has recycled everything possible for many years. It would be interesting to see the enormous pile of stuff that is NOT in the landfill!

All of the recycling bins are marked. Please be careful to put the right stuff in the right bin. Do not bring in recycling items from anywhere else, like another kiosk for instance. Recycling from elsewhere should get taken directly to a recycling center. If you're going to haul it anyway, why bring it to us so that WE have to handle it again?

Please do not indulge laziness around our recycling bins. This is a lot of work, and certainly a labor of love for all of the genuine good it does. Please keep this area nice and neat. When you fill a bin to overflowing, cinch up the sack and pull it. Set it to the side and put a fresh trash bag in the bin. With just a little extra effort every time it's needed, we can save Deb or whoever a lot of unnecessary work in the basement.

Torani Syrups:

To the right of the recycling you'll see storage for Torani syrups, teas, and other miscellaneous items. If you see syrups in cases on the floor, please stock them if you're not in a rush. If stocking or pulling stock, please just remember to rotate stock (new bottles in back!) and to keep the area neat and clean.

Storage Shelves:

Opposite the syrups you'll see storage along the entire wall, down to the Fetco coffee machines. Once again, it's about neatness. If you should be stocking, please honor the product signs on the shelves and stock accordingly.

Also, if you are cutting the tops off of cup boxes, remember to turn the box so that the cups will be bottoms out. That way when you put the case of cups on the shelf, it's easy to see what size cups you are pulling. This is convenient when you are hurriedly grabbing stock for upstairs. You'll understand what I'm saying here once you've had a bit of training.

The Fetco Brewing Area

For some reason, in the past, employees who set up catering events for us have a tendency to leave the brewing area trashed. Please clean up after yourself when you work a catering and make certain that everything is returned to it's proper place, clean and ready to go for the next event. (before you pat yourself on the back for a job well done)

Here are the basic procedures for setting up a catering:

1. The Fetco brewers must be turned on 15 minutes or so before you begin brewing. All Fetcos must be preheated by brewing hot water into them. They should sit for at least 30 minutes to preheat so you will always want to get an hour head start on a catering.

2. Clean the Fetco air-pots so that they look nice for the catering. Just wipe them down, (top and sides) so that they look presentable.

3. Put a new label on the Fetco showing the coffee that is currently being brewed for the event. Pre-label these air-pots to avoid confusion. Trust me, it's much easier than having to re-do it when you're running out of time!

4. The Fetcos use our largest filter and should contain 6 oz. of coffee that is ground for drip (#6).

5. Prep these filters the same way you do for upstairs. Gently shake the grounds out level and tuck the filter tight against the walls of the brew basket. This keeps your coffee free of grounds.

6. The large black Fetco "top" (with the long tube) must be in place when brewing coffee to keep the coffee hot. As it turns out, the strong flow of coffee through this long tube also mixes the coffee thoroughly during the brewing process, so that the coffee doesn't get stronger towards the bottom! Please do not brew Fetcos without the top in place...

When brewing is complete, secure the chrome top onto the unit and tighten the black knob on top and tighten the chrome knob on top of the sight glass. (Of course, you will know what I'm talking about with training!) Once again, please make sure they look clean and professional!

7. Now you will need to set up whatever cups, supplies, and condiments need to go with the order.

8. Please remember, you are not done with this catering until the units are safely retrieved (in a timely manner!) and put back where they belong, clean and ready to go out again. If you will not be around when this catering comes to completion, it's still your responsibility to make sure someone else is scheduled to finish your job. You are responsible for the safe return of the equipment and making certain that we get paid for the job OR that payment arrangements are understood by both parties. In other words, should you accept the mission... it's yours from start to finish or the catering will probably self-destruct!

9. If the order is picked up by the customer, be sure to warn them that the Fetcos are top heavy and will tip over and leak if not properly secured. If the pour tap is bumped it will spill. The Fetco units can be placed on a covered car seat and strapped in with the seat belts. This works quite well.

NOTE: Our Fetco air-pots are very expensive to purchase new. They are old and rather beat up but they are serviceable and probably will be for years to come if you'll be gentle with them. It is very important to follow the above procedures with care, especially the information about preheating, proper brewing, and providing our catering customers with air-pots that are neat, clean,
and appropriately labeled.

The significance of catering events is easily overlooked so here is some very important information that you need to know:

Catering events place Lakota center stage with the people of Columbia. A professional catering, handled with great care is greatly appreciated by everyone involved and gives us the best publicity we can get because it has the added distinction of advertising and publicity that we actually get paid for!

This makes the added value even more obvious but, for some reason still rather easily forgotten. A poorly done catering gives us a major black eye that can have lasting repercussions.

Please remember to give all of our catering events your very best effort...or delegate them to someone else who can...

Thank you!

Please follow posted instructions for the washer and dryer. If neglected, the dryer can become a fire hazard. These machines get a lot of hard use, so please be gentle, and use only the proper amount of products for the wash. They are expensive.

From time to time you will need to start a load of bar towels. The dirty ones are stored in a bucket to the right of the washer on the floor. If you see towels anywhere on the floor or trash bags full of dirty towels on the floor that have come in from the University kiosk, please deposit them into the bucket, throw the trash bags away, and/or start the towels in the washer.

If the washer/dryer area is a mess, please clean it up and put everything in order. Always remember to pull and clean the lint screen on the dryer. Also, remember to check the dryer if you are in need of clean towels!

The Giant Work Table:

Miscellaneous items will show up here for disposal or proper storage. We also use this table for projects and holiday gift baskets. Directly across from this table is storage for cleaning supplies, glassware, and other important items for re-stocking upstairs.

The Back Basement:

When you venture on back through "the last door", you'll find everything from old coffee bags, to obsolete records, to many other miscellaneous ancient Lakota artifacts. For the most part, this room is full of things from Lakota years gone by, that have mysteriously attached themselves to this real-estate and cannot be removed even though their usefulness is at least questionable. We will continue to put forth our best effort to finally empty this room of it's unused "treasure".

Conclusion:

I've probably missed a thing or two that will need to be updated later, but for the time being anyway, we've reached the end of Lakota's Front-To-Back-Training.

The next section will deal with drink recipes and fundamentals of preparation...

Table of Contents...

On To Lakota's Drink Recipes