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Starbucks, Montclair! This was once the site of Boudin's Bakery. It was also the first coffee shop I worked for. The basic clientele were rich folks who had the money but probably couldn't tell a good cup of coffee from a mud brewed with hose water.
This was a tiny store. While I worked there, the manager would often over staff and the tiny little area behind the cash register would be packed with baristas in green aprons wandering around wondering what they should do. There was never any room back there to swing a cat. Fortunately, nobody brought cats to work so that wasn't something we worried about.
Still, Montclair has slowly grew into a hodgepodge to trendy stores and such. Hence, a Starbucks fits right in.
I worked here from August 2002 to August 2003. Working here, I met some very strange strangers. Rich people have a personality all their own. I recall, rolling my eyes with a smirk on my face, the time a lady wasn't happy with her venti sized caramel frappucino because it, "didn't look like the frappucino in the advertisement."
I also recall the hot summer day when everybody and their grandmother decided to come in for good, sugary frappucino goodness…all at the same time. It was also at that precise hour that our manager decided to take her break. The only two baristas on the floor were myself and another girl. But, did the customers appreciate anything? No! As plastic cups lined the espresso machine, cash register and two blenders that were revving like Marlon Brando and James Dean on motorcycles, we baristas were bombarded with, “where’s my frappucino? I ordered five minutes ago. Money may cause people to see only themselves and anything that pertains to them, even over priced food items. It surprised me how many pointy headed customers couldn’t see all the cups we were trying to fill.
On top of that, there was the occasional odd ball who would order a hot beverage that would completely throw off our routine. I was eager to tell these people that if they wanted “hot”, they should step out of their air conditioned Lexus once in a while and spend 10 minutes in the 97’ weather with a glass of water.
Still, I learned a lot about the art- yes, art!- of brewing coffee. I had the privilege of working with a traditional espresso machine. I had to time my own espresso shots, manually control the temperature of the milk, and pull my own coffee. Now a days, most cafes have switched over to automatic espresso machines.
I have to say that Starbucks, aside from being a glorified McDonald’s, is a good company to work for. They treat their employees well. And what was really killer was that baristas got a free pound of coffee each week! That is what I miss the most!
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Working at one Starbucks didn’t satiate my desires for café employment. The summer of 2004 saw me at Starbucks on Piedmont Avenue. This place was definitely larger that Starbucks Montclair. We had plenty of cat swinging room this time but, nobody brought cats to this location either!
The atmosphere was a lot less tense here. The customers didn’t have as much money as the Montclair customers so maybe that might have played a role in making the atmosphere relaxing.
The most memorable customers we had here were nurses and other hospital crew who would scamper in from the hospital down the street. For people employment in health services, they sure would indulge themselves too frequently in the most unhealthiest options Starbucks had to offer. They would order more sugary choices in their coffees and frappucinos than what they originally came with. And they would do so practically every day. It never ceased to amaze.
The tips here weren’t as good as they were in Montclair. I did like this neighborhood better than Montclair. It was much more colorful and the people were friendlier than Montclair’s class of clientele.
For whatever reason, my café experience didn’t seem complete. I decided to go for the privately owned over the corporate franchise in the coffee world. I ventured to College Avenue in Oakland, which I call “Berkeley’s drainage” as the clientele here meander into Oakland from Berkeley via College Avenue, to find out what the cafes there were like.
Spasso was a nice experience but didn’t have the order and consistency that Starbucks did. The schedule was always changing without warning. The boss was a shady character who paid me my first paycheck entirely in cash. He did so to another barista as well and we both came to the conclusion that he was surely getting out of taxes.
He was also a tightwad when it came to food products. He would buy the cheapest food he could find and didn’t seem to have much regard for spoilage dates. His insistence on espresso brewing and milk steaming rules and etiquette were just non-existent. It got so bad that I, in good conscious, could not follow his rule of not throwing out excessively steamed milk. Why should I make something that could get customers sick, especially after they paid outrageous prices.
I did have my first taste in professional sandwich making here. Spasso had a sandwich menu which helped boost my food service experience. I enjoyed it for the most part though I was only employed here from August to December 2005. After my time at Spasso, I decided to throw in my apron and say good-bye to cafes for good! Nevertheless, I did find myself in another café in Kansas which turned out to be my worst job ever. But that’s not worth mentioning…
Saying farewell to café work is just what I did. I moved onto libraries- a good transition if you ask me.
I submitted my application to the Oakland Public Library in 2006. Of all the 15 branches in the library system, the Dimond Branch Library in the Fruitvale District decided to hire me.
I used to visit this library when I was in kindergarten. It hadn’t changed a bit. I loved this job. The atmosphere was great and the staff was even greater. I would wake up some mornings in some strange eagerness to get to work.
I sorted and shelved books, helped patrons, issued library cards…typical library stuff. Working here opened up a door for me. I owe the Dimond Branch a great deal.
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