PRESS RELEASE
–For Immediate Release—
Wednesday April 1st, 2009
Contact: Jim Karnopp (Owner)
Cafe Luwak
42 E. Cross St.
Ypsilanti, MI 48198
http://www.cafeluwak.com
jim@cafeluwak.com
Business Phone: (734) 482-8050
Cell Phone: (734) 417-8992
Cafe Luwak adjusts business to create new opportunities.
“March sales dramatically increase thanks to new Sunday breakfast.”
After 4 years of steady growth, Café Luwak saw things changing this year with their growth shrinking into the single digits for January and February. With costs going up and a kitchen remodeling project halfway completed, owner Jim Karnopp decided he had to do something to bring in new business. “We have been planning to add a full breakfast menu for the past two years, but until our remodeling project is finished, we don’t have the infrastructure to support that business” Karnopp said. He decided that they could do a breakfast buffet on Sundays, and that would get them moving in the right direction. “My thoughts were if we could start doing the buffet, our customers would see what was coming and we could start building up our base of regulars”. Karnopp started the buffet in March and by the end of the month his growth for the month was almost 20% over last year, and Sundays, which used to be the slowest day of the week, are now the busiest.
“We started our buffet without much of a marketing effort because we wanted to learn what we were doing without falling on our face. We are still learning, but the buffet is growing very quickly through word of mouth. By the third Sunday we had doubled the business of the first one and we are already seeing a nice group of regulars. I really love the atmosphere of the café when the buffet is going. It feels like the nice local place to go where you can catch up with your neighbors.” Karnopp said. “I think one of the big things that is leading to our success overall is that we are family friendly and non smoking. My whole business plan is based on keeping prices low, quality high, and getting the volume to support that kind of business. So far with our buffet, it looks like we are going keep our growth in line with our business plan.”
Karnopp said he plans to expand his Sunday buffet to Saturdays as soon as he gets his new coolers installed. After that he will be adding breakfast to order throughout the week. Karnopp wouldn’t go into any details, but he said that he is going to be adding to his lunch and dinner menus eventually too. “In this economy, you have to keep working on new ideas and trying things out. We plan to be here for quite a while, and experimenting with new ideas is half the fun of owning a business like this.”
About Cafe Luwak
Cafe Luwak began operations in February of 2005 at its location in the historic section of Ypsilanti referred to as Depot Town. Depot Town is a four block section of town located on Cross Street between River St. and Huron St. The area has several restaurants, antique shops, hair salons, several specialty shops, an auto museum, a firehouse museum, and two very nice parks, Riverside and Frog Island, along the Huron River. Cafe Luwak serves high end deli sandwiches, specialty coffee drinks made with all organic fair trade coffee, and ice cream. The sandwiches are served on fresh baked bread and most of the meats used are roasted on-site. Café Luwak has been rated the “Best Sandwich Shop” in southeast Michigan in the 4 the best competition hosted by WDIV Channel 4 and has also been voted best sandwich shop in Ypsilanti by Eastern Michigan University. Cafe Luwak has catering services available for casual get-togethers and office meetings. We also use environmentally friendly biodegradable products for most of our take out containers.
QUESTIONS: email jim@cafeluwak.com or call (734) 482-8050, you can also visit http://www.cafeluwak.com for more information.
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