Hidden Tech Party Brings the Geeks to the Cafe

It's not a major birthday year but hey, it does only come around once. Today I'm fifty-one. Wow, it was just last year that we had the major party that every red-blooded American man deserves....but this year no big plans, just a bunch of computer geeks who are coming to the cafe tonight for the Hidden Tech Sip and Schmooze.

This group is comprised of people who make their livings at home. They don't have an office to go to, they're known as our 'hidden tech' community. I began having these parties to bring these folks out of their home offices and into the social limelight a few years ago. Since most of the meetings of the group involve aspects of work, I've emphasized that this is just for fun. The turnout is usually decent.

The cafe looks great with candles lit, dimmed lights, white tablecloths, and the gentle clink of wine glasses mixed with the tingle of jazz on the hifi. I just got the call that I get every year from the parents, wondering about what my plans are for the special day. It's always nice to be connected.

Making the Front Look as Good as the Inside

Flowers can change a building's tone, as illustrated here at the GoNOMAD cafe, in the center of South Deerfield.

Nobody Ever Got a Callous Building a Web Site

This expression cracked me up when I read it on a poster selling power tools. Indeed, my hands don't bear the callouses found on hard-working carpenters, iron workers or painters. But today I did one of the jobs that gives you callouses and it felt great. I painted the front deck of the cafe, which now has the same lovely moss green that we have on our sign.

It was a faded, chipped surface that showed the wood beneath and I took advantage of a rare closed day at the cafe to put on that coat of paint. Some of my customers drove by and saw me there and asked if they could get coffee. I had to say no since that would involve walking on my wet paint.

We have also added a new "Refrigerated Merchandiser" a 35" tabletop unit with a glass front that we'll be putting items like cold noodles, Asian cole slaw and banana creme pie in. The bottom will have chilled bottles of water, and we can make sandwiches ahead of time for those customers who don't want to wait. Monday I'll be around in the morning before I head off for a long trip. Newark to Malaysia, a non-stop flight, then I'll fly across the South China sea to Kuching, Sarawak, Borneo.

Work Through Lunch, You Pathetic Slave

"Work Through Lunch," the pink billboard exhorts me, as I drive south on I-91. Then just below is a photo of a tiny pizza the company sells for 'lunch.' I glare at the sign and set to thinking.

No Way! Lunch is a relaxing bit of the day. Lunch is for meeting a friend, sitting for a while, enjoying a good meal and taking your mind off work. I saw this pink billboard and I thought, that's JUST EXACTLY what we are not about.

Nobody works through lunch at the cafe. I hope to keep it that way.

These Photos Make You Wanna Eat!

At the end of the day I decided to jazz up our GoNOMAD Cafe Myspace page. Click the image to get a mouth-watering close-up!

So we added a whole new photo gallery by Manager and photographer Liz Bagley. They make the food look very good.

Hat tip to my son-in-law Francisco Cosme, who first suggested we put up pictures of the menu items to help people decide...like they do at MacDonalds!

The Pace of GoNOMAD Staggers, Yet Pleases Us

Today I'm again behind the counter at the cafe...but that's a good thing. Business has really taken off this week, I think it might have to do with the new neon OPEN sign as well as the nicer weather and of course, our great sandwiches! But it is inspiring to see the big line of people waiting for coffee, and there is an excitement in the cafe that is palpable. People really love it here. Wow! It feels so great to have created a place that means something...a place to come, a place to catch up.

Across the parking lot, we're also busy with exciting projects. Among these is our presentation to the folks who run the New York Times Travel show. We're hoping to step it up this year and exhibit at our own booth at this huge travel show. This is a big deal for us, yet after four years of exhibiting in the city, we know what we're doing and we can bring a lot to the show. Cree, who runs the Travel Ad Network, is helping us out with some additional ad support, and we've offered them a home base at the show when we open our booth there next February.

We are also looking into a new 'white label,' that is a custom-branded page on which we'd offer vacation rentals around the world. We want to give people a chance to browse through a huge database and book house and villa rentals from us. You'll see this plus some other new programs popping up on GoNOMAD.com very soon.

Oh, We're Gonna Have a Wing Ding

"Oh we're gonna have a wing ding," sang Donald Fagen,"a summer smoker on the ground,"and thinking about this music makes me think of our Anniversary party. We're going to celebrate our one-year anniversary of the cafe, and the five year mark for our flagship, GoNOMAD.com. There will be cocktails and hors d'oeuvres and many of our customers and friends.

I remember when I lived in Greenfield, way back in the late '80s, and there was an event that I'll always remember. It was at the YMCA, and it was a theatrical dinner party in which dozens of folks entered through a makeshift rabbit hole. Then the production began, and we were brought soup, then the rest of the courses, by costumed actors. It was a coming together that I'm sure many in Franklin County still remember. I think Court Dorsey had something to do with it.

So I am considering many options for this celebration. No rabbit hole, but I do want to make the party memorable. I want to have it at the cafe and in our website offices, and have it turn into an event that everyone wants to be at...Maybe we cook up some food on grills in the back parking lot, and block it all off to cars.

Our party invites will go out soon, and we hope to make this a special night to celebrate these businesses and bring together fun people from the valley to the cafe.

Boldness Makes the Cafe Expansion Happen

Snow fell in tiny flakes when I woke up this morning, gearing up for an early shift at the cafe. We've been busy planning the next phase of the cafe...making the whole place bigger and opening up so we can add more tables. Georgi from the restaurant next door came by and gave us some good advice. "Use the whole space," he said, "you're paying rent, so put in as many tables as you can fit." He encouraged us to re-orient the new bakery case so that the whole cafe will look different and fit more people.

Next week we move our office over next door, and then the big process begins, with new flooring, lots of construction, and piling up debt. That is what sometimes makes me stay awake at night, as I used to remember my sister telling me about her cafe business in NJ. She would regale us with tales of her current debt load and whether she had paid any off...it was always a balancing act with payroll looming and new ideas percolating that are hard to pay for.

I set out next week to Gillette's in North Brookfield, searching for the perfect pastry case and more tables and chairs. I am excited, a little nervous, but hey, be bold as my cousin Steve once told me, that's the only way to achieve greatness!

Globe Comes West to Feature the GoNOMAD Cafe

WOW the Boston Globe included a half-page article about the cafe in their Sunday Travel section. Featured in the photo prominently is Elizabeth Bagley, our barista who just returned from Amsterdam, where she traveled to write a story for the website.

Diane Daniels had written about me before, during Kate's wedding in the Dominican Republic. She was in town last summer, so she wrote about us, and I must say she got it all right. Here's a snippet and the link to the piece.

Lhasa, Lisbon, latte at Deerfield stop

SOUTH DEERFIELD -- "This is a traveler s cafe, a little teeny travelers cafe," said Max Hartshorne, with a sweeping gesture toward his compact, map-filled GoNomad Cafe. "It's about computers, travel, and coffee. All the things I love.

Hartshorne has owned and edited gonomad.com since 2002, when he purchased the online travel magazine from founder Lauryn Axelrod of Pawlet, Vt. The popular site and international travel portal focuses on alternative and independent travel. Hartshorne, 48, and a staff of five work in an office in the back of the cafe.

"Now instead of saying come to my office, I say, come to my cafe. Every office should have a cafe," he said.

At the GoNomad Cafe, the menu is coffee, lattes, smoothies, breakfast sandwiches, and pastries. Time at the cafe's five computers is a minimum $6 per hour, and there is free wireless Internet.

"About once every other month I go somewhere overseas," said Hartshorne, who was planning then to head to Austria . "I love the ambience of computer cafes."

At GoNomad, Hartshorne has created a total travel-themed look and feel, from the map cutouts on the wall to the guide books available for reading, in the cafe and its restrooms.

While Internet cafes may be more common in urban areas (and nearly fixtures abroad) , Hartshorne said the town sees a steady stream of visitors, thanks in part to its proximity to Historic Deerfield and the Yankee Candle Co.

"You'd be surprised," he said. "People go through Deerfield all the time."