THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 23, 1996 TAG: 9606190044
SECTION: REAL LIFE PAGE: K1 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: MY JOB
SOURCE: BY KRYS STEFANSKY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 81 lines
HERE, THE customers have nicknames.
Take the tall-vanilla-latte-extra-sweet. He does the same thing every morning he zips past in his car.
``He waves to us while he drives by on his way to get his gas, and we try to get his coffee ready by the time he gets here,'' says Carol Ann VanderLaan.
She is standing in a green, red and white drive-up kiosk scarcely bigger than a walk-in closet and so full of the scent of coffee beans that just breathing can bring on a caffeine rush. All morning long, cars pull in off Great Neck Road in Virginia Beach and wait in line for the bean.
Nobody waits long.
VanderLaan and her co-worker, Kristi Wray, can grind, make and serve a cappuccino, take cash and make change for the order in 90 seconds flat. In Italy they call them ``baristas.'' Here, at Coffease, they call them fast.
Espresso, cappuccino, caffe latte, breve, mocha - they do them all. Add to that frozen mocha drinks, and the sky's the limit.
But those early morning customers don't like to be fiddled with. Just pass 'em their coffee and send 'em on their way. Most don't even know they have nicknames.
There's ``Americano man'' - the guy who always orders an espresso with an extra shot of hot water. There's ``Mad Max Mocha Lady'' and her shy dog. ``Dr. Sport,'' whose car is always loaded down with either surfboard or skis. And there's ``Mocha man'' - the fellow who likes a little chocolate and whipped cream in his cup first thing in the morning.
VanderLaan gets to work by 5:30 a.m. She slams back a window and is open for business by six. Not a minute too soon.
``Those early morning workers, they need that coffee, man,'' says VanderLaan. ``A lot of early morning people want espressos. I guess they just need that jolt.''
``Yeah, I thought people would be mean in the morning, but we're their best friends when they want that coffee,'' says Wray, who is 24 and a former waitress.
Active duty military are usually the first commuters to get a cup and go. Then come the corporate types.
``Then, the late morning, you get the landscaper kind of guys,'' says VanderLaan. ``Then the moms.''
One drives up now, infant strapped into the back seat, and ponders her choices.
``Could I have an, ummm, what's an Italian soda?'' she asks, sticking her frequent-buyer card up to the window.
Tossing out ``Good mornings!'' and waving at babies, the women do a carefully choreographed ballet around each other. Each runs a bean grinder, each respects the hiss and spit of her own espresso machine. But they lean out of either kiosk window, depending on need. That's when you hear, ``Behind you! Coffee on your left! Cup to your right!'' They never spill a drop.
Some regulars hand up their own containers.
``A lot of them come with their own cups,'' says VanderLaan. ``It's like their ba-ba.''
VanderLaan, who is 29, came to this job after missionary work in Canada. She says selling coffee can be personal.
``You build a relationship with customers,'' she says.
``Like the guy who brings us the roses,'' says Wray, nodding at a paper cup full of home-grown buds behind the sink faucet.
``They make us feel a part of their family,'' says VanderLaan.
``Sometimes you can tell that their day is not starting out so well and you encourage them and give them a little boost.''
``Yeah,'' says Wray, ``Sometimes you say, ``How're you doing?' and people will just totally unload - that they're having surgery, that they're having marriage trouble.''
She leans over the biscotti to open the window and over her shoulder adds, ``I guess people just don't have that many people to talk to.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MORT FRYMAN/The Virginian-Pilot
``Those early morning workers, they need that coffee, man,'' says
Carol Ann Vanderlaan, who works at Coffease in Virginia Beach.
Photo
MORT FRYMAN/The Virginian-Pilot
Kristi Wray, left, and Carol Ann VanderLaan can turn around an order
in 90 seconds flat. by CNB