Essential information for existing retailers and anyone considering a career in retail specialty coffee
Starting a Coffee Shop Business Podcast
Produced by Startingabiz.com | June 30th, 2009
Bruce Milletto, president of Bellissimo Coffee InfoGroup and founder of the American Barista and Coffee School, offers his insight about how to start a coffee business to podcast host Matt Thomas of StartingABIZ.com. Bruce offers expert advice about getting started, choosing a location, picking the right coffee and espresso equipment, and more. [24 minute podcast]
Click here to listen to Starting a Coffee Shop Business Podcast
bellissimo: advising the specialty coffee industry for more than 25 years
For more than 25 years, Bellissimo Coffee InfoGroup has been advising the specialty coffee industry and setting the standard for education, training and consulting. Thousands of coffee business owners have benefited from our expertise and created successful, profitable operations from cafes to drive-thrus to major chains across the country.
A Team Approach
Bellissimo differs from other coffee-business consulting firms in that we take a team approach to your project, drawing on the skills of a wide range of coffee-industry professionals in marketing, finance, operations, roasting, graphic design and training. As a result, your business benefits from the multiple perspectives of our diversely talented and experienced team members. After we assess your needs, we will match the right consultant to each phase of your project, giving you optimal impact for your consulting dollar.
We Offer 100 Percent of What You Need
Many consultants can help you with the portion of your business that is
visible to your customers: store appearance, product choices and
customer service.
But what about the behind-the-scene requirements it takes to open and
operate a profitable specialty coffee business: negotiating the best
lease, choosing the right equipment and having a properly trained staff
who can wow your customers with the perfect latte every time.
Bellissimo's expertise can help make your business profitable.
- We have been advising the specialty coffee industry for more than 25 years.
- Our clients include Fortune 500 companies as well as American and International entrepreneurs.
- Our consulting team includes the most trusted names in the coffee industry with over 100 years of combined experience.
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Bellissimo does not sell coffee or equipment. The consulting services you receive
from us are unbiased and in your best interest, not ours.
- In addition to our comprehensive consulting services, we offer a variety of business and barista training programs.
- We are the only coffee consulting company that produces a comprehensive line of educational books and DVDs to back our consulting services. Bellissimo has written and published four coffee business manuals, including Bean Business Basics, and produced 13 coffee shop training DVDs, including Espresso 101, the industry's standard for barista training.
- Bellissimo's founder, Bruce Milletto, is recognized by the media as the "voice of the specialty coffee industry."
- Our films, books and DVDs have won numerous awards from the specialty coffee industry and at International film festivals.
- We founded the American Barista & Coffee School [ABC's] in Portland, OR, premier professional school in the world devoted to coffee business education and hands-on barista training.
- Our consultants hold key committee positions with the Specialty Coffee Association of America.
- Click here to find out how easy it is to consult with Bellissimo and how our consulting process works.
Bellissimo Client Featured in Forbes Magazine
According to Forbes Magazine, Eurotazza Coffeehouse, opened by Bellissimo client Keira Moody in Dallas, Texas, is one of the best boutique coffeehouses in the United States.
We helped Keira design her coffeehouse, plan her menu, select her equipment and suppliers and we were there for her store opening and training. Keira is also a graduate of Bellissimo's American Barista & Coffee School.
Congratulations, Keira!
Click here to read the Forbes article.
Bellissimo Blog
07.01.09
Happy 4th of July America...
All of us at Bellissimo are headed in different directions for the long 4th of July holiday. Soon I will be posting some pix of my sojourn on Facebook, and they should be interesting and different — and have nothing to do with coffee (well maybe cowboy coffee).This summer will be an extremely busy for Bellissimo, and July, August and September will include some major travel for me. First on the flight docket is a week in Vancouver B.C. followed by a week of fishing in Alaska (halibut and salmon)....
Read More...
Matt Milletto + ABC's Get Big National Press in March!
bellissimo in the news
"Illy was doing espresso education before anyone else," says Bruce Milletto, president of the American Barista & Coffee School in Portland, Ore., which trains more than 200 baristas and coffee-shop owners each year. "There's only one way to prepare espresso — it's chemistry and physics."
Over the decades, Illy's researchers say they have isolated no fewer than 114 factors, from coffee growing to brewing, that must be controlled to make one good shot. Fresh beans must be ground and tamped just so, before exposing .25 ounces' worth to one ounce of water at 194 degrees Fahrenheit (give or take three degrees) and nine bars of pressure for 30 seconds — in a clean machine, per favore! Do so and you get a shot of rich, but not bitter, espresso, topped with a tiger-striped layer of coffee foam that Italians call crema. Bungle a step and it's, how do you say in English, swill.
