The Sparrows News

Uptown’s Holiday “Shop Hop” is tonight!  The trolley is running and you can ride for free, just look for the candycanes to find trolley stops.  To celebrate the spirit of the event, tell your Barista that you are participating in the Shop Hop and recieve 25% off your to-go order.

For a long time I have wanted to figure out a way to make our router automatically send customers to this page when they accessed our internet, not to make anyone pay or be annoying or anything… just to say “hi”.   I am no IT wiz, so I couldn’t get it working and kinda dropped the idea.  Lame, I know…

Then, today I thought “Hey! Why don’t I just rename the network ’sparrowsnews.com’ so people are aware of the blog and then trust that people are actually interested in stuff we want to say?”  Now look.  You’re reading this.  Cool!  Also, if you use RSS think about subscribing to this and we can pump out random thoughts, silly asides, and occasionally serious news straight to your computer!

Thanks for the love everyone!

Hello Sparrows’ customers!

There are a lot of new and exciting things happening at The Sparrows this summer that we want to let you all in on:

1. Many of you have probably noticed that we have gone back to our summer hours. This means that as of Memorial Day, we close at 10pm every day instead of midnight, until Labor Day. This gives us a chance to catch our breath, plan, and improve the shop……which brings us to #2.

2. We will hopefully be doing some painting around the shop this summer, so please consider this our preemptive apology for the mess and/or smell. It will all be worth it in the end.

3. New products:
–For all of you chai lovers, we are now serving an AMAZING new chai. It’s brewed by a gentleman named Bapi, that uses his grandmother in India’s old family recipe. This chai is a lot spicier than the chai we’ve been serving up to now. You can really taste the cardamom and cloves in this one, and it is gooooood. Plus, all of the ingredients are organic!
–We have also just received organic mango and strawberry fruit purees for making smoothies. As summer goes on, we’ll also hit the farmer’s market for fresh fruit to throw in them. I can’t wait to drink blueberries through a bubble tea straw from the bottom of a strawberry smoothie! And of course, we have organic latte, mocha, chai, and green tea frappes!
–We found a third tea company in Michigan! It’s all herbal and rooibos teas, and they are all certified organic. This company focuses more on the healthy aspects of tea, so the descriptions on the jars list all of the health benefits offered in each tea.
–We really should have told you sooner, but since last fall we have been using Monin syrups in our drinks, which uses natural ingredients and has no corn syrup in it at all. We have also been using Ghirardelli chocolate, caramel, and white chocolate, which is much better quality than what we used before. Our milk and butter (for crepes) comes from Moo-ville Creamery, a dairy in Nashville, MI. The creamline milk that we offer is non-homogenized, making it easier to digest. They also have very happy cows! Read more here:

http://www.moo-ville.com/What%20is%20Cream%20Line.htm

In addition to cow milk, we gladly offer rice, soy, and almond milk.

4. We have recently decided to cut our magazine customers a break for a little while. Now when your magazine purchase is for $9.95 or more, you will receive a complimentary 16oz cup if drip coffee, or $1 off of any other drink. This is especially nice since we just updated our magazine list, bringing in many exciting new titles. Happy reading!

Whew! I think that’s everything. Thanks for taking time to read it all, and we hope to see you in the shop soon! Thanks again to everyone for showing support…..we appreciate your business more than you could ever know. And as always, please feel free to send us any suggestions you might have.

love love love,
The Sparrows Coffee Tea & Newsstand
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Happy 4 month anniversary to us for not posting anything!

Just a reminder, if you haven’t checked out Shaq’s Twitter site yet, DO IT NOW!!

http://twitter.com/the_real_shaq

He’s really the coolest.

Our travel mugs came in and they turned out great! (we hope you think so too)

$16.95 each plus with purchase of a mug, your first drink is free.

These are very limited edition, so get yours while they last.

Today I was informed that tomorrow McSweeney’s magazine and Wolphin will be shipped to us.

We have been waiting for this moment for so so long.  It only took a year and countless emails, but the moment has finally arrived.  I’ve also learned that our distributor can get us any back issues that we desire. Even numero uno.  So, if you missed any issues of McSweeney’s that you’re dying to see, let us know and we will order it for you.

McSweeney's Magazine

Wolphin Magazine: Our only magazine in DVD format. Past issues have featured Miranda July and Spike Jonze

Also, we now have the limited edition “Orange you glad for change cola” put out by Jones Soda.  It has a very handsome photo of our president elect on the bottle, and it really is orange cola, which I honestly think is very tasty.

Stolen from Jones website. Please don't turn us in.

We considered hosting an Inauguration party, but then we found out that Wealthy Theatre will be showing it, so I’d rather be there. You should too. It probably wont’ be anything close to being at the actual event, but at least it will be large.

love all of you,

lori

First: There has been a memorial ebay art auction set up to raise money to pay for our friend Ben Schaafsma’s hospital bills, and to set up a grant in his name.  Please go check it out, and buy great art for a great cause!  Here is the link:

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=m38.l1313&_nkw=Ben%20Schaafsma&_sacat=See-All-Categories

Also, we have yet another great find. This was left by our #1 cute shop kid, Oriia.

to love, or not?

The Sparrows is looking for local artists to make fun, creative ornaments to decorate their coffee shop Christmas tree! All ornaments will be for sale on consignment, and we ask that you price them reasonably (under $10), so we sell more of them. Sparrows will take 1/3 of the sales. Please drop off ornaments at the Sparrows at 1035 Wealthy SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49506. We will have labels available for price tags, and for your initials (so we know it’s yours when it sells, and then we can pay you!). We will also need your contact information to pay you, or if you have a popular style of ornament we might ask you to make more!
If you have any questions, please contact Aneka at avanderhill@gmail.com. Drop off ornaments by Sunday, December 7th at the latest. You can make as many as you want!
Thanks!
Aneka & The Sparrows