MarthaLucius

08/31/2026

07/10/2026

Again an impressive meal from the talented team

As an industry person I notice the details. At some restaurants, cafes and bars they are just plain absent, sometimes they are wonky, but here they do such a fantastic job, it looks seemless! Training is real, and noticeable. Team retention is real here.

If a non-industry person comes in, they get to experience a well planned customer journey. Walk in, there’s a menu. Walk further there is a display of items you can choose as to go items (shortbread is amazing). Then, as you wait to order you can look at a display of sweet and savory items in a clean minimalist glass case… it’s a pleasure to wait. Then the line moves along. Order something big or small, doesn’t matter. It’s delicious.

My first visit was a long chat with a colleague. We were on the TEDx Baltimore crew.

Corner Pantry is a gem for Baltimore. Thank you Emily and we appreciate you, we see you and will continue to support Corner Pantry.

05/29/2026

fabulous gouache painting and finally, and happily got to .alice.anne conference with and

05/17/2026

Last two weeks… I’ve been writing, in cafes, I do that as often as I can, including the new cafe at Carpet Company. I’ve been working on an event called Night of a Million Meals, travelling to Philly, PA… Leesburg, VA. I’ve been tailoring specific help to specific situations. Businesses have subtle differnce which require deep understanding.

cafe

what an evening

05/01/2026

Owning a business means you don’t have many days when you get to step back and ponder what’s working and what’s not. Im hoping this will be a “calgon, take me away” moment. To get that restful feeling, do the three questions:

Quick backstory of how I came to the Weekly Three Questions. If you know me you know I love a cafe. I owned and operated my own for 18 years and I do still miss making my team and myself an espresso drink for everyone. I miss my customers and relish when I run in to an old customer, and do a catch up. Now, when I am able, and that’s usually on Thursday (def not every Thursday) I do the Three Questions check in. I encourage my clients to do the same.

Want to know what they are? Might as well share them, because they work if you do them.
—What’s one takeaway from this week you should embed deeper into your business?
—Is there one thing you can shed? May mean that you need to retrain staff, it may be a product you love making but it’s no longer serving your business…
—we all want more magic in our world, so use your imagination. If you could wave a magic wand, how would you change it?

Feel free to adopt or call me and we can do a mini session to try this out.

And cred to these fine businesses who I visited in the last month, and took pics of their beautiful espresso drinks:
— delighted to share the latte photo. Hex now serves coffee and a breakfast menu on the weekend
— nice to see your business blooming in a small town in upstate New York.
— thank you for bringing up the restaurant standards in McLean VA
— for a wonderful surprise. Amazing Vietnamese meal in a very small city on Palawan, an island in Philippines.