On The Record With ... Linda Scholz

Coffee drinkers tend to stick with the drinks they love.

So says Linda Scholz, owner of Something’s Brewing, a gourmet coffee shop with two locations in Grayslake and a special cart service at the College of Lake County.

The shop also serves as a bakery, deli, gift shop and confectionery, which sells the sweets from the candy store she owns, Uniquely Sweet, located at Atkinson Road and Route 120 in Grayslake.

But all the extras aside, Something’s Brewing is a local stop where people can come to fuel up for the day, or simply stop by for a special drink. Scholz said she makes it a point to talk to her customers and make it feel like a hometown coffee shop, not a large chain.

An added bonus is the fact that Something’s Brewing offers more drink choices than popular chains, such as Starbucks, Scholz said.

Scholz went on the record with Lake County Journal reporter Stephanie N. Lehman at her Washington Street location to talk about being a barista.

Lehman: What kind of skills does it take to be a barista?
Scholz: Well, the first thing I'm looking for in an employee is someone who's going to look me in the eye, that they can think on their feet when I'm asking them questions, that they can smile, that there's an inflection in their voice, because you get so much of the canned responses when you go into a lot of big chain stores, "Welcome to blah blah blah," so we try to stay away from that, being a smaller company. You want someone who obviously is going to be quick on their feet, but sometimes you don't know that until you get them in and you start training them, because there's so many things going on behind the counter – the phone is ringing, and you've got a couple customers coming in and you want to greet them as they're coming, and you're making drinks, and you're listening to them in the back if they've got order ready for you, so they have to be able to kind of keep switching gears for that.

Lehman: What kind of training do people have to go through to become a barista?
Scholz: I want to instill in them the most important thing ... [that] it's not just about that transaction … . Everybody wants to talk to you, everybody knows you. Well, that's partly because I'm the owner, but it's partly because I will take the time to talk to people for a minute, and that's what I want the girls to do is be engaged. And the boys, I have a few boys.
But personality, and then like I said, being able to be quick on your feet, and to be able to handle those things no matter what the situation is, because if you have a customer that's upset about something, you have to know how to make it right and to let them know that you care and that you're going to fix it, so they've got to be able to figure that out.

Lehman: How many different drinks do you offer at your shops?
Scholz: I know there's over 50 sandwiches and over 20 salads … I mean, combinations are endless, but on our menu? There's got to be at least 20 up there. We have more drinks on our menu that Starbucks does, I know that for sure, not even counting smoothies or anything.

Lehman: How do your employees cope with the early mornings?
Scholz: Probably drinking lots of coffee when they get there. They have unlimited free coffee. Plus, I try as much as I can to keep as many of them I can on the same schedule ... .  I never schedule one to close one night and open the next morning, 'cause that's just asking for trouble … .
And it's just reinforcing to them that they have to be happy. Even if you're not happy, you can't show that to the customer, because it's not their fault that you're having a bad day.
And there's another part to it – 99 percent of our customers are awesome. There's once in a while that you have someone … I tell the girls, you don't know what happened to them before they walked in the door. You don't know if their dog got run over … you don't know if they're filing for bankruptcy. People have a lot going on right now.

Lehman: So part of a barista's job description is to …
Scholz: Brush it off. You gotta take it and brush it off. But like I said, most people that come in here are [great]. I lived in Chicago, so I can tell you the difference – there's more of a connection here. You're seeing a lot of the same faces daily, and you're like, "Hey!" So, it's more relaxed, it's not that stuffy look, "How can I help you?" So, I think in that respect, they have a good thing there, they can see the same faces – [it's] comfortableness.

Lehman: Do certain types of coffee sell better at different times during the day?
Scholz: I would say more differences between locations. I cannot explain this, but the downtown [Grayslake] store sells more flavored coffee. This store will sell more regular and dark roast. The college will sell more smoothies, but that's because the kids are encapsulated in the school and they don't leave. We'll sell a smoothie once in a while here, but there – all day long, smoothies. And at the college, they sell a lot of … high test. It's a double caffeinated coffee. And they love that there. But I don't even offer it here ... .
I think sometimes when you like a certain coffee, that's what people get and they go ... .

Lehman: What's your most popular drink?
Scholz: Probably the most popular would be the caramel macchiato … Actually, the chai lattes, which is not even coffee, we sell a ton of those. That probably actually passed, or they're neck and neck, those two, because even people who don't like coffee, they'll drink that.

Lehman: How difficult is it to remember all the ingredients for all the drinks that you have?
Scholz: For me, easy. For them, not so easy. That's a lot of memorization. We have a big cheat sheet … because I'm big on disclosure. I like to tell people what's in their food. If you see a name of something – the Chunky Monkey – what's in that? I don't know. So, the menu board is right there right next to the espresso machine, and all the ingredients are listed, so they know the basic formula of how much to put in, so they just can divide it by how many things are in it. So, if they need to look, they can look.

Lehman: When you're starting out, is it overwhelming?
Scholz: Yes, and this is what I try to tell people. When you're working here, you're not just working at coffee shop, because we've got coffee, we've got sandwiches, we've got the whole bakery and we've got the confectionery. So, it's like all these separate businesses, rolled into one. Drinks, it's probably the easy part. Learn 50 sandwiches and 20 salads ... we'll tell them – take the menu home and start studying it.

Lehman: If people are looking for healthier options, what can they choose for drinks?
Scholz: We offer skim milk; we offer soy milk, so if you're lactose intolerant, they can do the soy milk. If they're cutting calories, they're going to want to do the skim milk. Most of the syrups we offer, we do offer them in sugar-free, also. So, you can take a drink and bring it way down. You can also leave off the whipped cream and substitute froth. When we steam the milk and get the froth, we'll just use that … you can pretend it's whipped cream. Add a little cinnamon and nutmeg – there's no calories in that, and cinnamon is super good for you.

Lehman: Do a lot of non-coffee drinkers stop by and want a drink from a coffee shop?
Scholz: Yup. That's where the chai comes in. We also have Republic of Tea, we just started carrying, so we have quite a few drinks from them. Tea is super good for you, too.

Lehman: Are specialty drinks usually more popular than black coffee?
Scholz: I'd say [it's] split. They used to say the younger generation, but over the years, from 50 down, they're getting the specialty drinks … especially the younger crowd wants specialty drinks.

Lehman: Have coffee trends changed?
Scholz: I think people still just want a good cup of coffee. One thing that's changed, because we've seen the low carb fad kind of come and go, so during that period we were doing a lot of lattes with heavy cream. [That's a] whole lot of calories – it's like 100 calories a teaspoon – but I did the low carb thing, too. That would be one thing, that's pretty much gone; we don't have too many people requesting that any more. That would probably be the biggest. And then just the trend toward watching calories … .

Lehman: What is the biggest difference between a barista here and a barista at a chain?
Scholz: The biggest difference would be a) [my baristas] don't run from a script – I don't tell them exactly what to say, and b) they're dealing with a lot more here than at a chain, because again, we just do so much more stuff. We have a lot more options ... .

Lehman: Anthing else you can tell me about the lifestyle of a barista?
Scholz: I'd say we're no different than you, except we have too much access to coffee. And we go home smelling lkike coffee.

Scholz lowdown

Who she is: Owner of Something's Brewing, a gourmet coffee shop, bakery, deli, confectionery and gift store with two locations in Grayslake
Family: Husband, Mike; son, Cory, 19; daughter, Casey, 11
Favorite drinks: Black coffee and water.
Operating hours at her stores: 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday; and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday
For more information: Check out Something's Brewing on Facebook