It's a sign!

We finally have our new sign!! Thanks so much to Mrs. Southern Belle for designing the overall concept. One of our local artists here in Jefferson took her idea and added his own interpretation. Doesn't it look great?!?

The hair salon next door to us will have their sign where it says "Coffee" - hopefully within the next week or two. Here is a close-up shot of our beautiful sign.

The Midland

We have a name!!!

We have officially decided on "The Midland Cafe" as our name.

I think it is good for a variety of reasons:

• It's flexible enough to stay with us if we eventually expand into a full restaurant.
  
• It's got a connection to our town, without being too cheesy.
  
• The domain name was available, so we went ahead and reserved it.
  
• It lends itself to a really cute logo, which, in turn, will lead to fun marketing merchandise (hats, aprons, t-shirts, mugs).

I'm so excited! What do y'all think?!?

PS : If any of you graphic design types out there want to try you hand at a logo for fun, then go for it! I'm envisioning some sort of logo involving a train, sort of coming at you from a distance, and "The Midland Cafe" to the side or underneath.

The Name Game

So, dear eaters, we're still trying conjure up a name for our little endeavor. 

Here are the top contenders.

1) The Red Clay Cafe - it's a nice Georgia theme, has an earthy feel to it, and lends itself well to a neat logo with marketing potential. If you've never been to Georgia, here is a photo of what our red clay looks like:

photo from jim270

2) The Good Life - which comes from the album and song title from one of our favorite local musicians, Corey Smith. This would also make for some fun promotional/marketing items, neat t-shirts and mugs, etc.

photo from coreysmith.com

3) The Midland - our little town is home to a historic railroad line called the Gainesville Midland. I like the ideal of the railroad theme, and I'm also fond of making a connection with the history of our town. Here is a photo of the train from the early 1900s.

photo from the Gainesville Midland RR webpage

For practical purposes, we've given ourselves a deadline of Friday to finish our brainstorming and to officially select a name.

Thoughts? Ideas? Opinions?

What's in a name?

Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet, dear readers?

I'm really just not sure.

Which is why it's been so difficult these past few days to muster up a name for the deli-cafe-bakery-coffee-shop that my friends and I are about to open on the downtown square of my little town.

Brainstorming feels like thunder in my head, rolling and rolling. Word associations, idea webs, puns, quips, idioms, similes, metaphors, literary genius . . . all leading towards, well, me having to reign myself back in, come back down to earth, and come up with something that small-town folks are going to actually *get* *remember* *relate to* *jive with* - hurm.

That said, ideas are welcome.