PRESS
We d n e s d a y, A u g u s t
4, 2010
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS
PEOPLE
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KELLIE GEIST/STAFF
Crazy Bean values crazy good coffee By Kellie Geist kgeist@communitypress.com
Friendly service. Lookout Joe’s free trade coffee. Teavana tea. Organic options. Those are just a few of the things The Crazy Bean Cafe has to offer. Kevin Pennington of Amelia opened The Crazy Bean Cafe at 770 Ohio Pike earlier this year after the company he worked for downsized. “I had a decision to make about what I wanted to do. I had seen this place and knew the potential it had. (The cafe) has been well received so far,” Pennington said. When he decided to open a coffee shop, Pennington spent hours sitting in other coffee shops taking notes on what people liked. It was during that research that he met the owners of Lookout Joe. “They were open to helping me get started,” he said. The Crazy Bean Cafe now sells Lookout Joe’s fresh-roasted coffee. Every day there are 22 of Lookout Joe’s 51 coffee flavors available, including the Highlander Grogg, the House Blend, and the Ethiopian and Nicaraguan organic coffees. Pennington also sells some teas from Teavana, a nation-wide boutique tea shop. Locally, Teavana can be found in the Kenwood Towne Centre. In the way of food, The Crazy Bean Cafe has a variety of sandwiches and wraps for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They also sell local cottage bakery pastries. But The Crazy Bean Cafe isn’t all about the product, it’s also about the delivery. Pennington often will talk to customers about what he’s making as well as suggest items that might be of interest. For example, he recently created a chilled Chai Tea
The Crazy Bean Cafe
Hours: 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday Address: 770 Ohio Pike (near St. Thomas More) Phone: 753-CAFE (2233) Website: TheCrazyBeanCafe.com E-mail: Kevin@TheCrazyBeanCafe. com Facebook: The Crazy Bean Cafe Latte customers may want to try in the warm summer months. “There is a lot of nostalgia around local coffee shops. I don’t make customers, I make friends,” he said. One weekly customer definitely appreciates Pennington’s customer service. “I’m there (The Crazy Bean Cafe) at least once a week and the owner is really friendly and the coffee is great,” Dawn Bruenderman said. “ ... I live in Union Township and try to patronize establishments that are here. It’s just something I do to try to help the community be successful.” While business has been pretty good, Pennington said he’s still looking to grow his customer base. “There are 37,000 cars that pass by every day. I don’t need all of them to stop, but if you’re coming this way, and you want a cup of coffee, I hope you stop,” he said. To increase customers in the evening hours, Pennington is planning a series of events including a cigar tasting, poker night (where chips are worth coffee,) jewelry-making classes and live music. The Crazy Bean Cafe also has free wireless Internet. Outside the store, The Crazy Bean Cafe also does event and business catering.
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RECIPES
UC Clermont dean looks to future By Kellie Geist
Kevin Pennington opened The Crazy Bean Cafe on Ohio Pike earlier this year.
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The UC Clermont’s new dean believes in a concept he calls the “Three A’s” – affordability, access and academics. “We need to continue to provide those three things for students. That’s what our focus always will be,” said Gregory Sojka. Sojka officially started July 1 as the new dean of UC Clermont. Before coming to Clermont County, Sojka served as the provost, and later president, at the University of Rio Grande. He also has worked at Bowling Green State University, Wichita State University, the University of Wyoming, Casper College Center and Lewis-Clark State College. Sojka said he was attracted to UC Clermont after 15 years of driving past the campus during the trip from his home in southeastern Ohio to his inlaws house in Indiana. “I’ve always thought it was an ideal location for a small college. It’s close enough to the city, but it still has a little country,” he said. “We’re in a perfect place to expand and serve more students. UC Clermont is big enough to matter and small enough to care about the students.” “We have the size, location and variety of programs I think students are looking for,” he said. As the future of education in Ohio continues to morph, Sojka thinks UC Clermont will be on track to rise to the challenge set forth by the state to
KELLIE GEIST/STAFF
The UC Clermont’s new dean is Gregory Sojka. Before coming to Clermont County, Sojka lived in Bidwell, Ohio, and was the president of The University of Rio Grande. increase the number of college graduates. First of all, the campus now offers a bachelor’s of technical and applied studies degree. “I think that degree will help meet the local community employment needs ... It’s a great professional degree and is the first of what I anticipate will be more degrees,” he said. “We need to improve educational attainment. We need more students going to college. I think UC Clermont is perfect for first generation college students, which I was and which a majority of our students are, because our class sizes are small and the personal attention if what they need to succeed.”
Sojka said he’s looking forward to the new access road from Old Ohio 74 and the beginning of UC East at the old Ford plant. However, while those projects will help alleviate some of the strain on the current campus, Sojka said he anticipates planning for a new building in the next few years. Clermont Chamber of Commerce President Matt Van Sant said he’s spent a little time with Sojka and thinks the new dean understands the community’s priorities for UC Clermont, including meeting the needs of the growing student population and the importance of hiring and retaining quality teachers. “I also think he understands the need to enhance cooperative education within the community – working with the business industry to make sure when we graduate students, we place students,” Van Sant said. Sojka said students will be able to find him at basketball and volleyball games, concerts and hanging around campus – all things he hopes to see students doing, too. When he’s not on campus, Sojka enjoys spending time with his wife, Jane, who will be teaching in the College of Business on UC’s main campus, and his three daughters, Jane, 24, Ann, 22, and Joan, 20. He also likes to bike and walk his dog Sophie. As they get settled into the community and start looking for a home Sojka said he and Jane are looking forward to exploring the area. They are currently living in an apartment in Eastgate.
Cincinnati Sinatra celebrates 40 years By Kellie Geist
The Cincinnati Sinatra
kgeist@communitypress.com
Eleven-year-old Matt Snow was working at a local Goodwill store when he came across a brand new, still-in-the-plastic copy of Sinatra at the Sands, a special Frank Sinatra album with accompaniment by the Count Basie Band. “I got it for 50 cents and I took it home and wore it out,” Snow said. “I learned every song on that record within a few days and I would sing them all the time around the house.” But the Snow family, including his sales manager/singer father, knew the youngster was meant for more than the acoustics of his home. So, when Snow was 15, his dad introduced him to local band leaders and helped him get shows. “I started singing in 1971 and I’ve been doing it ever since,” he said. Although she always supported his love for the arts, Snow’s mom Leah Snow said it was still humorous to hear her 15-year-old son sing “It Was a Very Good Year.” “He would sing that song and there’s line where it said, ‘When I was 17,’ but he wasn’t quite there yet,” Leah said. “I thought that was pretty funny.” Snow, a Miami Township resident known as the Cincinnati Sinatra, said his ability to engage and interact with the audience is probably what gives him staying power.
Matt Snow is available for all types of parties, events and private performances. He is a member of the Wedding Mafia and the International Special Events Society. In addition to Sinatra, Snow sings selections originally recorded by Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole and more. If you’re looking for a local show, Snow performs every Monday at Tong’s Thai, 1055 Main St. in Milford. For more information, visit www.thecincinnatisinatra.com or call 5769766. Find Snow on Facebook, Twitter, Plaxo and MySpace. Snow’s first full-length album, “My Way,” can be purchased at his website or at any of his live shows. “I don’t pretend to be the best singer or the best classically-trained vocalist, but I think the way I portray the character and the way I interact with the audience is where I have had longevity,” he said. “I consider myself an entertainer first and a singer second.” Over the years Snow, who is 55, has worked with local artists including Eddie Schmalz, Bob Mace, Frank Vincent, Judy Downer, Ed Moss and The Society Jazz Orchestra and Charlie Gregory and the Seven Sharps and has played in a wide range of local venues. As far as events go, you can find Snow at everything from weddings and saloons to private parties and charity events. For the last 35 years, Snow worked
KELLIE GEIST/STAFF
Matt Snow, or The Cincinnati Sinatra, can be seen at Tong’s Thai in Milford every Monday evening. in sales. But last year he decided to quit that job to work in show business. He and his wife, actress Patti Warner, started the company Cincinnati Sinatra. Snow will do 200 shows this year and hopes to perform at 300 next year. “It’s scary to have us both in show business, but at our age, you kind of roll with the punches. I’ve always been fortunate enough to pursue my own career full-time and he was getting so popular that this was a natural transition,” Warner said. “He’s so generous and sincere. What you see is what you get,” she said. “He’s so friendly and outgoing that sometimes people think he’s phony, but that’s the real him.” This year Snow will celebrate 40 years of singing Sinatra and, although he knows 300 songs, he said it doesn’t get old.
Peacock ‘Jacob’ finds home in New Richmond By John Seney jseney@communitypress.com
PROVIDED
Jacob the peacock has found a home along the New Richmond waterfront.
A peacock has found a home on the streets of New Richmond. Mayor Ramona Carr said no one knows where the peacock came from or who owns him. He has been there about a year, and has been named Jacob, after Jacob Light, the village’s founder. “He mostly stays on Front Street,” Carr said, although he has been spotted around the New Rich-
mond schools in the Watkins Hill Road area. She said people feed him cracked corn, peanuts and Little Debbie snack cakes. “He is pretty street smart,” Carr said. “I saw him chasing a dog one day.” The Midwest climate doesn’t bother Jacob. “We saw him walking through the snow all winter,” Carr said. Bob Lees, owner of the Front Street Cafe, said this spring some village merchants thought Jacob might be getting lonely.
“He was getting friendly with the ducks and geese,” he said. So they pitched in and purchased a peahen from a farmer in Brown County. The peahen was named Susanna, after the wife of the founder of the village of Susanna, which merged with New Richmond.
“We got the two together, and they both seemed happy,” Lees said. “Then, all of a sudden they both disappeared.” Jacob has since reappeared on Front Street, and Susanna has been spotted around the village, but not in the company of Jacob. “She’s more elusive than
Jacob,” Lees said. He thinks the courtship may have been successful and Susanna is looking for a place to build a nest. The mayor said Jacob is welcome to stay as long as he likes. “He’s our town bird,” Carr said.
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