Welcome to Behind the Bar, where I will be taking you on a journey of coffee, tea, customer service and stolen tip jars. What qualifies me to be your guide? I worked for a whole year at a coffee shop in downtown Phoenix (Impressive, right?). If you're thinking Starbucks, you should stop right now.
When I was a budding, bright-eyed freshman, I got a job at Fair Trade Cafe (FTC), Phoenix's premiere organic and fair trade certified coffee shop. I didn't know this at the time, of course, but I grew to love this place as a second home. My co-workers are gracious, hard-working and lovely ladies, and I'm sure we all have countless stories I could tell you.
Now, I'm a sophomore in the journalism program at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, focusing in print and multimedia. This is my first semester writing for State Press Magazine, so I'm excited to have an actual audience to write for, unlike my sad little personal blog. I am a self-admitted coffee-hater and a self-proclaimed tea expert. In the next 16 or so weeks, I hope to give you knowledge and laughter. I hope my strange exploits behind the bar (Get it?) at FTC will be as funny, weird, entertaining, quirky and touching to you as they were to me.
Full disclosure: I don't actually work there anymore, as I was offered a job at the Cronkite school that worked better for me. I assure you all, though, I have more than enough funny stories to tell and you'll get your fix from "Behind the Bar."
I look forward to serving you all!
Reach the columnist at Nicole.Tyau@asu.edu and on Twitter @nicoletyau_ASU.
Nicole Tyau is a sophomore at ASU and also works for The State Press as an opinions columnist. She is majoring in journalism with a focus in print and multimedia. One of the biggest tools in her written arsenal is sarcasm, so enjoy the ride and don't take it too seriously.
