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THINKING INSIDE THE BOX continued from page 50 KNOW YOUR CONCEPT In a well-known Japanese restaurant in Portland, Ore., large TV screens suspended over the sushi bar show sumo wrestling matches. At a national family restaurant franchise in Ithaca, N.Y., screens over the bar broadcast news footage—on a random day last year, it was a police manhunt. Both establishments have the same intent: Use TV to create a sense of community. They also run the same danger: Not everyone wants to deal with enormous, sweaty men or violent criminals over dinner. If you simply place a TV in your shop, you might give people something to look at or comment on, but you will be unable to fully monitor programming. With the best intentions, you could be alienating customers without even knowing it. Controlling content—and making sure it is compatible with the concept of your shop—is key to successfully integrating TV technology into your business plan. "For us, TV is a medium to get the story across—the story of what is in your cup," says Melissa Stewart of Just-Us! Coffee. Chris Costello is the owner of Costello's Travel Caffé in Portland, Ore. Over the past seven years, he has been able to cultivate a cosmopolitan vibe using two flat-screen televisions on the oppos- ing walls of his airy shop. While Costello has tried different things with the screens, his most successful use of them has been as a sort of living wall art. Beginning in 2000, he and his father trav- eled to destinations as far-flung as Denmark, China and Argentina to capture video footage of simple street scenes. Costello did all the editing himself and mixed the final product with subtle elec- tronic music. The effect is like sitting in a sidewalk café, watching life go by, trancelike. The montages transport the customer to a more exotic place. "The screens have never directly brought us much in the way of increased sales," Costello admits. "But as a part of our overall ambience and differentiation strategy, they have always proven valuable." Part of the value of the screens is their versatility, allowing Costello to stage movie nights, World Cup viewings and other events. While the business of running a shop precludes travel and post-production these days, the images already captured, like good wall art, are never going to get old. At Kick Butt Coffee Music & Booze in Austin, Texas, television serves a different purpose. "My criteria for choosing content is pretty simple," says owner Thomas Gohring. "Does it kick butt?" Kick Butt is a martial-arts-themed establishment that incorpo- rates a video monitor into a venue that also includes live music, blues and belly dancing, Wii, comedy, and the over-the-counter sale of nunchucks and ninja throwing stars. The monitor gen- erally plays martial-arts movies like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "The Karate Kid," though Gohring has recently been 52 COFFEE ALMANAC 2012