"Hands down, the best cafe I've experienced - and the catch": comment by Hillel

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 14:38:07 EST

Thanks so much for the nice words. You totally got the approach we were going for in terms of the brand coming along for the ride and not being in your face.

Thanks again for the thoughts… I’ll have to try the cafe as well. :)

—hillel

"Hands down, the best cafe I've experienced - and the catch" by derek

Thu, 6 Dec 2007 23:10:00 EST

Last week, I had the single best neighborhood cafe experience of my life. Amazing service. Gorgeous interior. Spotless. Plenty of unhidden power outlets. A luxurious back patio. Reasonable prices.

Axis Cafe in the Potrero Hill neighborhood of San Francisco seemed too perfect. Like how an urban cafe might feel in an over-the-top daytime soap opera. Later, I found out that Axis Cafe was affiliated with re{NEW}, a ministry of Christian City Church San Francisco. 100% of the cafe’s profits support the Axis Community Project (ACP), which sponsors programs for the families of Potrero Hill.

My favorite high school teacher preached: “show, don’t tell.” Axis Cafe does a great job of this – I couldn’t find any mention of the relationship at the cafe and I was never approached about anything related to the church, but the entire experience reflects very well on the people in charge.

It’s similar to what Jackson Fish Market is doing with their suite of small web applications. Each of their applications is sponsored by a single brand, but the brand isn’t force-fed to you. It’s joining you on the experience. The well-executed web apps reflect highly on the brands that fund the web sites.

Advertisements on many popular web sites seem to shout “hey, look at me”. It’s to everyone’s advantage to see less invasive forms of advertising work.

BTW, If you are in Atlanta and looking for something similar, I’d suggest Octane. It’s a frequent work location for Charles.

The Napkin ~ A Blog By Highgroove Studios comments on Hands down, the best cafe I've experienced - and the catch

"Hands down, the best cafe I've experienced - and the catch": comment by Hillel

"Hands down, the best cafe I've experienced - and the catch" by derek