Welcome to CAFE HERMAN

[Di Blasi]

this is most wonderful news........i look forward to sharing a pour with you one of these days in your own place...

Good thinking randall! Bring the others and make it a California reunion in Leikanger! It would be great to have you guys visit! And everyone else too!!

I can see it now:

DB: "Hello, is this the extermitor?"
EX: "Yes. How may I help you?"
DB: "I've got an ifestation of Californians. What do I do?"

Ganga!! Ha ha hilarious!! (The response would be something like...)
"Uh sorry buddy, you're on your own with that one. But hey, tell them thanks for bringing the good weather!!"

Good stuff! Quick report, crazy busy, a tough day yesterday, a good one today! I'm off to do a bit of painting in a few minutes, but they started putting the bar together today! And they'll be back tomorrow to finish it. Things are really coming together, gonna be hard to open on the 1st of September as I'm still shooting for, but we'll see. The gas will be installed Tuesday, and hopefully the kitchen equipment shortly thereafter! Reality will settle soon enough, be ready for tee shirts, (but of course!!) too!!!
Thanks for all of your support and well wishes, it means a lot to me!!!

[Ryguy]

Thanks for the updates Di Blasi! It really sounds like things are coming together quite quickly. You do realize we'll be expecting pictures once you are up and running.

[I_SPEY]

Thanks for the updates Di Blasi! It really sounds like things are coming together quite quickly. You do realize we'll be expecting pictures once you are up and running.

Yes, I'm very curious too, Jonathan
I wish you all the luck in the world.

[Di Blasi]

Just a quick hello, been very busy, but finally opening day is set for September 8th!
Chef Christian is getting antsy to get cooking, which will happen about mid-late week this week.
Whisky and wine delivery Thursday!
Fotos and website as you've requested asap!

[Di Blasi]

Good choice of day DB.
I got married on September 8th last year

Congratulations Collector57! We'll be celebrating together then.

[Ganga]

Well congratulations to both of you. Good luck with opening week and Nick treat your lady right this weekend through Monday.

[TheTross]

September 8th eh? My dad's birthday! So a three-way celebration then

Hope all goes smoothly with the grand opening DB! And have a great anniversary weekend Nick

[Deactivated Member]

JDB,
when I was looking to take over the pub, everyone told me that gastronomy was just about the most difficult trade.
I expected problems and oh boy, did I get them. In fact they never stop.

Many of the problems are due to my taking over an old, run down, ragged place, with infrastructures (like water waste, electric .. etc) that are at least 30 years out of date.

My learning curve has been immense and I'm still not there yet.

So yes, it is hard, extremely hard. When nobody comes in for days or weeks on end, I still have the rent and other costs to pay.

But I love it. I wouldn't want to do anything else now.
I still don't know if I'll get through the next few months, but I'm giving it my all.

So, I can only warn you to expect everything to go wrong, often expensively wrong!
But I hope you also get the bug for it.

Good luck for Monday.
MT

[Mr Fjeld]

Pictures please!!!!

[Di Blasi]

Thanks MT for your insight, it's correct! A crazy first week, very successful launch, and trying
to find a routine for my new 90 hours a week! I'll post fotos and more asap, as soon as I get
a grip on everything! Whew, what a week!

[Muskrat Portage]

DiB:
I looked last night, no website as yet. Once the dust settles and you can post pictures and menus, it will be very enticing for me. I'm already imagining the whiskies that will be available.

Well done so far and please keep up the blow by blows.
Muskrat Portage

[Di Blasi]

Just a quick hello to update you all, and say too I'm missing you all and my many good times around
here. My weeks have been busy, working about 95 hours on average, but have actually managed to take
last night and tonight off! Monday marks Cafe Herman's 3 week anniversary and we've been busier than
expected, and new staff have jumped on, and so good it's even allowed me to be free on 2 weekend nights,
crazy!
We finally got the stereo system going just today, with 6 speakers individually volume controlled, and the possibility
of having 4 different sources of music into each of those speakers, very cool, and it definitely adds another element
to the once quiet, (when no one was around), cafe.
Still no time unfortunately to work on the website, or take fotos, sorry about that, but hopefully soon. It's not easy
keeping up with everything!!
As for the whiskies, I thought you'd never ask...
Ardbeg Ten
Dun Bheagan Caol Ila 12y cask strength
Redbreast 12y
Powers
Kariuzawa 1973 (single cask for Norway, Martin's Selection of Single Casks, if I remember correctly)
Mackmyra First Edition
Highland Park 12y single cask for Dr. Jekyll in Oslo
Bladnoch 1992 Berry Bros and Rudd
Jim Beam
Glengoyne 10y
Maybe I've forgotten but it's late, I''m tired and I shoulda been in bed hours ago.
Thanks again to you all for your best wishes and support!

[Deactivated Member]

JdB, you are complaining about working 95h weeks?


Honestly, that's only a part-time job

[Di Blasi]

You've got to be joking Malt-Teaser! Damn, I suddenly don't feel so busy any longer! I'm actually starting to get a grip, and some great and helpful staff that allow me to relax and not worry about little Herman when I'm away a few hours, but always just a phone call away, and just .6 of a kilometer down the road if the place catches on fire or they need me.
Here's a link to a county-wide, (Sogn og Fjordane) magazine which did a little feature on us, very nice fotos and a great story! (Nice after a disappointing one the more local paper printed after we opened last month), this one luckily makes up for it, and goes into every mailbox in the county, about a 100,000 people or so I guess.
http://fylkesmagasinet.no/?p=708#more-708
(I'm the smiley one in the Herman shirt, yes, they're for sale of course!)
Sorry there's no translation, hopefully we'll get one up on the site, which is now public too, but still under construction...
http://cafeherman.no/

[Muskrat Portage]

JDiB:
A very promising looking little cafe, especially with a few bottles of SM nectar on the table in front of you. I take it the young lady on the Apple computer was posting on the WM Forums?

Congrats on getting some well deserved publicity. Now I just have to figure out how to translate the article into Northern Canadian.

Muskrat Portage

[Di Blasi]

Thanks MP!
Trying to get Misses Herman to translate it for us, so you can all enjoy it. We've also gotten a suggestion to send it along to the travel books to entice the travellers during the summer months. I'd sure be pleased to come across a Cafe Herman type place while travelling in some remote place in the world. Good whisky, good food, good wine, good atmosphere, smiley local staff!

[les taylor]

Nice report Jonathan. Thanks for the update. The magazine article was nice as well. I enjoyed reading your mum's comments, she must be very proud. Hope it goes well for you.

[Di Blasi]

Thanks Les! I forgot to check and see what Mom wrote, she told me she did write something but when I checked they hadn't posted yet, so thanks for the reminder.
I just got off the phone with Diageo Norway, my contact there, and Herman just might be getting a bottle of the Port Ellen 8th Release. Nothing definite yet with so few bottles coming into the country, but we'll see.

[I_SPEY]

Thanks Les! I forgot to check and see what Mom wrote, she told me she did write something but when I checked they hadn't posted yet, so thanks for the reminder.
I just got off the phone with Diageo Norway, my contact there, and Herman just might be getting a bottle of the Port Ellen 8th Release. Nothing definite yet with so few bottles coming into the country, but we'll see.

Very nice posts ánd photopraphs, Jonathan
Please, keep us informed and maybe oneday, we all come to CAFE HERMAN That would be great. I wish you all the success in the world

[Di Blasi]

Yes of course, you're all warmly invited to visit Cafe Herman! It sure would be great to have a tasting with the whiskymag forum members, we could make it an annual event! Spring time would be nice, though the fall is also a beautiful and colorful time to visit, but then again so is the winter when the days are shorter and the long nights allow for more time to be spent with good whisky.

[Deactivated Member]

The sign on the wall in the photo looks like it reads He Man.

[Mr Fjeld]

Congratulations Jonathan! Didn't see it before now but I have to say it looks really great! Looks like someone has done a splendid job of blending modern design in a traditional building. I'd love to visit Herman sometime in the future

[Di Blasi]

Congratulations Jonathan! Didn't see it before now but I have to say it looks really great! Looks like someone has done a splendid job of blending modern design in a traditional building. I'd love to visit Herman sometime in the future

Thanks Mr Fjeld! Would be nice to have you visit, let me know when so we can maybe arrange a whisky tasting out of it too!
Hey Nick! It does say He man, ha ha! It also says Her man, funny cause of the shop across the street is called Frode's Frue, Frode's Wife!

[lusentyja]

hallo, i was in Herman and this is veryyy nice place. grettings. L

[Ryguy]

hallo, i was in Herman and this is veryyy nice place. grettings. L

Welcome to the Forums lusentyja!! Glad to see that you enjoyed your visit to Cafe Herman!

[Di Blasi]

hallo, i was in Herman and this is veryyy nice place. grettings. L

Welcome to the Forums lusentyja!! Glad to see that you enjoyed your visit to Cafe Herman!

Wow, very nice to hear lusentyja! When were you here?? Next time please say hello so we can have a whisky and chat together!!

[lusentyja]

I worked in NOrway in mountains and I back to reality:) now I,m in Leikanger. I was in Leikanger before you open your cafe and I think people are very happy because you can go somewhere and seat with your friends. My friend had a birthday and I was in Herman. (this place it was very good idea for Leikanger):):)

[Di Blasi]

Thanks Collector57! All is well at Cafe Herman, getting ready to start the busy Christmas party holiday season, lots of parties booked!
But this weekend first, I'm off to Oslo for the 5th Annual Oslo Whisky Festival!! It's gonna be bigger and better than ever, a new location to accommodate the expected 1000+ guests!! And of course lots of great whiskies to enjoy!!
I'll have to report back next week!!

[Di Blasi]

Thanks Collector57! All is well at Cafe Herman, getting ready to start the busy Christmas party holiday season, lots of parties booked!
But this weekend first, I'm off to Oslo for the 5th Annual Oslo Whisky Festival!! It's gonna be bigger and better than ever, a new location to accommodate the expected 1000+ guests!! And of course lots of great whiskies to enjoy!!
I'll have to report back next week!!

[Swedish Chef]

Obviously a bit late here, but let me wish you the best of luck Mr DiBlasi!
And hope you had a great time at the festival.

[Di Blasi]

Obviously a bit late here, but let me wish you the best of luck Mr DiBlasi!
And hope you had a great time at the festival.

Thank you Swedish Chef! And the Oslo Whisky Festival was great this weekend, very busy though as I was working the Maxxium stand so I didn't get much time to get out and taste as much as I would've liked to. But with The Macallan, Highland Park, The Famous Grouse, and a few others in the portfolio right under my nose, it wasn't so bad!! And I wore my Cafe Herman tee shirt both days for a bit of free publicity so that was good too! And I got to catch up with some friends and make some new ones so that's always good too.

[Di Blasi]

Hey everybody! All good at Cafe Herman, lots of bookings for the usual busy holiday party season here so that's great! Keeping busy and starting to get a grip on things and settling into the cafe very nicely. Surely missing my time around here though as you can all imagine.
And the Glengoyne importer here in Norway, Spirits AS, has come through in getting us a Glengoyne cask! (Sadly it's empty though! Thanks again Martin and Marius, and everyone at Glengoyne!!!) I'll have to post a foto when I get the chance.
Here's a link for my review of the 5th Annual Oslo Whisky Festival a few weeks back...
http://www.maxxium.no/Templates/Article ... f2295a550e
The password you'll need is "famous." (That's the Cafe Herman t shirt I'm wearing in the foto!)
A big thanks to the onlymalts.com guys for the great shot and publicity on their site...
http://onlymalts.com/artikkel.php/321
(Scroll to the bottom of that page to find the link to their fotos of the festival!)
Hope you're all well and you're enjoying lots of good whisky!!!

[Di Blasi]

Mr Fjeld is busy helping me size and adjust a foto of me with the Glengoyne cask, it will be posted asap!!

[Di Blasi]

(Thanks for helping me upload this Mr Fjeld!!!)

That's me with the Glengoyne cask at Cafe Herman! I'm standing in the main eating area, and the bar area is just behind me. See one of the glass whisky shelves?! I have the Glengoyne 10y in my hand, and the other is the 11y Oslo Whisky Festival single cask bottling from a bourbon barrel. (Thanks again to the Spirits AS guys, importers of Glengoyne to Norway, and of course everyone at Glengoyne that made it possible!!!!!)

[Mr Fjeld]

That's a very nice looking barrel Di Blasi