Exclusive Drink Offering - French Presses at Café Aroma!

All ye who thirst after righteous java, thirst no more! Exclusive to Café Aroma is our new French Press coffee, perfect for a romantic date or the cramming student that needs a little extra buzz to make it through that last study session! Our French Presses are loaded with our freshly ground Coffee of the Week or Candle Light Decaf and are brewed while you wait so the flavors are bolder and juicier than a cup of drip coffee! This brewing method, practiced internationally, is the choice method for coffee sampling and tasting. French Press coffe also makes an incredible cafe au lait! Our French Presses come in individual or larger, shareable sizes and pair well with our enormous cinnamon rolls! Your taste buds will thank you!

New on the Menu!

Tree-huggers and protein-averse culinary adventurers of the world, your wait for exquisite lunch cuisine has come to an end! New on the menu at Café Aroma is the Garden of Eden Wrap, an entirely vegan entree that will tantalize your taste buds and satisfy your stomach in a meaty way without the meat! This new menu item features crisp cucumbers, carrots, and onions with juicy tomatoes and hearty portobello mushrooms. Top that off with crunchy romaine lettuce and our homemade egg-and-dairy-free Zesty Lime Aioli all on our spinach wrap and you’ve got a fresh, vibrant, scrumptious Café experience that’ll leave you saying, “I can’t believe it’s not meat!” Also, try a little parmesan cheese or substitute bacon for the portobello mushrooms. This delightful dish pairs wonderfully with our Poore Brothers Parmesan Garlic chips and a strawberry banana smoothie. Try one today!

EVERYTHING BURNS

I found this armband i got at Cornerstone this yr from EB and was just think'n their mission statement (i guess u could call it that) is eerily similar to what we have & represent here at Cafe Aroma and just thought i'd share...

EVERYTHING BURNS/NON PROFIT ORGANIZATION

"Living for things that matter"

A MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE LIVING FOR MORE THAN THE ORDINARY.

This armband is a statement that we are not content with the way things are, we want to be a part of the change.

WE WANT TO LIVE A LIFE OF MEANING & PURPOSE...TO LIVE FOR THINGS THAT MATTER & MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN OUR WORLD INSTEAD OF LETTING THE TRIVIAL DEFINE US.

"IT'S BEEN SAID THERE'S ONLY 2 WAYS TO LIVE. YOU CAN EITHER LOVE THINGS & USE PEOPLE. OR YOU CAN LOVE PEOPLE & USE THINGS...PEOPLE THEY LAST FOREVER, EVERYTHING ELSE JUST BURNS."

WWW.EVERYTHINGBURNS.ORG

WWW.COMPASSION.COM

Show me the dishes please!

Hey peep's after spending almost an entire day (lol) running around doing whatever it took to get this dog gone sprayer installed, i think she'll work. Thank God for a man named Leroy (his name is actually Leon...lol) from Ace Hardware he was really a God send! He took it on himself to personally help me with the situation and he seemed to look at it like it was his own problem ( i gave him a free meal token btw)! We put our heads together and rigged it so to speak but...IT WORKS!! Thanks also with some assistance from Keith...team CA DID gitter done! So i hope you all enjoy this nice little addition to our dirty dish family. I don't want to hear ANYBODY complaining about having to do dishes, in fact people should be lining up and wishing they could do dishes...it's kind of fun actually! Enjoy and really blast the water pressure it works best this way! Oh btw one more thing when you are done doing your dishes OR you are taking a break or whatever and you leave the dishes please make sure to turn the knobs down in the OFF position if you would please. This will ensure that we are not wasting water since i'm NO professional water faucet installer (lol) and we have a slight bit of leakage. So yes glad i could help i know it WILL make everyone's life easier and hey you just might ENJOY dishes for a change?! Except there ARE people out there like Liz (lol)that are a little kookoo and really like palmolive hands and the act of hand washing dishes. I'm crossing my fingers it doesn't fall out of the wall overnight and Lindsay come's in to see it laying on the floor looking sad. d=o )

note: we do run our dishes through an automatic dishwasher & sanitizer to ensure optimum cleanliness, the sprayer is most ideal just before the dishes enter the "dishwash"...yea that'll do.

Wow, tonight we pulled together and put on that event.  From nothing we created a dinner meeting for 20+ people.  What beautiful, willing effort was put forth.   

Thank you, guys.  I work with the most amazing team of people.  Thank you. 

Seriously, the most real team I've ever been a part of.

And thanks for talking things out & supporting me & helping me.  

justa

quick hullo.

maybe not...when i get to going, i can go.

this setting, aroma, has been a host of such incredible memories and conversations for me. Each of the beautiful faces flashing in my head resonates 'family', 'tied' in me. it's awesome.

coming from a place where i've used outgoingness as a defense against sharing about myself, this place--the shop itself, macomb--has been the backdrop for growth in intimacy.

james ofczarzak, mike mazur, thom topel, dave lester, lindsay...ashleigh, closing shop with nolan, the family that came to watch the show on friday-that midwestern mother, her three kids there...beautiful is here.

and as the setting and times shift for each of us, as they will, may we be able to recognize it more and more through the growth we've experienced here, through the minglings we've had with God, Beauty, Love here.

i'm out for now.

love.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ASHLEIGH!!!

We wish the happiest 21st birthday to our own beautiful Ashleigh! 

We love you & hope you have the most wonderful birthday!

xoxo

I just had fun designing the blog title image. That's an actual photo taken in Cafe Aroma!

What do you think?

website benefit concert

Wow. My first blog! This is pretty exciting and thank you John for sharing your wonderful gift of web designs and graciously giving us your valuable time! Things like this ALWAYS happen when God is involved! Things just fall into place and this amazing small website will reach people ALL OVER the world! Hopefully we make a name for ourselves and people on the other side of the world are talking about their experiences in Cafe Aroma. After all we have very diverse cultures that come together here at Western Illinois University. We have to give a shout out to Pastor Mark Wheeler for his countless and relentless dedication to prayer throughout a portion of the year prior to the cafe's opening. Countless hours of prayer and soaking in God's presence along with our (Vineyard Community Church) Pastor Doug Stiles this laid the foundation spiritually speaking for what we are witnessing today! We would ask btw that anybody willing if you would be so kind to please keep us (Cafe Aroma) in your prayers and that people would experience the love of God in and through our people!

Could it be that community is more important than we think? To find esteem from another over a cup of coffee or sharing lunch together reminds us that God designed us for relationships, and he understood that life void of community with Him and each other would only assist to our demise and contribute to the needs of an independent society of which I believe we live in (wow that was a long sentence...lol). Independent in the sense that technology is keeping us isolated from one another. From phones(texting) that are able to connect to the internet, webcams, and virtual conferences we are everyday as a society in my opinion inching our way further away from community. We as a coffee house hope to facilitate this widening gap back in the other direction. In doing this be encouragers of listening to one another, actually listening without judging, and in doing this people will maybe, just maybe come to understand the amazing unconditional love of our Father in Heaven! Thanks again John for doing such an amazing job on our website! Thank you Lindsay for your commitment to see this thing through! To see the hand of God reach people in many ways and put His special touch on their lives just like the special touch that you have towards serving us! God Bless!!

Welcome, Website. Thank you, John.

Wow, here we are: about to launch our long awaited & highly anticipated website. Tomorrow night is our huge Website Benefit Show when we will unveil the new site. And there is a great story behind it:

John Wondrasek is a successful web designer from the Chicago area. He has in-laws here in Macomb, so whenever he would be in town to visit, he would come here to Cafe Aroma, get some food, some coffee, and some wi-fi and work on his designs. He's been encouraging us to get a website & offering to help since the day he started coming. He's always been eager to share good ideas and desiring our success. One day as he & I were chatting about the possibility of him doing a website for us, he asked me what I thought of a logo he was designing. Know who it was for? Jelly Bellies. I thought, This guy is kind of a big deal. And oh yeah, other clients on his resume include Target, Ace Hardware, Aldi and other companies of that caliber. Wow. Way our of our league, right?! He's amazing, but we could never afford him!

(Well. Here's where the story gets really good.) He keeps pursuing us. While I'm a little intimidated & trying to wait until we can scrape some money together to start even thinking about a website, he let's me know that he's not that concerned about the money. He wants to see the cafe thriving, and he knows better than anyone how important it is for a business to have a good website. He wants to move forward with the plans for the site, and we can pay him whatever we can afford. He's used to making thousands on a site (and he earns every penny), and he offers to build us one for whatever we can afford.

So he's been hard at work putting together this beautiful site for us, and in turn, we're hard at work raising money to try to pay him a fraction of what he's worth. We thought, what better way to raise the money than making music! So, all of our "house bands" (as I like to call them) are playing tomorrow night in a show: Never Say When, Liz Thielemann, Matt Weiss, Leith & Kindsay (I'm in that one :)), and more. Suggested admission is $5. All proceeds will go to John. We'll also be doing a 50/50 raffle, door prizes, and a portion of the night's sales will go to the cause.

Come join in! Come take in some great music while being a part of a great cause.

Website Benefit Show

Friday, November 13th

7:00-11:00PM

University & Lafayette, Macomb IL