Or, as we say nowadays, welcome.

I’m so excited to announce that Idea Cafe is now open for business. It’s been a long couple of months of preparation, but so worth it. There’s nothing quite like the experience of entering a market in which you have zero experience, only a sprinkling of capital, plenty of terrific competition, and you’re armed only with a bucketload of passion.  

My name is Chris Bowler — I have a notebook fetish.

I know I’m not alone. Thousands of blogs dedicated to subjects like the PigPog Method and the Hipster PDA proves it. And although most of us fanatics have recognized that working is in fact better than tinkering, plenty of folks still enjoy the action of writing things down on paper, and crossing them off. With a pen.

Over the past 5 years, I’ve used a lot of the higher quality notebooks available. With pleasure.

What is often not a pleasure however, is getting those notebooks to my home. For some reason, a lot of the people creating these notebooks tend to operate like a traditional brick-and-mortar organization, highlighted by unfriendly web experiences. As well, I never found that one great resource where I could browse and purchase all my favorite notebook brands. I wanted a shop where I could pick from Moleskine or Rhodia, Field Notes or Behance. 

Finding none, I decided the Internet would be a better place with such store and created my own.

And so, I bid you a warm welcome.

Idea Cafe?

The big question in every new web venture — what’s in a name? In this case, it’s simple — ideas are cheap, execution and implementation much less so. But you’ll never get to step B and C if you fail to capture A. And since many people, myself included, enjoy thinking out loud on paper, this is a place you can arm yourself with the tools to capture your great — and not so great — ideas.

As for the Cafe, well, that’s another passion of mine. I love coffee, espresso, and all the culture that goes with that crowd. And I’ve always had a romantic notion of owning my own cafe, despite the reality of being an incredibly hard business to experience success. But this is a first step. At some point down the road, Idea Cafe will hopefully offer more than notebooks. Stay tuned.

Lastly, cafes evoke a warm, comforting atmosphere. And that’s my aim here. So stick around — laptop squatters welcome.