We pride ourselves on being ahead of the curve when it comes to industry innovations and the new Elmeco Quickream soft serve ice machine is no exception!

This 110 volt, counter-top machine has a small footprint and an awesome price point. This is a great way to offer soft serve ice cream or even soft gelato using the Fabbri ingredients from Italy. We believe this will be great for smaller-sized cafes and restaurants that want to offer homemade ice cream/gelato on site without needing the space or money for a traditional gelato set-up (batch freezer, display case, etc…).

We will have this machine in our new training cafe, UP, and really think it will be a easy addition for any business looking to add ice cream to their offerings!

It works great with our new Dairy or Non-Dairy soft serve ice cream base from Pacific Natural Foods flavored with Fabbri delipastes from Italy and will be an exceptional machine for using the Fabbri Simple products (fully balanced mix of base powder, sugars, and all-natural flavors).

(For pricing or additional product information, please Contact Us. Thank you.)

Lo and behold, Moka Porter Gelato made with Town Hall Brewery’s Porter and an assortment of Fabbri delipastes.

A match made in heaven.

For more information on this gelato experimentation at Fat Lorenzo’s see my full blog post.

As many of you know, things always seem to take a little longer than expected to get up and running when opening a cafe.

UP will be an open to the public cafe serving Flamenco Organic coffee and espresso roasted on site, Italian gelato made fresh on site, and tasty baked goods and panini’s all made from local ingredients.

The best part for all of you is that this cafe will be our brand new fully operational training cafe and state-of-the-art showroom. We will be able to have you come in with your staff to get full company trainings. In areas like espresso, coffee, and gelato preparation, this can be very beneficial to everyone!

If you have any questions about the UP, please Contact Us.

Just wanted to say “Thank You” to everyone that came out and chatted with us at the Wisconsin Restaurant Expo last week.

It was a pleasure sampling our great products to all of you and we really appreciate your business!

(For pricing or additional product information, please Contact Us. Thank you.)

Please enjoy this article about composting from Heather at Badger Brew Express in Rice Lake, Wisconsin that she wrote for the Twin Cities Coffee Guild.

ARTICLE – “Where Do Your Grounds Go? by Heather H. Haller”

Remember that UMG carries a bunch of compostable disposables like the Eco Products Green Stripe cold cups that Heather uses.

(For pricing or additional product information, please Contact Us. Thank you.)

Our first show of the year is the Wisconsin Restaurant Expo being held in downtown Milwaukee on March 12-14th. That’s a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday show. We have been exhibiting at this show for over 10 years now and will have our usual spot on the floor with a 20 foot end booth. This year we will be highlighting our Flamenco Organic Coffees, Dr Smoothie 100% crushed fruit smoothie mixes, Mozo Chef shoes, Cappuccine, Big Train and a host of fine products from Amoretti including flavoring syrups, 100% fruit smoothie mixes, Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar and Martin mixes. We will have many other items on display as well including a 2 group espresso machine. We would love to see you there this year so stop by for an espresso, smoothie or martini (maybe all 3 mixed together!). We have a limited amount of FREE passes for Wednesday the 14th. Please contact us if that is a day you can make it.

Go to http://www.everythingfoodservice.org for more info on this fantastic show.

The second show of the year for us is Coffee Fest Chicago being held at the Navy Pier Convention Hall. This show is on June 8-10th (Friday-Sunday). We will have another 20 foot booth there highlighting many of our products including Flamenco Organic Coffee and are hoping to have a full display of Gelato on hand. For more info on this show and to register to attend, please visit http://www.coffeefest.com for more details.

Please stay tuned for more details on this show as we comprise them.

Hope to see you at one or both of these shows. We love to meet with our customers rather it may be the first time, or an annual routine. We truly appreciate your continued business and support and feel these show are a way for us to convey that to you.

Feel free to contact us for any further information on either of these shows.

Upper Midwest Gourmet is pleased to offer a new service from Intuit, the makers of our accounting software: Intuit Payment Network or IPN.

IPN works similar to services like PayPal. First you set up an IPN account with your own passwords.  Next, when you place an order with us, we’ll email a copy of your invoice to you with a link to IPN to pay your invoice. Click the link and sign in with your password and confirm the amount and click pay. That’s it you’re done.

Once you’ve paid we’ll instantly get a notice from IPN that you’ve made a payment.  Our accounting system will automatically sync with IPN daily and record your transaction. This automation insures your invoices gets recorded as paid and eliminates any human error.

-No more having to leave the counter and write a check when the delivery man shows up

-No more $8.50 COD fees

-No more credit card fees

-No more lost or stolen checks in the mail

-It’s completely free

-Your checking account is safe! Account information is all securely stored with IPN, even we’ll never see it

If you’d like to give IPN a try please let us know when you place your order. It’s simple and we’re sure you’ll love it.

(For additional information or to sign up for this, please Contact Us. Thank you.)

From this months issue of Specialty Coffee Retailer Magazine:

“Without food, most coffeehouses will starve.”

Do you serve food at your cafe?

By adding alternative payment methods beyond cash, credit card, and check we hope to make it easier and more convienient for our customers.

We now accept PayPal as an option for all UMG orders. 

 If this is something you are interested in, please call us at 612-728-7208 to get set-up and get the information you need.

We will also have other alternative payment methods coming soon!

Upper Midwest Gourmet now sells Mozo Shoes!

What is a “mozo”?

What is a “mozo”? In the time of pack trains and cattle roundups, a mozo was hired to help out with heavy work around the ranch, and was always on his feet. The spirit of the mozo inspired a footwear craftsman and entrepreneur to start MOZO®  in 1996. Today, MOZO makes revolutionary footwear for creative, passionate and talented professionals, shoes for culinary professionals who are artists, athletes and creators—not just cooks or servers. Any shoe that bears the MOZO name must be a shoe that we are personally willing to stand in and wear for 10 to 12 hours a day. Since making that promise, MOZO has set new standards for comfort, safety and durability for culinary footwear. MOZO is an approved footwear vendor for several leading industry partners. It is the combination of safety, comfort, and quality, which has advanced the brand rapidly since Deckers’ acquisition. 

(For pricing or additional product information, please Contact Us. Thank you.)