Laura Roderick

Saturday morning, as the smell of sweet coffee fills the air of our little “Foolish” establishment, one's eye could not resist but to be captured by the swirls of colors that graces our art wall. Be enchanted by the magic of acrylics as artist Laura Roderick transports you into a world where you can dance amongst the stars, be encased by a lush green forest, or simply drift amongst the deep blues of the sea. Supporting local artists is a great hobby of ours at Foolish Things, and Laura (who we see daily for her iced latte) happens to be one of our favorite creative minds to feature.

Dabbling in abstract art for the past six years, Laura has fondly found her talent as an aid to her mention process. Describing her hobby as "the way my emotions get expressed," this specific collection was birthed out of a six month slump. This undefined process lets the painting come to life on its own, as the vast imagination of the mind is free to do its bidding without any visual representation defining the work of art.  Although, Laura’s art blossoms out of the inspiration of her innermost thoughts, the products are abstract allowing for each viewer to have a unique experience with each piece. Working in lively, earthy color schemes she has found that viewers are often reminiscent of the beauty of nature when admiring the canvas; these guest interpretations happens to be one of Laura’s most favorite parts.

We are honored to hold captive Laura’s collection for the next month, however all viewers are welcome to enjoy the showcase or even take one home as each piece is for sale. We always desire to help publicize and support local talent here at Foolish Things. So if you’ve found your hands full with original art, please contact our art coordinator ben at ben@foolishthingscoffee.com to set up a month dedicated to celebrating your individual talent!

See you next week,

Nicole

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Be Our Guests!

At Foolish Things we aspire to everyday get more involved with our community while also encouraging others to explore all that this beautiful city has to offer. A way we have found to experience some of life’s greatest moments with our treasured guests while also helping expose the public to local talent is through hosting events. Striving to be as gracious of a host as a 1950’s house wife we put on events during and after store hours, from weddings to birthday parties and even the occasional concert we are welcome to it all! But do we have all the bells and whistles?

We find ourselves beyond fortunate to be surrounded by the most inspiring local talent while also being located in the thriving heart of Tulsa’s locally owned establishments. We utilize this exposure to our greatest advantage, upon seeking us as a venue we can equip you with all the connections you need in order to keep your guests entertained, well feed, along with every sweet moment captured. Often we find ourselves teaming up with local eateries like Andolini’s Pizza and Elote to make sure no one leaves hungry and everyone happy. Original artwork graces our wall from aspiring artist, and you can have our suggestion of many talented photographers we get the honor of calling friends. Modestly, we like to think our little shop is gorgeous enough in its raw beauty, however the old girl looks real nice dressed up and Ever Something Floral Bar will enchant our venue to fit your style. With all this said let us not forget that you are our prized guests.

We desire to give you the most comfortable, relaxed, and down right perfect experience for your cherished event. Whatever your event may be, from housing monthly meetings like Tulsa Young Professionals,  to a concert to promote your band, or even your very own wedding reception like our James Markiewicz did, our doors are open wide! For booking information and more, contact our event coordinator Jessica Sprenkel at jessica@foolishthingscoffee.com, we hope to see you soon!

“It is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that we welcome you tonight, and now we invite you to relax, let us pull up a chair…. be our guests!” – Beauty and the Beast

Nicole

P.S. Do not forget to sign up for our upcoming class, an enlightening coffee seminar from Onyx owner Jonathan Allen that you will not want to miss! Did I mention free coffee? Also, you may look a forward to a new blog posted each week on Monday!

Onyx Coffee Lab

After four years of touring with the rock band Spoken, Jonathan Allen shaved off his dreads, hung up his guitar, and traded his rock star lifestyle for a career in coffee. Embarking into a field he never anticipated to find himself in and with nothing but a distant dream fueling his expedition, Jon began his quest to get to know personally the coffee bean. Opening Anonymous Coffee in 2009, Jon used his private label coffee company to learn the trade and perfect the craft before putting his own label out for coffee snob scrutiny. Through Anonymous, the tools were given to Jon to build up an elite coffee brand that needed no certification because its name was all the reassurance needed, Onyx.

Onyx came to fruition in 2012 and has soared in popularity over the past two years (Foolish Thing’s go-to roaster). Through what Jon learned from Anonymous, a heavy focus on sourcing was set in place for Onyx, visiting the farms himself to confirm that every coffee purchased has a clean cup. For those new to coffee, clean cup means that the coffee has been harvested properly at the prime ripeness, is defect free, and contains high sugars and acids. Often Onyx pays three to four times more to the small farms producing these magnificent beans to create loyalty, and help provide for what’s needed to cultivate a consistent crop for the following year. Making the quality of the crop first priority gives Onyx head roaster, Mark Michaelson the opportunity work with coffees that harbor the sweetest flavors and can be coaxed to reach their full potential.

Padawan (Mark Michaelson) surpassed his Yoda (Jon Allen) in the art of roasting only a year into his apprenticeship, rapidly earning the title of head roaster for Onyx. Equipped with two roasters Mark has the ability to dedicate each machine to different tasks. A vintage 40 kilo roaster, Jon found rusting away at a vineyard was purchased and pieced back together then fondly nicknamed “Frankenstein.” This favorite of theirs is specifically used for their blends and higher volume coffees, manly house coffees and espressos that you can find at all three Onyx locations and often at Foolish Things. The 12 kilo roaster remains dedicated to their single origin coffees that are forever changing with the seasons to insure freshness and variety for their customers. However, the care for the beans does not stop after they come from the fire.

Cuppings are held daily at the roastery, where Onyx most skilled taste buds gather to sample each batch roasted to insure quality and remove any coffee that does not reach the standard that is Onyx. The precision, time, and effort that goes into each cup is why the Specialty Coffee Industry is worthy enough to call itself special, and Onyx works every day to make sure they make the industry proud. When asked about what made Onyx successful Jon replied “we set the bar as high as possible and dedicated ourselves to never waver from that standard, making sure that Onyx in itself stands for something.”

“Never settle for good enough” –Onyx Coffee Lab

Nicole

Stay thirsty Tulsa because our creative minds at Foolish Things are fast at work to create the most refreshingly unique drinks for these scorching summer days, and I’ll be giving out the details shortly!