Arianna Ballman
Eng 101: First Year Composition
September 17th, 2023
Not Your Average Coffee Shop
When you think about places to get coffee, the first couple spots that come to mind are
Dunkin, Starbucks, or Scooters. Nowadays, many people choose the drive through of a large
chain coffee business rather than a small local coffee shop. The real question is, what impact has
Starbucks or Dunkin made on you? From personal experience, I can vouch that The New Moon
Cafe located in downtown Oshkosh has made a great impact on my life and many
other people in the Oshkosh community. The New Moon Cafe is a wonderful
place to visit when trying to meet new people or when you want to try something
new. This small business is known for their large impact on the people in
Oshkosh through events and fundraisers to support the community and other
small businesses.
New Moon Cafe is a small business owned by two brothers, Aaron and Jason. Their main
purpose for New Moon Cafe is to serve the best food and drinks while
also providing a place for people to socialize and meet new people.
Aaron and Jason use many fresh ingredients from local gardens to craft
items from scratch for their menu. The menu at the New Moon Cafe
consists of delicious foods such as breakfast burritos, bagels, and baked
desserts, along with a lunch and dinner sections which have sandwiches,
wraps, quesadillas, etc. Aaron and Jason have also composed a
phenomenal drink menu filled with a variety of coffees, lattes, frappuccinos, hot and iced tea,
lemonades, wine, and Wisconsin-made beers all for an affordable price.
On top of their great menu, Aaron and Jason prioritized the aesthetic of their coffee shop
by adding a sense of home to their Cafe. The New Moon Cafe is located in a beautiful building
that was formerly known as The Beckwith House Hotel. This building was built by William
Waters in 1876 to replace the previous hotel which had burnt
down in a fire. The building burnt down once again in the
1880s after a tragic incident where a lantern was tipped over,
this resulted in three people dying. Samuel Beckwith decided
to only restore the first two floors due to finance issues which
eventually became The New Moon Cafe. The vintage
architecture adds to the cafe's aesthetic along with the vines and greenery decor inside. The smell
of coffee and baked goods as you walk in also gives the cafe a cozy feeling. Within the coffee
shop there are many pieces of art scattered throughout the building which are all created by local
artists and showcased to the public to help boost business for those artists. The owners and
employees of New Moon Cafe are
strong believers in helping the
community strive so they advertise
any events or fundraisers happening at
the cafe or any nearby places. The
New Moon Cafe has a website,Tik
Tok,Instagram, and Facebook where
the employees post information about upcoming events and new items added to the menu. Being
engaged on social media helps build a connection with their customers and also brings in
business at the same time. In addition, downtown Oshkosh is the perfect location for New Moon
Cafe because many tourists visit this area of Oshkosh when events like the farmers market are
happening. Browsing websites like Yelp you will see positive comments about The New Moon
Cafe like, “Friendly service and breakfast was very good! Really appreciated the eco-friendly
container for takeout” and “The employees are cheerful and efficient....knocking the drinks out
PDQ.” This 4.2 star coffee shop is one of the highest ranked cafes in Oshkosh.
Although Starbucks and Dunkin are a great alternative when you are in a hurry and need
coffee quickly, New Moon Cafe offers much more than their
scrumptious food and drinks. This coffee shop hosts events
like open mic, poetry reading, chess club, book clubs, live
music, and fundraisers. These events not only give people
something to do but also helps encourage people to take a
step out of their comfort zone. Providing events that
introduce new hobbies can help people develop interest in things that they would have never
thought of. During a visit to New Moon Cafe, I found it super easy to socialize with others
around me. In fact, I had a short conversation with a lady that was sitting next to me at the open
mic event, and she had plenty of stories and
memories that she made throughout her years of
participation in the New Moon Cafe’s events. She
said, “ I am 64 years old and I was beginning to
forget my purpose but The New Moon Cafe gave me a reason to get out of bed.” She even went
on to explain that she met some of her closest friends at a poetry reading night years ago. This
was an awesome story to hear and proved that a small business like New Moon Cafe can have a
huge impact on the Oshkosh community. As the night went on I met many people and tried all
different foods and drinks that were provided by the cafe during the event. It was an experience
that I would recommend to others because not only was I able to socialize and try something new
but I also supported other local artists that were stepping out of their comfort zone and revealing
their talents. The next event at the New Moon Cafe is a pet adoption fundraiser where they will
host the Oshkosh Humane Society and promote dogs and cats that need new homes.
To sum it up, the New Moon Cafe offers much more than a typical coffee shop. The
social events hosted at cafes have a great impact on the Oshkosh community because it allows
for people to socialize, try new things, meet new people, and support local artists. It is a family
friendly environment where you can enjoy food and drinks with your family or a place to spend
time with friends. It also doubles as a place to study for school or get work done. The New
Moon Cafe’s mission is not only to provide quality and fast serving food/drinks but to also offer
a cozy environment for everyone. Unlike big chain businesses, New Moon Cafe uses their profit
to put back into the community and make Oshkosh a better place. Small business cafes like this
should be located all over the world to provide the same effect on all different communities.
Self Assignment
One thing that both my peers and instructor thought needed revisions was my thesis.
Originally it was very vague and it didn't give the reader a clear idea about what to expect in the
upcoming writing. However I added why the New Moon Cafe is important to the Oshkosh
community which adds more purpose to my thesis statement. Unlike my feedback draft, I
decided to add a couple of direct quotes to this draft to develop my writer's voice a bit more. I
choose to quote some Yelp reviews about The New Moon Cafe and I also use quotes from a
conversation I had with a lady at a social event. Another major change I made was adding more
pictures and visuals. When I created my feedback draft I wasn’t sure how many visuals were
needed to make an effective profile and I feared that I was going to add too many and my profile
would be too overwhelming. However, that was not the case and I ended up needing to add a few
more images throughout my profile to help the reader visualize what I am persuading in my
writing. The title of my profile was originally “The New Moon Cafe '' but after receiving
feedback I realized that it was not very good for catching the reader’s attention so I changed it to
“ Not Your Average Cafe”. Unfortunately I was not able to get an interview with either of the
owners and I struggled to find more of the history of the New Moon Cafe so I wasn’t able to add
much information regarding the development of this cafe.
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