How I Run Two Cafes as a Full Time Team of 1

If I’m being honest my job description is HR manager, finance director, ops manager, head of marketing, backup cleaner, subway courier (yes, I am that girl with the 5 aldi bags), and product development lead (thank you claude code). Every day.

ASANO isn’t short on people. I have photographers, artists, a bookkeeper, lawyers, and a growing barista team across two locations. But full-time, day-to-day is just me. And I’ll say this plainly: a year ago, I don’t think this would have been possible. Not because I’ve changed — but because the tools available to entrepreneurs have.

To be clear, I still chase things every single day. Inventory questions, barista coverage, EOD reports, dirty towels…the milks! It’s not solved. But we’re getting better — and the way we’re getting better is by being very deliberate about where each type of work should actually live.

The framework I keep coming back to is simple. Human implementation and the day to day running of the cafes belong with my incredible lead baristas (shoutout to Walter and Dorsey…iykyk). Repetitive operational work belongs with AI. And judgment — relationships, decisions, approvals — stays with me.

We’re not fully there. But I can see it clearly enough to build toward it.

What AI Actually Does

The operational layer of ASANO runs on automation in a way that would have required a part-time hire to manage two years ago. Inventory thresholds, ordering reminders, daily ops messages to the team, barista briefings, compliance, end of day reporting — all are flowing through AI coded dashboards that either I pay for or built in-house. The goal is that my role becomes approval and review rather than generation and chase. When it works, I wake up with information instead of questions. When it doesn’t, I’m back in the weeds but the ratio is improving.

What’s changed is less about the volume of work and more about where my attention goes. I now spend ten minutes a week ordering the correct amount of inventory for our tiny storage area in each cafe, which previously took two hours. I can see immediately how much we are wasting in pastries a day and spend more time thinking about how we improve that.

And I get on the floor insights into how the cafes are running from my lead baristas…some more insightful than others…

What the Lead Barista Role Actually Looks Like

The center of gravity on the floor is the lead barista. Their day runs from 7am straight through to close — fully structured with every block accounted for.

Before 9am: cold brew assessment, FIFO milk check, cash in the register, unpack any overnight deliveries, inventory counting on Tuesdays and Fridays. By mid-morning: time tracking review on Mondays, midday checklist. Through the afternoon: fridge temps twice, breaks managed, deep clean done, etc.

But the most important thing they own is the close.

The close is where problems either get caught or get buried. EOD report sent, next day’s baking and cold brew instructions confirmed, the Perfect Close checklist complete. If the close is right, I have the right information to move us forward.

I’ve worked hard to make the lead barista role attractive and fulfilling. It’s structured, well paid, Monday through Friday, and includes a decent amount of ownership in that they run their cafe. Because if the role bleeds into everything with no definition, you lose good people. And good people are the entire model.

What I’ve kept entirely for myself is judgment. Every partner conversation, every vendor relationship, and every financial call. The things where the answer isn’t in a checklist and can’t be automated.

What’s Not Solved

The one thing AI cannot do is show up. Two locations means two possible simultaneous crises, and right now I am the entire crisis response team. I can automate a reminder but I cannot teleport.

The lean model has worked — genuinely — but scaling it means confronting whether the infrastructure holds or whether we will need to make 1 FTE…2. That’s what I’m thinking about now.

MY RECS FOR THE MONTH

1. To listen: Last year, Rosalia released her incredible album, Lux, an orchestral concept album where she traces the lives of female saints to explore themes of the feminine divine, spiritual transcendence, and heartbreak. Probably the best thing I listened to all year. So to my joy, she released an extended version in April and it’s excellent. My favorite song so far:

2. To drink: I recently had drinks at Golden Ratio (a brainchild of Redwood Hospitality Group who also run Oxalis and Place des Fetes) and ordered the Nasturtium cocktail. Really beautiful menu of cocktails and mocktails and the drink was gorgeous; my new go to neighborhood spot!