Just think how much hotter you’ll be if you reprezent in your very own new, fabulous, made-with-love T-shirt.

Cherry City Derby Girls recuritng new skaters!

Venti’s is participating in an art auction benefiting Cherry City Derby Girls (CCDG) in August.

Help us on Urbanspoon.com

Cherry City Music Festival

Cherry City Music Festival

Leslie’s brother on NOVA tonight.

Chic’s Nite

Salem businesses have been affected by the wintry weather, which also makes for nice photos, of course. We at Venti’s are grateful to all those who have shown up to get warm on these blustery days, including our staff! We love you. Thanks for a great08.

Cool! We made Eat Salem! When I hear the two words “eat” and “Salem” together, well, specifically “Eat Salem,” my brain clicks to an enormous atomic-age monster tearing at bi-planes, stomping through buildings and shoving hapless citizens into its mouth. Salemites are always wanting action, aren’t they? Well, for those not in the know, eatsalem.blogspot.com…

My brother, Jason Box, professor of atmospheric science at Ohio State University, is featured as one of the scientists on an upcoming Discovery Channel series — the series debuts Friday, Aug. 22 on Discovery channel. Check out the fwd message below. NOTE: Hood to Coast is Friday, so I will unfortunately be unable to watch…

Go! Downtown Salem is hosting a street fair-type event this weekend called “Summer in the City”, featuring activities, music, art and a wine festival — 30 bands, 16 vineyards, 40 restaurants. Check out the schedule! http://www.gosummerinthecity.info/

Life is good at the new Venti’s location. Moving into the space at 325 Court Street has been such a godsend. We love the sunny side of the street and our neighbors are amazing. We’ve gone from nine to 19 employees, we’ve added some menu choices and continue to welcome comments and critiques from our…

Dino stayed open late and served customers until almost midnight. He (symbolically and literally) rung in the last sale, washed the last dish, turned out the lights and locked the door. I stuck around until about 11. It was festive — people shared Venti’s stories and talked about how much the love and respect Dino….

Much to say… but no time to write. We are getting so close. Our painter finished the copper wall June 4. It looks beautiful. Such a nice compliment to the brick, and so very different from anything in Salem. It is all coming together: The counters have been wallpapered and countertops placed, the furniture is…

Things are taking shape. It’s amazing what a few coats of paint can do to freshen up the joint! Man, I can’t describe how nice it is to see the space going from a construction zone to actually looking like a cool new place to eat and hang out in Salem, OR. These are before…

http://www.ventiscafe.com New Venti’s web site is posted as of 3:30pm PST. It’s my first ever attempt at web design. I used Dreamweaver, fastidously following tutorials from lynda.com as well as Adobe’s web site. My good buddy Shawn Estes sat with me today and checked my code and CSS and gave me the green light to…

Many of us have probably heard about the global rice crisis which has hit parts of Africa, Thailand, the Philippines. These places seem so far away from us distracted Americans. While we empathise with their terrible fortune, and contribute to Oxfam or Red Cross, such crises hardly seem to affect us at home. Well, at…

Dino enlisted the help of Doni Cane and Aron Danublio (sp?) to assist with the construction of our bike frame chandeliers. Holy schnikees, they are gonna be crazy looking. It took Aron about 45 min. to weld together the beginning of the chandelier. We will need several more non-aluminum frames for the second chandelier, which…

Front of Moving Flier. Hooray! I just uploaded the files to my favorite high volume printers: Phoenix Media. Check ‘em out at www.phoenixmedia.com

OK, for those of you out there who don’t know, I do not drink alcohol. Dino doesn’t drink alcohol. Yet we are applying for our full on-premise liquor license. Seems kinda contra. I am coming up on 7 years clean and sober. The thing is: I’m the one w/ the problem, the one who can’t…

Better, faster, stronger.

Doug Addicot and Tom Allender Demo and dust Gonna alter the kitchen setup Plumbing in the far corner — ice machine, sinks and dishwasher Plumbing To the landfill? Counter will move slightly. Caleb is very resourceful. Dino showing Leslie’s parents around. Caleb, Tyler and Jim pretending to work. Uhh… No quip required.

Doug Addicot, a long time friend and loyal customer, is the general contractor for the Venti’s Cafe move. His knowledge and experience is giving Dino lots of confidence in a successful move. He da man!

Dino figures he’s cut 50 tons of chicken in the 12 years he’s been in business. He’s got it down to near perfect science and has an arsenal of tools and implements for the duty. People like chicken. People like his chicken. So here we go. Moving into a larger space in downtown Salem, OR….