Sailing Directions · Chapter 1
Anchor Point
214 cups for Café Anker, a coffee house that kept breaking its own.
| Position | NW shore, below the café |
|---|---|
| Client | Café Anker, Neubau |
| Quantity | 214 cups, 200 in service |
| Material | Stoneware, fired to 1240 °C |
| Glaze | Anker Grey, matte, blue where it pools |
| Status | In service. Standing order, 20 a quarter |
Description
Café Anker is a corner coffee house in Neubau with marble tables and a breakfast rush that starts at seven. It was losing about thirty cups a month to the dishwasher, the floor and one particular waiter. Ilse, who runs it, wanted cups that could survive the rush and still look like they belonged on the marble.
Works undertaken
Thomas spent two weeks of mornings on a stool by the pass, watching how the waiters actually carried things: three cups to a hand, two fingers through each handle, a thumb on the rim to steady the stack.
Over six weeks he threw 214 cups. The walls run 6 mm at the foot and taper to 4 at the lip, so they are heavy where they get knocked and thin where people drink. The handle takes two fingers. There is a flat thumb rest on top of the handle exactly where the waiters’ thumbs already went. He glazed them in a matte grey that turns blue where it pools in the bottom of the cup.
Changes since last survey
Breakage went from about thirty cups a month to four. Regulars started asking where they could buy one, so the café now sells them at the counter, and Thomas has a standing order for twenty a quarter. The waiter in question has been forgiven.
CAUTIONCups are dishwasher-safe. They are not, despite repeated testing, waiter-proof.