A Beauty-Appreciating Barista: Jesse

"Is it hot in here..." he said, leaning in toward
me with narrowed eyes and a sexy smile, "or is it just
you?"

I rolled my eyes, wise to his ways and turned to the
other barista behind the counter.

"He says this to all the girls, doesn't he?"

She just shook her head. "No. Jesse makes every one
of us feel special in a different way. He
makes us all feel beautiful. Because he thinks we're all
beautiful..."

And that's why I gave Jesse Auguste a gold star!



It wasn't Jesse's first gold star, not by a long shot. I have given him many and he probably has deserved many more! He serves me Americanos or very special Soy Matte Lattes with beautifully-designed foam nearly every day with a beautiful smile and a quip.

He reminded me of when I gave him his first gold star, many months ago, on a day when he had received a parking ticket, actually a more severe parking sticker, on his car. Instead of staying angry, letting it get him down, he had decided to own it, peeling the sticker off and sticking it on his white t-shirt. When I saw it, I had laughed uproariously and handed him a gold star. Nice work, turning something upsetting into something funny, something you could laugh about with customers and friends. This kind of thing is why people wait in long lines at Naidre's, why everyone loves Jesse.