Meet our Family: Elizabeth (Lizz) Krhounek

After seven plus years at McGraw, Lizz is taking her show on the road in her new position as our Assistant Retail Operations Manager.If you’ve been to our McGraw café on Queen Anne, chances are you know Lizz. Since 2013, she ran our McGraw café. Efficient and gregarious, Lizz charmed customers, trained new employees, and kept the busy café running smoothly. Over the summer of 2021, we promoted her to Assistant Retail Operations Manager.In her new role, she will float between all five of our cafés, supporting Crystal Kitchin, our Retail Operations Manager. Lizz will help train employees, support managers, improve consistency between cafés, and fill scheduling gaps. Most comfortable behind the counter, Lizz will frequently be found in one of the cafés helping customers find what they’re looking for when she’s not updating our training manuals or teaching new employees the craft of making great coffee drinks.Asked how it feels to leave McGraw, her workplace for the last seven and half years, Lizz says, “It’s not as hard as I thought it would be. I definitely miss the regulars and all the crew there, but I’m enjoying getting to know the customers and crew at other stores. I’m having fun.”With new challenges on the horizon, Lizz is excited to develop new skills. “My biggest challenge right now is learning how to best support the café GMs to help them execute their vision for the store,” Lizz says.When she’s not working, Lizz spends a lot of time planning her next big adventure. Every year (pandemic aside), she takes an epic trip. In 2020, just before the world shut down, she spent two weeks in New Zealand—and sneaked in a St. Patrick’s Day pub crawl in Hawaii on the trip back to Seattle. When travel is safe again, Lizz is planning a big trip to Ireland.Lizz’s favorite part of working for Macrina is the holiday season, our busiest time of year. She says, “Being in one of the cafés at 2:30 a.m. in my pajamas and listening to music while we get all the Thanksgiving and Christmas orders ready is really fun.”