the FREEDOM of ESPRESSO

Our First Anniversary

E arly next month, it will be a year since we opened Coppei Coffee Co.

As readers will recall, it was in early August when the café, Betty's Diner and the Anchor all opened at the same time following months of renovations and preparations.

It was an exciting week- end. Switching hats from running the till at the Coppei nonstop to covering the news for the Times that first Satur- day, I wandered over to the diner to take pictures of the crowd there and stopped by the new bar in the evening. Each place was packed.

Careful not to read too much into the grand opening honeymoon, we were all nonetheless psyched about the prospects and what the new businesses could mean for the town. Adding to the core strength of the other merchants on Main Street, the enthusiasm our busi- nesses received was a heart- warming dream come true.

From the beginning, the staff at the coffee shop want- ed to be accessible to customers seven days a week. We had been told over and over again finding a closed door in a small town was local pa- trons' and travelers' biggest frustration.

After the Big Bang weekend, things quickly settled into a routine. We opened the door each morning to a group of very supportive and com- mitted local customers, some of whom would even come in several times a day. But busi- ness wasn't all that robust from late morning on, except on Saturdays and Sundays.

We went through a lot of changes trying to hit the right balance between customer service, food choices, staff- ing and financial sustainabil- ity: improved staff training, expanded the menu, added beer and wine, installed cable TV for sports, increased weekend hours, provided punch cards for regular cus- tomers, launched live enter- tainment and dances, and so on. We wanted the café to be a place residents and visitors would embrace as Waits- burg's living room.

In many ways and on many days, that's exactly what the coffee shop feels like. Thanks to Nichole Wood, our prima barista who has been with us since the beginning and now leads the team, the café is a friendly and comfortable place with the best coffee in the valley.

We're still working on the best approach to guarantee the best fresh pastries in the morning because our town does not have a bakery and bringing them in from further afield affects their longevity. We promise we'll continue to work on that.

Thanks to Tawnya Rich- ards, who helps us with business organization be- hind the scenes, the shop is much more streamlined and efficient. Chris Carpenter, who we will soon lose to harvest and college, helped us tremendously behind the bar and behind the music scene. Robyn Dunleavy and Debbie Fosnot have been rock-solid in the kitchen and as backups.

There are mornings when the line for coffee is long and Saturday nights when it's hard to move around. For the Frog Hollow and Fish Bowl concerts there was standing room only. Everyone had a great time, including the staff and particularly myself. Those kinds of live events were always part of my vi- sion for the café.

But Coppei Coffee Co. isn't yet where it can be.

Our numbers still need to grow to bring the shop to its full potential. Because we sustain a payroll with four employees, we thrive on volume. We don't have the advantage of a large coffee chain with huge purchasing power, organization and ef- ficiency. Yet we can't charge more than they do or we'd quickly lose customers even though we believe our coffee is much better.

In other words, we need more of your business.

We hope more Waitsburg- ers, Daytonites and residents of Prescott will come down to try and enjoy our coffee, pastries, lunch (with beer and wine) and entertainment. Even after almost a year in business, I still hear some local residents say "this is the first time I've been in here," which leads me to suspect there are many others who simply don't come down Main Street very often or have gotten too used to fa- voring Walla Walla for all of their shopping.

I know there are many residents here who work in Walla Walla. It makes all the sense in the world for them to get their coffee in that city if they leave Waitsburg before we're open. It's one of the reasons we're open longer on weekends, so weekday commuters can still enjoy our offerings on their days off.

We know it takes stamina to hang in there as a startup. We have to remember that interest in Waitsburg will continue to grow from the at- tention the town has received in the media. With the addi- tion of local lodging in the past year and the Main Street hotel (hopefully) later this year, more visitors can over- night in town and that helps our morning sales.

And we know we can still do better, particularly when it comes to fresh pastries. Since we want the shop to be a place where everyone in town feels welcome, we're asking you to come in and fill out one of our comment cards. Let us know how we can best serve you.

Meanwhile, with your support, we look forward to our second year in business.