Opening a new shop (Blog post from March 2015)

We spent 2014 looking for a spot for our second location.  The first space we liked was in Southwest and it was going to be real simple.  This space promised to be an easy spot to open but due to an unreasonable landlord this spot fell through.  We continued to look all over town and after pushes by numerous people we finally set our eyes on Division.  On Division, there was a small space available that seemed to have a lot of potential.  Although the seating options would be limited, there was covered space outside that would add a few needed seats.  This space promised to be a grab and go. 

We are extremely fortunate to have my uncle the architect helping us.  Once he got to doing some drawings for this small space on Division, it became clear that it was too tight for what we wanted to do.

After the Division spot fell through we revisited a location in Southwest that initially seemed way to big.  After a promise of a lot of assistance by the building owners it seemed that this large space might work out.  It was downtown near the new Apple store and would have promised a lot of foot traffic.  We took a lot of steps seeking this location including getting some extensive drawings from my uncle.  After some negotiations and some miscommunication this deal also fell through.  We looked at a lot of potential spaces but nothing happened in 2014.

After finishing 2014 on a coffee sourcing trip/vacation to Costa Rica, we let our search for a new location proceed gently into 2015.  Anytime we were out and about we always had out our eyes open and this was true every time I drove down Sandy Boulevard.  After seeing the micro-restaurants banner many, many times I finally called the number listed to get the low down.  I was told that although they had a space specifically for a coffee shop, they already had a coffee shop interested.  We then began to consider another location on Division but after about a month, I received a call from the folks at The Zipper who wanted to know if we were still interested in their coffee space.

The Zipper is going to be a handful of micro-restaurants, a nail salon, a bar, and a coffee shop.  This is going to be an ambitious building with outdoor fire pits and an amazing art installation on the exterior of the building.  The coffee space is the most unique space that we have looked at and will take some creativity for an efficient buildout.  This is an exciting opportunity and I am scheduled to sign the lease tomorrow.