After the onslaught of cold and thirsty customers during last weekend's "A Huntersville Christmas" celebration, he can probably add "lessons learned" to his description of life as a new business owner.
The demand for hot chocolate by young and old alike last Saturday night caused him and his staff to adjust on the fly and accept some cocoa prepping expert help — and about 20 gallons of the in-demand brew — from Jay Hill and his crew at neighboring Café 100.
"That night would have been an absolute disaster if he hadn't come to the rescue," Tatham says.
He's drinking in all those lessons, and now Tatham tells the Citizen that a mere seven weeks into operations, he's already profitable.
And he's already expanding.
Sweet.
No, really. It will be. Tatham's adding a small candy store to his already popular coffee and ice cream shop directly across Old Statesville Road from the Discovery Place KIDS museum.
Work is almost complete on the renovation of a small space just down the hall from his coffee shop (a hallway now lined with works from local artists), where he says he'll offer chocolates, fudge and hard candy. Look for the candy store to be up and running in the next few weeks.
In addition, Tatham says he's adding another dimension to his budding business partnership with Café 100. A few weeks ago, Tatham and Café 100 owner Hill introduced a specialized Village Coffee drink menu for the restaurant's patrons that Hill orders electronically and staff from Village Coffee deliver personally to the diner's table.
Now, with iPads in hand (even Village Coffee's cash register is an iPad), Tatham says his crew will take coffee orders on busy weekend mornings from diners waiting in line at Café 100 for a table. He expects it will only bolster what he sees as his shop's unique spin on customer service, while keeping Hill's customers happy and warm while they wait.
"People are enjoying the fact that we're not a chain," Tatham says about his shop's growing popularity.
His business partner, Mike Nelson, agrees that they may have cornered the local market on how to be truly local, as well as innovative.
"Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts can't touch what we're doing," Nelson says.
— Lori Helms
