Business has been great, says owner Lewis Tatham, adding that a strong repeat clientele has helped his shop break even after just one flip of the calendar page.
He also says after receiving a good tip from one of his vendors, he has changed his coffee bean supplier and roaster — a change he says will offer his customers an even better cup of coffee, and one roasted almost literally in our back yard.
Tatham has switched to Boquete Mountain Coffee, located in the NoDa district of Charlotte. It's named after a city in Panama, renowned for an industry reputed to supply some of the finest coffee beans in the world.
He says the move wasn't made lightly, as there is both a science and an art to coffee bean roasting, but he's quite comfortable with the switch.
"In this move, we have upgraded our product, upgraded our knowledge of the product and found a partner that is every bit as motivated to the local cause as we are," Tatham tells the Citizen. "We can now proudly boast that we are locally owned, locally operated and locally supplied for both of our main product lines." The creamery side of the house serves Mooresville-based DeLuxe Ice Cream.
Also new to the coffee shop for the holidays will be a weekly kid-centric offering. Capitalizing on the mommy set and the shop's location near the Discovery Place KIDS museum, every Tuesday at 10:30 a.m., beginning Nov. 29 and running through Dec. 27, Village Coffee House & Creamery will team with former teachers Jennifer Kellner and Tiffany Redmon of Stuck on You Invitations in Huntersville for story time. Kellner says the target age range is infant through age 5, and that complimentary hot chocolate or apple cider will be served. There is no cost to attend.
And not to leave out the techie in all of us (Tatham is also the brains and software designer behind 11th Dimension Sciences), Tatham has joined with nearby Café 100 (100 Huntersville-Concord Road) to offer a customized coffee menu available only to the eatery with which the coffee shop shares a parking lot. It's a partnership made in software heaven.
"It's really cool for our customers," says Café 100 owner Jay Hill. "It expands our menu from being more than just a breakfast spot. We're a coffee shop now, too."
Tatham says drink orders are placed through an 11th Dimension-designed software product called "Order Here," which electronically controls the order, its preparation and delivery. The coffee shop is told the diner's table number at Café 100, to which Tatham or his staff will deliver the finished product. Hill says the first test run of the concept was last weekend, and it went off without a hitch.
Village Coffee House & Creamery is near the southeast corner of the intersection of Old Statesville Road and Gilead Road in Huntersville, across from Discovery Place KIDS.
— Lori Helms
