As the owner of a new business, Lewis Tatham says he knew one thing for sure. He had to get the front doors open.

Now, that’s not the forehead-slapping, “duh, why didn’t I think of that?” gee whiz moment it sounds like.

In a figurative sense, any businessman knows it’s the end game of a successful business launch. Getting the front doors open is more of a process than a literal step. It’s an often pretty steep stair climb that involves everything from developing a financial plan to hiring staff to waiting for paint to dry, in addition to all the maddening waypoints in between.

But when Tatham says he had to get the front doors open, he was literally referring to the two wooden doors that separate the coffee-drinking, ice cream-eating world from the interior entrance to his new shop, Village Coffee House & Creamery.

Located on the southeast corner of the intersection of Gilead Road and Old Statesville Road in Huntersville, the shop’s picture window faces the very inviting main entry to the Discovery Place KIDS museum. But the entrance to Village Coffee House & Creamery sits behind those two wooden doors Tatham refers to, inside an older and more often than not mostly vacant building with a façade that’s the antithesis of its cuddlier, more welcoming neighbor across the street.

But those doors are open now, and coupled with the shop’s colorful window signs and a few bistro-style tables outside, Tatham might just be on to something.

The doors to Village Coffee House & Creamery opened last week — both figuratively and literally — and it appears folks in the area just might have an appetite for something other than Dunkin’ Donuts or the omnipresent Starbucks.

“It’s busier than we thought it would be, that’s for sure,” said staffer Gilberto Valiente earlier this week, after just a handful of days in full swing. Standing behind a small granite counter crowded with the tools of the coffee trade, he agrees that the simple act of swinging those two doors open wide — exposing the access hallway to the shop and a few other small office suites — may very well have been the intangible in the algebraic equation that involves increasing your traffic flow.

Having at least for now seemingly solved for “X,” Tatham is optimistic about his shop’s chances in a region that has seen small coffee shops and ice cream stores come and go, including one almost directly next door that once shared an access hallway with Lupie’s Café.

Although a software designer by trade, Tatham, a Huntersville resident of the NorthStone neighborhood, is as animated as any experienced salesman when describing what sets Village Coffee House & Creamery apart from the regular coffee shop grind the caffeine-ingesting crowd has come to know. He says he’s proud to offer a smoother blend of fresh roasted beans, for those looking for that java jolt that actually won’t put hair on your chest (or anywhere else it may not be needed).

Tatham’s shop offers a good mix of competitively priced popular coffee drinks, teas and a selection of about a half-dozen ice cream flavors from Mooresville-based DeLuxe Ice Cream — a company launched in 1924. A small selection of brownies was on display, and Tatham says he plans to add more pastry options in the near future.

Also on his radar is a way to put his software guru skills to work. Tatham says he’s developing a smart phone application that caters to those longing for a cuppa joe who are short on time. The app would allow a customer to essentially place a “to go” order without the drive-through window wait, and using GPS technology, track the customer’s progress toward Tatham’s shop where an employee ultimately meets the customer in the parking lot with their steaming cup of whatever.

With nearly 30 years in the software industry, Tatham says he spent some of that time chatting up such an idea with former employers such as Microsoft and IBM.

“This was actually something I was trying to tell them was coming,” he says. “Drive-throughs are antiquated. I just got tired of waiting so I decided it was time to open up my own coffee shop.”

The idea of a personally delivered hot and frothy latte ordered, tracked and paid for all by smart phone is very cool, but still very much in the development stage, says Tatham.

“You need to have your processes in place first,” he says about the app’s eventual launch. “I need to make sure I’ve got my act together and can serve a cup of coffee first.”

For now, it appears he and his small staff have got that part of Village Coffee House & Creamery’s opening performance nailed, and he looks forward to bringing his technological twist to town as everyone becomes more comfortable in their roles at the shop. The staff is already using nothing more than an iPad as the shop’s cash register.

“We have no lack of creativity in what we do,” Tatham says. The hand-painted wall murals, faux tin ceiling and stained glass light fixtures are also proof of that.

“Hopefully we can execute as well as we create.”