More Churchy Coffee Shop Musings

One of my first entries, oh, so long ago was about opening a coffee shop with a bunch of pastors and church-type folks. You can get a recap here.

Have there been any developments? Well, not really. No tangible developments. I've talked to several friends about it. Many of them were very excited. Of course, hardly any of my friends have much experience in running a small business, much less a coffee house.

The main stumbling block is that of money. We don't have any. As we talked about it, we realized that we may not be able to partner as much as we would like. We would like to contribute more in both time and money, but those are both quite short for us right now.

However, it doesn't stop me from talking to people. I have heard that we need to be tough with the developer. He may be asking too high of a price per square foot. I've also been talking to some other community leaders in the neighborhood. They had some insights on where the neighborhood is going, or not going. I've heard that this condo development (the coffee house would be in the street level of a condo building) is assuming that the neighborhood is going to gentrify. This person wasn't so sure that it would. While I'm personally against gentrification, especially when it shoves out the longstanding residents, gentrification is good for business.

Anyway, I do have one friend who has some good coffee house experience. She seemed interested, and may be a good resource for us.

I've also been gathering information about Peace Coffee. I'm thinking that it may be the brand that we want to serve. I've poked around their web site, and I like what I see. It seems to match all of our values.

Still, we remind ourselves that this is a business. While ministry may occur at this site, we are going to be concerned about the bottom line. It's not a ministry per se.

Anyway, that's the (non)update on what's going on with the coffee house. It may continue to be a dream, or we may make it a reality. Who knows?

In the meantime, what do you think of this name: Sacred Grounds

Any other suggestions?