2008 I moved home from college to take care of my father who was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. My brothers had started a band while I was away and with my family’s encouragement they were starting their journey as a musical force in the small town of Riverton. There was a coffee shop called “The Coffee Shop” that served as an oasis in a desert filled with people who don’t drink coffee. It was a breathe of fresh air for someone who needed to feel normal in sort of an abnormal place.
I joined the band as soon as the members of the current lineup had graduated high school and we would spend every Friday night playing open mic at “The Coffee Shop”. Eventually, the manager Mike (soon to be owner) would offer his help as a band manager for us while we booked shows.
Mike, to me, is considered family. He was in the room with us while my father was in hospice and has served as a backdrop of love and support ever since we’ve crossed paths.
When I met Steve and May they were just beginning their coffee journey and it was so refreshing to have a couple who could not only hang but could go down the rabbit hole with endless conversation. I was lucky enough to have lived in a house in their neighborhood for awhile as we got to spend a lot of time taking our dogs on walks and going on adventures. They both became my ride or dies pretty quick.
After a series of life events happened I found myself back in college and working for Steve and May. May would joke around with me about selling me The Coffee Shop and I didn’t believe her at first.
They built a beautiful coffee shop and created an oasis for this community. They were continuing the process of expanding and renovating and making sure the people in Raleigh Hills had a place to be. It was hard for me to take them serious about leaving when they were putting so much effort into making this a better coffee shop but Mexico was calling and they decided it was time.
When I called Mike, my original intention was to find mentorship with the process of taking over a coffee shop. He knew I wasn’t going to ask him for money so he offered. And now “ The Coffee Shop” is able to continue on because of “The Coffee Shop”.
The photographs displayed on the wall have the intention of telling a story about being rooted in Utah, Oregon and in the coffee business.
Before I got the keys to this place I decided that it was important for me to drive down to Utah to meet Mikes kid who I haven’t had the chance to meet. I also felt it was important to be able to look his wife in the eyes in order for me to feel confident in moving forward with a business partnership.
The vision I have for this place will only expand on the groundwork that Steve and May were able to accomplish. This place already feels like a second home for most people and the community built around the shop is not something I can take credit for.
Deciding to become the first featured artist to showcase their art under my new ownership created a pressure chamber to make sure the shop had improvements done before Mike, my family and friends were invited to see what the shop would look like under my care for the first time.
Now that those projects are complete and I have a functional space for artists to showcase their work I’m excited to see our little community expand into a sharing and creative space. Thank you for all the support.
- Moose
COFFEE
This is a coffee tree that you can find at Thornton Family Coffee Roasters annex. Paul Thornton has been caring for this plant for at least 8 years I believe. It takes a coffee tree 3 years to have its first harvest and it is incredibly sensitive to weather conditions. Paul has to bring the tree indoors for a lot of the year. One tree will produce about one 12oz bag of coffee a year. Crazy.
Sitting next to all those bags of green coffee is a sample roaster from the early 1900’s. When coffee producers want to sell their coffee to a roaster they will often send samples. If interested, the roaster will use a machine like this to roast enough coffee to get an idea of the quality and characteristics of the coffee. When a sample is decided on and the shipment in bulk gets dropped off the 100 year old roaster gets fired up again to figure out what roast level will draw out the best characteristics. The process is tedious, time consuming but it’s a lot of fun and it’s dope as hell. A lot of work goes into getting a cup of coffee into your hands and the sample roaster is one of the coolest variables along the chain.
This is a double exposure photograph of the two coffee roasters at Thorntons. The roaster on the left is the roaster they built the business on. It can roast 20 pounds of coffee at a time. They currently use that roaster for most of their single origin coffees. The Roaster on the right can roast about 50 pounds of coffee at a time. Once the roast level is determined by sample roasting the roaster will now have a template to dial in the roast level at scale. Every roaster has its quarks and it takes a highly trained technician to make sure the coffee is roasted in a way where it doesn’t heat up to slowly or to quickly and is pulled at the right time.