Latest / Coffee People Podcast / S5:E11 - David Foster, Kiln Coffee Bar

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S5:E11 - David Foster, Kiln Coffee Bar · Coffee People Podcast

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I'm Andrea Lopez beef. Anya, I'm Andrew keatts.
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I'm Scott Lewis. We host the voice of San Diego
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listen? Hey, good morning everyone.
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Welcome to season 5 episode 11 of the roast West Coast coffee
0:50
podcast. I'm Ryan Walton.
0:52
This is the show where I bring you the stories of coffee
0:54
professionals entrepreneurship and coffee education.
0:59
Not only are we halfway through season five already.
1:02
This is officially the 100th episode of this show.
1:06
In a few moments, you'll hear this week's interview with
1:09
co-owner of Only coffee bar in Grand Junction, Colorado, David
1:13
Foster. But first, I want to assure you
1:16
that I have actually counted the number of episodes several times
1:19
and this really is 100. It is fitting that this episode
1:23
features a roaster that I've been visiting for quite a bit
1:26
longer than I've been doing this show.
1:28
Kiln is a destination stop for my wife and I on our annual
1:31
holiday travels, we even plan the stops of our trip around
1:35
Kilns holiday hours so that we can get there early enough to
1:38
enjoy coffee without Feeling rushed before finishing our
1:41
journey early on. In this episode, David says
1:44
something that is incredibly relevant to every entrepreneur
1:48
when I asked him about his role at the company almost under his
1:51
breath. He says, that the roles are
1:53
constantly shifting, keep that in mind while you're listening
1:57
to this show. And especially, if you're out
1:59
there listening while plotting, your own entrepreneurial
2:01
Journey. If you want to see photos while
2:03
you're listening, follow, and check out at Kiln, coffee bar on
2:07
Instagram or Facebook, and check out the new Post on roast
2:10
westcoast.com. Those will be linked in this
2:13
shows notes. As for me, I'm going to fill up
2:16
my wife's Kiln, travel mug, with coffee, break out my line pocket
2:20
notebook. And start plotting the next 100
2:22
episodes and you should be taking the day's first slurps of
2:26
espresso plunging the handle down on the first French press
2:29
coffee, or listening to the drip of your morning.
2:31
Pour over because you need a great cup of coffee to go.
2:35
Along with this interview with David Foster, co-founder of Kiln
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coffee bar, In Grand Junction, Colorado.
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Nice to meet you, obviously. And this is the roast West Coast
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coffee podcast. I see you got a Mariners cap on.
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You know, they play today. They do play today.
3:01
Place evening at 7:40 so nice. Yeah, I'm a big Brewers fan
3:05
myself, but I did drop this Ken Griffey jr.
3:08
For Halloween for like many years in a row, as a kid.
3:11
That's fantastic. So, we, the mayor's are playing
3:15
the Phillies this week, and one of our regular customers is a
3:18
Phillies fan. Watching the Phillies game with
3:20
him this week. I feel like no one is a Phillies
3:23
fan unless they lived in Philly and their lives in Delhi, by
3:27
hard Phillies fan. Yeah, it's insane.
3:31
So, I wasn't a Yankees fan for a long time and then I moved to
3:35
New York and started going to Yankees games in person and they
3:39
just weren't as much fun. Yeah, and the vibe was a little
3:43
bit different and I made a decision that when Derek Jeter
3:47
retired, I would retire. ER, as a Yankee fan, when that
3:52
happened, when out buried my Yankee, cap at the park and have
3:56
a little ceremony and a beer and nothing, but the Brewers ever
4:00
since that sounds fantastic, if you wouldn't mind, just for the
4:05
tape, if you could just say your name, what your coffee company
4:09
is and kind of what your role there is and appreciate.
4:12
Oh yeah, I'm David Foster co-owner at Kiln, coffee bar in
4:16
Grand Junction Colorado and I Own it with my twin brother,
4:21
John, and this, this may is five years.
4:24
I've been open for five years and what was the last thing,
4:27
just like, what your role was there as an owner?
4:29
What kind of where do you lean towards in the business?
4:32
My role I work at about 25 to 30 hours behind the bar.
4:36
I'm actually switching more to the 25 range here, starting in
4:41
June. So, typically I've been more
4:43
like 35 hours but I'm mostly managing roles are Constantly
4:49
shifting, I am mostly oversee inside the shop.
4:52
We have two managers in the shop and we also in June, we're
4:55
taking on a shift lead position and so there are all full time
4:59
salary and I'm kind of head over making sure they're all and good
5:03
place managing scheduling and just kind of maintaining the
5:07
shop side of things. My brother runs like the
5:11
roasting side of things, and also does all the finances and
5:14
all that kind of end of things. And so, but it always feels like
5:17
we're changing hats and Actually things like this meeting up with
5:21
City people or whatever it might be is typically usually ends up
5:24
being my thing. Just funny because he's that my
5:27
brother's the extroverted one, I'm the intraday one.
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But I've grown to really enjoy having these conversations
5:33
because like, we're passionate about what we do.
5:36
It's fun to have a conversation about it and so, yeah, I thought
5:39
you were around for longer than five years.
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So full disclosure to anyone listening.
5:44
I've been going to kill me on my travels through to Frisco
5:48
Colorado ever. A year and I thought it was
5:50
longer than that, but that's kind of how I discovered you is.
5:53
We always spend the night and first in Grand Junction or food
5:57
and ended up in your shop. Do you and your brother John
6:00
koning this I'm wondering if you as a you know if you had kind of
6:04
a first experience either by yourself or together with coffee
6:08
that made you think you know before the business was part of
6:11
it like yeah I'm kind of into this like this is something I
6:14
like we actually grew up hanging out in coffee shops with buddies
6:18
and we Go and play card games, board games with buddies.
6:22
I mean we just go and read books, you name it, we're just
6:25
hanging out in coffee shops, in high school for some reason, I'm
6:28
not sure how that ended up in. There's a cop no longer exists
6:31
but there's a lady named all of era that had.
6:34
I think she had four shops at one time in Hemet California,
6:36
where we grew up, that's typically where we would end up
6:39
hanging out, and it shifted, depending on that always
6:43
changed. So, we always loved hanging out
6:46
in coffee shops. And for us, it was more.
6:48
So the The side of things, it wasn't necessarily the coffee
6:52
into things feel like coffee with something.
6:55
I mean, we started off drinking Frappuccinos caramel macchiatos,
6:58
you name it. The gateway drug.
7:02
So we always joked around about running a coffee shop together
7:04
just because we love the community aspect.
7:06
We didn't know anything about business or anything about
7:09
coffee. My brother got a job at Pete's
7:13
Coffee and college and Newport Beach.
7:18
You The dawn right down the street from the beach.
7:21
And that's kind of where he started getting his knowledge
7:23
and coffee. I didn't get my first job in
7:26
coffee until I actually got a job because of his experience he
7:30
just called the call the lady up and asked if they're hiring and
7:34
she hired both of us on the spot because he had coffee
7:36
experience. And for some reason it's not
7:38
because I'm his twin. I figured out some sort of twin
7:42
connection where you have a swimming pool shots, it's being
7:45
twins audit times. People just definitely like
7:49
playing baseball growing up. We would always have to be on
7:52
the same team, it's because the coach never wanted to offend one
7:54
of us. If it was both of us going to
7:57
Varsity or both of us being on JV, whatever it might be, but we
8:01
found the same thing. So, we both got a job and it was
8:04
on Montana at a coffee shop called City Brew.
8:07
They think they have around 11 or 12 coffee shops throughout
8:10
Montana. Now, they're kind of a like
8:13
Starbucks s model that has grown significantly in Montana.
8:18
They've Good job. We both worked there for about
8:21
six months, and then we moved to Davis California.
8:26
Actually, we both met our wise working at a coffee shop in
8:28
Davis, California. My brother's wife was a barista
8:31
along with us. Her name is Debra.
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And then, my wife was a student, I was coming and study and I was
8:37
flirting with coming in and so and I ended up managing that
8:41
coffee shop and so that was the first time I kind of got
8:44
managerial experience and just learning ordering and all that,
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you know. Name it.
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I did all the hiring and all the scheduling and I basically try
8:53
to do everything to make it as easy as possible on the honors
8:56
because I genuinely loved and appreciated the owners.
9:00
I didn't start working in a craft coffee shop until after
9:03
that coffee shop. My first coffee, shop was first
9:07
and last coffee shop working for was pachamama coffee roasters.
9:11
And they're in Sacramento at the time, they had a shop in Davis,
9:16
which they no longer have it, there their you In the sense
9:19
that they're technically farmer owned.
9:22
So the owner of that worked for man, one of the link on the name
9:28
but he works for a company that he was over in Peru for a while.
9:31
And so that's where the name came from was pachamama.
9:34
I think it's Mother Earth and Peruvian.
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That's really interesting though.
9:37
The farmer own concept meaning, I'm assuming you mean the
9:40
Peruvian Farm was the owner, or the owner owned, what the shop
9:43
and the farm, it's a collective of farms, and I'm not sure the
9:47
exact model and how he makes it work.
9:48
Work. I never fully gathered it while
9:51
I was there, but that's how they Market it and they have all the
9:54
photos of their farmers in the shop.
9:56
And they're pretty intentional with their product.
9:59
So yeah, it's a unique concept and I haven't seen anybody else
10:02
do anything remotely. Like it.
10:04
Very interesting. There's a farmer own shop here
10:08
in. Well, it's indent in Del Mar but
10:11
the farm is technically like three acres that is also here in
10:14
San Diego County. So it's not quite the same
10:16
concept, it's more of a domestic style finish.
10:19
So, did you go from pachamama to opening your own place then?
10:23
Was that the next jump? I worked in special education
10:26
for three years, so it's kind of out of the coffee industry for a
10:30
while and to be honest with you. So I got married in California
10:36
and 2017 and my wife and I was it seven.
10:43
That was 2016, my wife and I moved out here to Colorado right
10:47
after we got married. And again, the dream was always
10:50
to open a coffee shop together. My brother, and I, and my
10:53
brothers living on the Front Range of the time and we live in
10:55
Grand Junction. That's on the Western Slope.
10:57
So we're about four hours, well, for four hours, if the weather
11:01
is good if the weather's good. Yeah and roads are good which is
11:05
not very common nowadays, summer and winter.
11:08
Yeah on our way home, this last December, we made it an hour, we
11:13
were on our maybe hour and a half out of Grand Junction and
11:16
the highway was just shut down for Avalanche warning.
11:19
We just sat there like the word at a Shell gas station for 4
11:23
hours, waiting to see if they would open up.
11:25
You never knew your like, oh, well, should I take this other
11:27
sketchy Road around that I've never been on?
11:30
Should I wait for the highway? So it's a always copy at any
11:33
travel times. And Colorado, pretty sure pretty
11:36
sure whether he's good. Yeah, and so, when moving here,
11:40
I mean the idea is maybe at some point I always would tell people
11:44
five years because that's the excuse of like, oh, five years
11:47
for farther far enough. If a way that I don't have to
11:49
think about it that much. But actually my brother came to
11:52
visit about four months. After we moved here at the time,
11:56
the college is growing, I think is the second fastest growing
12:00
University in the country. I don't know if it still is, but
12:02
it still is growing pretty rapidly.
12:05
The community was just in a big growth with young people moving
12:09
to Grand Junction. Kind of the Overflow from
12:12
Denver, and my brothers kind of looked at me, like, dude, if
12:15
we're gonna do this now, is the time, there's no undoing crafts
12:18
style coffee, In Grand Junction yet.
12:19
We had I'm not sure if you got to visit best slope at all and
12:22
fruta mess up. Does a fantastic job.
12:24
There are them and Cimarron Roasters and Macho's at the
12:28
first two on the Western Slope doing crafts coffee.
12:31
And so, and I actually live in fruit or right down the street
12:33
from best up coffee, my wife and I are always there on Saturday
12:37
and Sunday. We're good buddies with that.
12:39
The owners and all the freezes. Their nice.
12:42
Here we go there to get coffee and then are not soluble in the
12:44
morning. So yeah, we're straight from
12:46
there, so actually I didn't know they existed.
12:48
Existed until we moved here. They had opened two months
12:51
before we moved, and we literally merge.
12:54
And somebody told me it was a new coffee shop.
12:56
As like, there's, I mean, it's probably just another coffee
12:58
shop. This, there's no way it's craft.
13:00
Now, what I walked in there, like, literally, I was one of
13:03
the most emotional experiences, but I like, I had given it up
13:07
coming here and realizing that is right down the street from my
13:09
house. I was, I was so pumped.
13:14
Yeah, so my brother's definitely the ones like we need to start
13:16
writing a business plan and get this going.
13:19
What made you think that it was a decision.
13:22
I mean, it was always kind of a dream, but if you're working in
13:24
special education, that's also an intense career.
13:26
Yeah. Was there, is there an alternate
13:30
universe in which you're still not in coffee and you're doing
13:33
that? Was there ever any question that
13:34
this was something you were going to jump?
13:36
Because you're not only leaving a career or job.
13:38
At least you're taking a risk and starting your own business.
13:42
Yeah, for sure it's funny because I deal with a lot of
13:45
anxiety and so opening your own business doesn't sound.
13:49
Like something necessarily I would do.
13:51
I think it primarily my brother and my relationship made it
13:55
easy. Knowing that we have each other
13:58
support and it just seemed too. Yeah, I could see myself working
14:04
in special education, there's aspects that I loved.
14:07
I had a hard time. I actually I wasn't I wasn't a
14:10
teacher. I worked as a paraeducator and
14:13
so I worked alongside the teachers and the support that I
14:15
had with students in California worked, Primarily with pretty
14:20
severe needs, and I'm a lot of more psychological stuff.
14:26
And so the students that I got to work with, I really got
14:29
there's one scene in particular, that I grew really close to
14:32
because I hate you easily see. I mean, I see myself, I mean,
14:36
and obviously in big more extreme behaviors and that's why
14:40
they're in the class. But Relationships like that.
14:44
Make me. Consider in the future when
14:48
we're done with this. Whatever might be definitely
14:51
have fond memories but it definitely had a hard year here.
14:55
My the one year I worked in special education here.
14:58
I dealt with a lot of depression for sure.
15:00
Feeling like wasn't really valued and and the student I was
15:04
working with is pretty difficult for sure.
15:08
Well, it's such an emotional job and it takes a special skill set
15:11
and just a shout out to anyone who works with kids in special
15:14
education. I mean, I see what my wife does
15:17
and in the ability she has to work with kids on their level
15:23
wherever they're at. I volunteer a little bit with
15:26
some of her students. And, you know what, half an hour
15:28
a month for me, I'm like an emotional wreck, you know, how
15:32
she manages do it. Every day is is just amazing to
15:35
me. Yeah.
15:37
Have a great support system, that's for sure.
15:40
And that is really important because she, you know, I know
15:42
she communicates with her old classmates and stuff and
15:45
difference. Relations, you know, you
15:48
mentioned you worked with teachers but like especially now
15:51
where people have been leaving the industry.
15:53
I think roles like that, you were always extremely valuable
15:57
but you essentially are taking on the roles of teachers because
16:00
there's not enough people to go around that do this work anymore
16:03
for sure. Did your brother ever try to
16:05
convince you to move to the other side of the mountain range
16:07
there? No.
16:09
Well, I guess kind of joked around about it.
16:11
When we were still in California, my wife and I
16:14
visited, we actually visited. Them out there.
16:16
And then my wife's aunt and uncle had retired here in Grand
16:18
Junction because one of her cousins had married, a farmer
16:22
out here. So I always her cousin comes in
16:25
all the time. And so I always joke around with
16:26
people that we wouldn't exist. If it wasn't for her marrying
16:29
marrying, a farmer. And but we basically end up here
16:32
because of that decision. I think there was kind of a joke
16:36
at the beginning but never we are just kind of interested in
16:39
finding a place to live. Actually.
16:41
Nashville was on the table at one point and that I don't think
16:44
we didn't really make it. Vision of where we were going to
16:47
move based off where we wanted to put a coffee shop or just
16:50
kind of figuring out what we wanted in this next season of
16:53
Life. Yeah, that's a tough one.
16:55
Do you move to the place you want to live?
16:57
Or do you move to the place where there's opportunity and
16:59
how do you find the overlap? Always struggle with that
17:02
question. What about the name killed?
17:06
Where did that come from for you guys?
17:07
And you know what does it mean? Yeah for sure is actually a name
17:11
that a friend tossed out we're kind of going through names are
17:14
buddy Frank. You He actually, I don't know if
17:17
you ever been a dark heart, coffee and Loveland, Colorado,
17:21
they're fantastic people. But he was working for them at
17:24
the time and we're Towing around with some ideas and he tossed
17:27
out the name, Kiln and all three of our.
17:30
I'm sure you're familiar with c.s.
17:32
Lewis wrote the Narnia series. His house is called the Kilns
17:37
like part of the reason is the idea of a kiln is that we're
17:41
refined by where the Kilner finds Pottery hardens.
17:45
It strengthens it. The idea is that the tradition
17:48
of the coffee houses, people would come in to talk philosophy
17:51
and talk politics of the day. And so we kind of tie those two
17:54
together in the sense that we want this space to be a place
17:57
that people could come and have conversation of from different
18:00
backgrounds. Whatever it might be and embrace
18:03
each other within each other's differences.
18:05
And that we could grow stronger as a community because of that.
18:08
So I was kind of the philosophy buying killman.
18:10
We just took that and ran with it and I've really tried to own
18:13
that identity. Yeah.
18:15
And I can see even even another level just kind of reading into
18:19
it by like a kiln. You know, that the Heat and the
18:22
pressure of the Kiln, create something new from you, put one
18:25
thing in a new thing comes out. Yeah.
18:28
And similar with the idea of going into a coffee shop and
18:30
sharing ideas and some coffee together, if I'm not mistaken, I
18:35
think the American Revolution started in a coffeehouse, no
18:39
accident, I think that is there was a there were coffee houses
18:43
that In Aries, like, had specified as these are meeting
18:46
places where we can pretend, we are socializing, but we're also
18:50
planning the revolution. That's nice in the back room.
18:54
I've been to your shop, it's in downtown, kind of Grand Junction
18:58
right on. Kind of the Main Street.
19:00
What is kind of the vibe? Like when somebody walks into
19:02
Kiln, you know, what are they going to experience the?
19:04
You run the shop, it's like you're a representation of what
19:07
you guys care of you history. And one thing that we tell our
19:10
braces and we hire is that where oftentimes First thing that
19:15
people see in the morning and we have the opportunity to set
19:18
their day on a path, that can be a very positive path or a very
19:22
negative path, which is incredible.
19:24
Incredible power in your community to impact it in a
19:27
positive way. Like, how cool is that they
19:30
impact that you can have and so definitely try to create passed
19:34
around the Positive Vibes as much as possible.
19:37
But we I mean, try to be as excited to see people when they
19:41
walk in and greet them with friendly faces and And obviously
19:45
we're humans. Sometimes we fail at that.
19:47
It's part of Being Human. But definitely, we're trying to
19:50
create that fun-loving. We try to keep the space really
19:53
clean. Everything's kind of has a white
19:56
base to it with a lot of wood with black accents and we try to
20:01
make everything definitely look very clean so people can see the
20:04
intention behind what we're doing.
20:06
We definitely want to communicate that we care.
20:09
We care about the product and we care about them as humans.
20:12
We want to make sure they have a positive experience.
20:14
It's one thing that we also share with braces is that we're
20:18
not we're not trying to make as much money as we can off of
20:20
somebody when they walk in the door.
20:22
If we can't meet their needs, we're going to send them
20:24
somewhere else. So if we don't have a bagel that
20:28
they're wanting to get, we could send them.
20:29
There's a Main Street bagels down the street.
20:31
We could send them down. There are salad coffees on the
20:34
lighter end. So if somebody's coming in
20:36
looking for a dark roast and just really wants a dark roast
20:38
coffee, we're not going to try to sell them.
20:40
A cup of coffee that, it's going to be offensive to them.
20:43
We're going to send them to the coffee shop.
20:44
Down the street that is going to be an enjoyable cut for them
20:47
because the reality is that we're definitely fulfilling a
20:50
niche and we're passionate about what we do, but we're not going
20:52
to meet everybody's needs and at the end of the day, our goal is
20:55
to meet people's needs and if we can't we're going to send them
20:58
elsewhere. So those needs can be met.
21:00
So it's definitely the culture that we try to create.
21:02
We're just trying to be part of the community and positive way
21:05
and fill a need in the community and direct people elsewhere.
21:09
When, when needed you mentioned that your coffee is on the
21:13
lighter side? And actually know this.
21:15
But do you is the roasting facility in the back of that
21:18
space here in a downtown? Or do you have another roasting
21:20
space and how did you guys come up?
21:22
Come up with? You know you're roasting
21:24
philosophy is actually yeah. So we have a separate roasting
21:28
space. It's over on 12th Street, it's
21:31
not open to the public. It's actually just like a little
21:33
Warehouse attached to the back of.
21:36
There's a place called cores wellness.
21:37
It's a little chiropractic clinic and we just Lisa's little
21:40
warehouse behind a space Monroe. Savitz about like 150 square
21:45
feet or so, um, roasting philosophy.
21:49
So, most of the coffee shops. I worked in before we're more
21:52
traditional style roasting. So you're getting the light
21:55
medium dark, French roast just across the Spectrum.
21:58
Again, that pachamama coffee, cooperative was the first coffee
22:01
shop that I worked in that would have been labeled under that
22:04
like craft or third wave umbrella.
22:07
And typically, I mean what that means they're kind of buzzwords
22:10
in the industry but what that means is and you're not going to
22:13
see labels. Light medium and dark, you're
22:15
going to just see the bean and the origin.
22:18
And typically when you see those labels, what that means is it
22:22
typically will land in between that light to medium stage.
22:25
People say that we're roasting to the bean.
22:27
Just common terms is tossed around and kind of the goal with
22:31
that resting style is that you're when you're first
22:36
roasting you kind of inter this like grat really grassy face
22:40
before you're getting to the roast, the roast that you're
22:42
looking for. And then once you get past that
22:46
like Peak so grassy, then it hits this peak.
22:48
And then right after the peak it'll start getting more of
22:51
that. Like classic roasted taste that
22:53
you might associate with the dark roast and medium roast will
22:56
have that like roasted taste or like charred taste that we're
22:59
used to drinking in a cup of coffee.
23:01
So the goal and craft industry is to hit that Peak.
23:04
Typically I mean the reality is that you're going to air on one
23:07
side of the other just like being human, you're going to
23:09
hair on one side of the other of whatever it might be.
23:13
We typically Have historically, probably aired a little bit more
23:16
towards will push a little bit towards the lighter end because
23:19
we definitely, we try not to bring in to incorporate any of
23:22
those more roasted taste. There is one coffee that we have
23:25
right now. Are Hunter aside, we push a
23:27
little bit further because we kind of like adding that
23:30
component to it and so it really depends on the coffee at the end
23:33
of the day, but you just kind of have fun with it and try to.
23:36
I love summer on roaster season hour, south of us and mantras
23:41
talking to him. He really messes with this, If
23:44
all the time, he's always tweaking and turning.
23:46
We try to find one and we just kind of stick with it is our
23:50
philosophy but I love he's as you ever get a chance to meet,
23:53
Eric from Cimarron. He's as nerdy as they come in
23:56
the coffee industry. Is it fun?
23:58
Fun personality and he knows his stuff for sure that's saying
24:01
something to because there are some dirty personalities and
24:04
Kathy. I'm sure how is Kiln kind of a
24:08
reflection of Grand Junction. I noticed when I have been in
24:10
your shop is generally local art on the wall or events going on.
24:14
And you know, you've been there five years now and two and a
24:17
half of those years have been during a pandemic, Western
24:21
Colorado was a hotbed of covid for a while there.
24:24
So I know it was pretty intense. You know how you guys handle
24:27
that? And how have you guys become
24:29
more? A part of this community being
24:31
Outsiders to Colorado for sure? I mean when we became the
24:36
hotbed, I feel like you would have hoped that would have taken
24:39
it more seriously than we did as a community.
24:41
I should say that. The last time I was there, I got
24:46
an alert on my phone saying that it was like the highest covid
24:50
count of anywhere in the country.
24:51
Yeah, that was. Wasn't that in like February or
24:54
something? Just this past February.
24:55
Yeah, would have been early January, I think.
24:58
Okay, what does I know that? There's a like a pretty big peak
25:01
and not too long ago but man I feel like the community was it's
25:07
where it's pretty polarizing Grand Junction with the growth
25:10
that's happening. And then also like Traditional
25:13
Values. And so Is definitely some
25:15
polarization with that. I feel like the community is
25:19
really trying to figure out how to operate differently as it
25:23
grows and that's a big part of our passion is trying to like I
25:28
don't care what your background is there.
25:31
We just want to love on you and embrace you, where you're at and
25:34
try to figure out how to serve you best.
25:37
Yeah. I mean, the first couple months
25:39
of covid, absolutely sucks that we're definitely in here just
25:42
twiddling our thumbs Cert, like we may be served to people in
25:46
our maybe and reading we're just reading books and we had a
25:50
little disc golf basket in here. We're just putting playing disc
25:54
golf because we can't, we had all of our tables pulled back.
25:58
So definitely. We're trying to figure out ways
26:00
to entertain ourselves and kind of creating jobs for staff to
26:04
whether it was painting, or cleaning something, or whatever
26:07
it might be. But the first couple months
26:10
we're pretty hard. But man, do is kind of a steady
26:12
climb after those couple of months.
26:15
And it's, and we're in a place that we're doing better than
26:19
ever. We're super grateful.
26:21
The community kind of came behind us and they even those
26:24
couple of months, there was, there were so many times that
26:28
the community just felt like helped carry us through it,
26:32
whether it's rain and people coming in, buying a ton of gift
26:36
cards for people or just regular customer knowing that they're
26:38
not coming in. And just by coming in, buying a
26:41
two hundred dollar gift card for when they do come in next.
26:44
Random things like that. That people feel like is a small
26:47
thing coming in doing but when it's when you're kind of in the
26:52
like the the muck of it all the small things like that really
26:57
make an impact and so there's multiple times where my brother
27:00
and I both were breaking down in tears of doesn't, man.
27:04
This like pretty grateful for what we have.
27:08
So, how involved are your wives in the business?
27:11
You know, your brother's wife was a barista Yeah, and you met
27:15
yours was a coffee drinker coming into the shop.
27:18
So yeah, they involve day-to-day or do they have their own life?
27:21
And this is, you know, the brothers thing and we're going
27:24
to get out of the way kind of a mixture of both.
27:27
Its kind of, we're definitely kind of running things.
27:29
My brother's wife is a nurse. My wife is a math teacher at the
27:32
high school, but haul, it holidays and summer, my wife's
27:37
in your working and if we need help and then also one of our
27:42
favorite Traditions is every Christmas Eve, we just give the
27:45
staff off and it's just us for the coming at work.
27:49
In the morning, with my brother, my brother has two kids and they
27:52
come and sit on stools in the back with us.
27:55
And we just do free, drip, coffee that day and we all come
27:58
in in our Christmas PJs. And so it's kind of our fun way
28:02
to engage with the community and it's a fun day just to
28:05
everybody's in fun spirits. And so we're just open for three
28:08
hours that day and the community is I feel like over the past
28:12
three years like found that as Tradition.
28:15
And so we definitely this last year was super busy.
28:17
It is just it's just so much fun for us and feel like your kind.
28:21
We're kind of building any way that we could build that sense
28:25
of community or purpose together.
28:26
Definitely our wives, enjoy being in here and love being a
28:29
part of it. They know how meaningful it is
28:32
to us as well. So yeah well then what's what's
28:36
coming up next? I mean you've five years is like
28:40
I think a Tipping Point for any small business you kind of feel
28:43
established and You've certainly survived something very
28:45
difficult. Yeah, with the pandemic, where
28:48
do you see killing the going? And you know what's the plan if
28:52
there is one? Yeah, it's a great question.
28:54
I mean, we've tossed around so many ideas and there's a lot of
28:56
opportunities in Grand Junction with the growth.
28:59
That's happening right now. There's a lot of things going
29:02
down at the riverfront. People are constantly asking us
29:06
about if we were to be interested or willing to put in
29:08
a coffee shop somewhere. The interest is I wouldn't say
29:13
is not there, but I think covid definitely dial this back a
29:16
little bit in the sense of being intentional with what we have
29:19
and really trying to put as much energy as we can into it.
29:23
I want thing that we are interested or open to at some
29:26
point is our roasting space. I mentioned is in a little
29:29
Warehouse. We would be interested if there
29:31
was a space that we could purchase at some point or
29:33
something that really made sense for us to be long term.
29:36
We have a 15-year lease here in downtown Grand Junction.
29:39
So, and We've only been on one year of it, so we have 14 more
29:43
years but we'd love to find a more permanent location for our
29:47
roasting space and if we if we did find a more permanent
29:51
location, we'd probably have some sort of small scale.
29:54
Whether we've talked about talked about doing maybe
29:57
small-scale coffee in there. Seeing if there's a gal that
30:00
works for us, that really wants to run to have her own coffee
30:03
shop someday. That's something that we're
30:05
interested in helping her into if that fits with our roasting
30:08
space, or whatever it might be or, or Or the other thing that
30:11
we might be interesting with the roasting space is doing, kind of
30:15
like a ra fillory type thing where people become refill
30:18
refill, their coffee canisters, T canisters cold brew have bunch
30:23
of kombuchas on tap, kind of just like that kind of type of
30:26
model for home. Brewing and home.
30:29
Use with giants drinking products.
30:32
Very cool. Is your brother also a Mariners
30:34
fan. Yeah, we're both.
30:36
We're both huge Americans and our wives are both big Giants
30:39
fans. Oh, Really.
30:41
Yeah, they've had a much more fun, go of it.
30:44
They've had a much more sick successful life span of games
30:48
that superiors house and during our Lives fan very, very much a
30:54
must. It's almost, you know, it's
30:56
like, I'm a grew up a Packers fan.
30:58
So like, my friends were Bears fans, like all right?
31:00
Good for you. Thank you.
31:01
You're willing to fight the good fight, I guess when my wife
31:04
complains about her Giants, I was tread lightly.
31:09
But what years since we ever We even had a playoff games.
31:14
They I don't think I could really feel that bad for you.
31:17
No, no, no. Is there anything that I didn't
31:21
ask you today or you want people to know about Kiln, or about
31:24
you, and about your coffee Journey.
31:27
One thing that we're passionate about as far in the coffee
31:29
industry and this is a model that we've kind of taken off for
31:32
been inspired by. Are you familiar with cat and
31:34
Cloud at a Santa Cruz? Yeah.
31:37
And that's guys what they're doing.
31:39
They're doing a really good job at Of Reinventing the Barista
31:43
model as far as being viewed as an actual job that is valued
31:50
like traditionally Brisas are perceived as just customer
31:54
customer service job minimum wage, you're going to end up
31:58
with some people that I mean you're gonna have some good
32:00
braces. You're going to have some that
32:02
are just they're trying to make minimum wage or make ends meet.
32:05
And so we're definitely kind of taken from their model in the
32:08
sense of we have three staff that are Our full-time salary
32:12
positions with Benefits, trying to build more long-term
32:16
positions that people are excited about staying.
32:19
And if it fits with us, awesome, if it doesn't if they're looking
32:23
for something else long-term, awesome.
32:25
But so, right now, we have two full-time positions that they
32:29
both been with us for the five years that we've been open.
32:33
And then the one gal jumping into full-time position here in
32:37
June, she'll have been with us for almost a year.
32:41
But definitely that's not something that we just offer
32:43
anybody. It's definitely a when we see
32:47
employees putting in a lot of pot of positive energy and
32:51
working their butt off and just like man we'd love to keep them
32:53
around and stuff but we do art John I joke around about our
32:58
philosophy is it I'm sure you're familiar with Tom Brady as a
33:02
football fan unfortunately everybody is familiar with Tom
33:06
Brady Tom Brady historically has said they don't take a lower
33:10
paycheck If it means having better players around him and so
33:13
John and I joke joke around, we have the Tom Brady, philosophy
33:16
will take a lower paycheck just so we can have people that we
33:19
love to work with around us. And so that's kind of, that's a
33:23
lot of it's been inspired by what cat and clouds doing in
33:25
Santa Cruz. So hats off to them for how
33:28
they're impacting the coffee industry.
33:31
I think by my count that is four maybe five other Coffee
33:35
Roasters. You've shout it out on this
33:36
show, so I can tell that's like a theme with you that you're
33:39
always trying to. If to other people my last
33:43
question for you, when you go to one of these other coffee shops,
33:46
what is it that you're ordering for yourself, man?
33:49
I'm as blind as it gets and I'm just historically, been a cheap
33:54
person to a fault. Such a good business owner
33:58
Street. Alright, yeah, drip coffee if
34:01
I'm gonna treat myself so my brother and I just did a trip to
34:05
Austin Texas together and went to Merit coffee every day.
34:08
While we were there, they do free drip refill.
34:10
Yes. And so and we love Mary coffee
34:12
and so we were just like, man, we're not going to go anywhere
34:15
else because here and drink Jim, but if I'm gonna treat myself,
34:20
I'll get a cortado. And if I'm going the espresso
34:22
route, I'll start craving espresso, maybe once every three
34:27
months or something. But if I'm going to treat
34:29
myself, I want an experience with my coffee to.
34:32
I'll get a pour-over. And I usually get something in
34:35
the natural, honey processed or some sort of different process.
34:40
It seems to be a little bit more experiential for fun.
34:43
But yeah. For the most part, I'm pretty
34:44
basic. I'll just go for a drip, nothing
34:47
basic about it. I think that almost everyone
34:49
that I asked this question to says that in some fashion, which
34:53
is great because you really get to.
34:55
I think drip is a great reflection of a coffee shop
34:57
because you if they care enough to make their drip, excellent
35:02
you know. It's only going to go up in the
35:03
other Realms of their shop. It's kind of I used to judge
35:06
restaurants, based on the quality of their toilet paper,
35:08
because if they had good toilet, Paper.
35:11
It meant that they cared about their employees.
35:12
I was kind of my theory. That's I mean, that's a huge
35:15
part of our business philosophy is.
35:16
If you pay attention to the little things, then everything
35:19
else will shine. And so, yeah, that's huge.
35:23
We're cool day that I really appreciate you.
35:25
Taking, you know, some time to talk to us about Kiln and and
35:28
for being one of my wife and Ice favorite stops when we travel
35:31
across the country. Awesome, I'm glad you guys have
35:33
enjoyed your time. Thanks for having me on.
35:45
Okay, to recap. And to quote David, we care
35:48
about the product and we care about them as humans and quote,
35:53
that is the message that David and Jonathan pass along to their
35:55
team about their customers. It is a pretty good mission
35:59
statement for any business after getting started in coffee.
36:02
David worked in the education system with special needs
36:05
programs before opening, Kiln, with his brother.
36:08
I imagine the patients and need to tap to the changing needs of
36:11
students helped him build foundational skills that have
36:14
benefited his entrepreneurial efforts at Kiln.
36:17
It's a good reminder that everything we do leads up to the
36:20
thing. We end up doing the way
36:22
Educators and special needs Educators in particular, have
36:26
risen to the challenge over the past few years has been
36:28
incredible. I know, I can't adequately
36:31
describe the pride that I feel about my wife and her work, as a
36:34
school-based occupational, therapist Kiln is based in
36:38
downtown Grand Junction and is become A hub in what is a
36:41
quickly evolving community? That has grown more than ten
36:44
percent since 2010, David. And John have at least 14 more
36:48
years on their lease to evolve along with the community.
36:52
I'm looking forward to seeing what they do next after we
36:56
finished recording, I learned that David is a fellow
36:58
podcaster. He co-hosts the grind a disc
37:02
golf podcast, which I just followed on Spotify and you
37:05
should too. Finally, I take my baseball fan
37:08
Hood, very seriously, I struggled with the idea that I
37:11
would retire my support for the Yankees for a long time.
37:14
Before making the move, I respect David support of the
37:17
Mariners who had a real rough couple of decades.
37:21
My team the Milwaukee Brewers were in that same boat for a
37:24
long long time before turning a corner in the 2010s, I wish him.
37:28
But of course not the Mariners team.
37:31
A lot of luck in surviving the season.
37:34
Check out Kiln coffee bar.com to see what coffees that they are
37:37
currently offering and order a bag or see more photos of their
37:41
Cafe. You can find that link in the
37:43
show notes and Kiln is going to be celebrating a big anniversary
37:47
in July. They are going to be doing a
37:49
bunch of giveaways, including Kiln, coffee and merchandise and
37:52
even a paddleboard through their social media accounts.
37:56
Now is the time to follow at Kiln, coffee bar on Instagram
37:59
and Facebook so you don't miss that.
38:01
Follow at roast West Coast, while you're there.
38:04
And check out this shows newsletter at roast
38:06
westcoast.com. Please subscribe to this show.
38:09
You can subscribe for free and I'll send this podcast to your
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email every single week or help this show grow by choosing one
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of the paid subscription options.
38:18
You'll get access to the bean journal and paid subscriptions.
38:21
And this show sponsors are the reason I can keep this program
38:24
going. I mentioned at the top that this
38:26
was the 100th episode. I need to thank two people who
38:30
were instrumental in making that happen.
38:32
Steve rail is the founder of Owner and head roaster of zoom
38:35
bar, coffee and tea. They have two locations, the
38:38
original in Mission Valley and the second in Cardiff California
38:42
that Cardiff location. Was one of the very first craft
38:44
coffee shops that I went to after moving here to San Diego.
38:48
It was the first place. I had a French press coffee
38:50
ever. And when I decided to launch
38:52
this show, Steve was the first person I reached out to, he was
38:56
the very first interview and I recorded that episode on my
38:59
phone while he and I talked through Google, meet covid will
39:03
new and know. No one knew for sure how long we
39:05
were going to be staying home as the show progressed.
39:08
And it was clear, I would need some sort of help sustaining.
39:10
It Steve was, also the first person I reached out to, for a
39:13
show sponsorship when he said, yes, it gave me the confidence
39:17
that I needed to think that this show could be more than just a
39:20
short-term project. I've been grateful for his and
39:23
zoom bar support ever since their hummingbird coffee blend
39:26
is still one of my favorites and I regularly Brew it in a French
39:30
press here at home. Secondly, if you've listened to
39:33
any of the first few seasons of the show, you know, Chris
39:36
O'Brien of coffee cycle. Roasting is my own personal
39:40
coffee Sensei and he's one of the main Inspirations for this
39:43
show a few years back. I had the opportunity to open a
39:47
coffee and beer bar and I backed out of the deal because I didn't
39:50
know anything about the coffee industry, it was such a big risk
39:53
for me and I just wasn't confident, it would be a success
39:56
without that knowledge, it always bothered me that I had to
39:59
back out because I didn't feel like I had that knowledge.
40:03
When Chris was opening his Cafe in Pacific Beach, I asked him
40:06
how much he would charge to teach me about coffee.
40:09
I wasn't planning on opening, a cafe bar anymore, but I still
40:12
wanted to learn. He offered to teach me in
40:15
exchange for helping him out in the new shop once a week.
40:18
In the beginning, it was just me and him.
40:20
Most of the time customers were still learning.
40:22
We were there during the downtime.
40:24
He trained me to be a barista in much, the way, mr.
40:27
Miyagi Todd Danielson, one day, in the shop became to, which
40:31
became three Which became more than I could manage, will still
40:34
being a full-time restaurant GM. And after a year, I left that
40:38
position. But the conversations that we
40:40
had about coffee stuck with me, as did my friendship with Chris?
40:45
At the time? I remember saying we should
40:47
record these. I feel like other people
40:49
interested in coffee would be interested in this stuff too,
40:52
but podcasts hadn't really become so ubiquitous yet and
40:56
realistically, we were both so busy back then there was just no
40:59
way for it to happen. It took a pandemic.
41:02
And the prospect of losing my mind.
41:04
Sitting at home, for this to become a reality.
41:07
Once again, Chris graciously offered and continues to offer
41:11
his time and expertise to this show without his coffee
41:14
knowledge, as a base, for our coffee smarter sessions, I am
41:17
certain this show, wouldn't exist.
41:20
Thank you, Steve, and Chris so much appreciation.
41:23
Since then, great recurring guests, like Jared Hales, and
41:27
especially series simmering. Khalsa have helped us take our
41:30
coffee knowledge to the next level.
41:32
With some support from this shows, roast industry Partners
41:35
including Cafe litter moisture, Coffee Company, steady-state
41:39
coffee, roasting Camp, Coffee Company, ignite Coffee Company,
41:43
Ascend Roasters, first light whiskey, Maria coffee, Cape Horn
41:47
coffee, importers and the aforementioned zoom, bar,
41:50
coffee, and tea and coffee cycle.
41:52
Roasting Shoutout to leave coffee who are on their own
41:55
Journey, but they were partners and big supporters of this show
41:58
through the first four seasons and to the coast news group for
42:01
helping distribute the show every week.
42:04
And for helping me get started in podcasting by letting me
42:07
host. A few of the shows on their
42:08
behalf. All of those Partners have been
42:11
foundational in this show, existing and improving and
42:14
growing as have you, those of you who listen to the podcast
42:18
And subscribe to the newsletter have provided me with so much
42:22
more than I imagined you. Out there in the world.
42:25
The emotional boost that comes with someone paying to subscribe
42:27
even when they don't have to is kind of like hitting a home, run
42:30
in little league. And when I meet random listeners
42:33
in a cafe or see a barista with one of my stickers on their
42:36
water jug, I'm filled with gratitude and pride.
42:39
Thank you all for listening and for supporting the show this
42:43
show sponsors for reading the newsletter and caring, even a
42:47
little bit about the entrepreneurial journey of
42:50
others and about your morning cup of coffee.
42:53
The simple Act of drinking a cup of coffee connects you to an
42:56
entire network of coffee professionals around the world.
43:01
It is a pretty awesome and fairly delicious power that you
43:05
wield use. It wisely, this episode of the
43:09
roast West Coast coffee podcast and the 99 that preceded.
43:13
It is was has been written produced and recorded by me Ryan
43:18
Walt. I hope this show is found you
43:20
happy healthy and with at least enough sanity too.
43:23
Make it through the day. For those of you headed out for
43:26
a cup of coffee this week, please always tip your Baristas
43:30
and be sure to drink. Good coffee.
43:58
I like beer, hey, everyone. If you like the roast West Coast
44:02
coffee podcast, you might also appreciate the, I like beer the
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podcast. Listening to these guys is like
44:09
being a fly on the wall of the pub with a few of your favorite
44:11
mates. Having a pint these professional
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beer appreciators, have plenty of stories to share on
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everything from the mating habits of penguins to there
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behind the scenes Brewery experiences check out the, I
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like beer the podcast where ever, you are listening to this
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show about coffee or head. To, I like beer, the
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Podcast.com. Podcast.com.