Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 16, 1993 TAG: 9306160014
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"After Richmond, we thought we'd open in Northern Virginia, then Norfolk," said David Johnson. "Now we're thinking of looking for smaller towns."
They are eyeing cities comparable in size to Roanoke, such as Greenville, S.C.
Johnson and Scott Elich are co-owners of Mill Mountain Coffee & Tea shops in Roanoke and Blacksburg and the Shockoe Espresso & Roastery in Richmond.
Their Richmond experience hasn't been a flop, Johnson said. But the restaurant - in the trendy Shockoe Slip warehouse area close to Richmond's downtown financial district - didn't enjoy the runaway popularity the store on Roanoke's City Market did.
The Roanoke coffee shop had 50 percent more business than anticipated from the day it opened, Johnson said. Growth in sales at Shockoe Espresso & Roastery has been a plodding 10 percent a month.
Perhaps part of the slow growth is due to the five other coffee shops that opened in the Richmond area since Shockoe Espresso did, said Hope Epperly, who left Mill Mountain Coffee in Roanoke to manage the Richmond shop.
There's even an espresso-cappucino cafe at Ukrops stores, a Richmond-based supermarket chain, she said.
Shockoe Espresso can seat 100, twice that of the Mill Mountain coffee shops. But the seats haven't had much use; the bulk of the Shockoe Espresso business has been takeout, Johnson said.
"We use as many takeout cups here as in Blacksburg and Roanoke combined," he said.
He and Epperly expect an increase in sit-down business this summer, when more customers are likely to be tourists than Richmonders rushing home to the suburbs.
Johnson thinks part of the success of the downtown Roanoke shop is because it's easier to get to from the suburbs.
Elich and Johnson came to Roanoke in 1990 from jobs with Roadway Express in Seattle, Wash. Their coffee and tea shop in Marketplace Center was one of the earlier businesses in a block of buildings still being renovated in the the historic City Market district.
They said at the time they had some reservations about whether a European coffee house would catch on in Roanoke. But Roanokers flocked to the smell of roasting coffee and a variety of desserts and breakfast pastry. There is a steady stream of customers from breakfast until midnight.
Johnson said the success of the Roanoke shop will be hard to beat.
Elich said the Blacksburg coffee shop had slower growth than Mill Mountain in Roanoke. It opened a year later, in July 1991. Part of the reason its business grew so slowly was the season it opened. When the Virginia Tech students came back in the fall, business took off, Elich said.
He also said he and Johnson don't expect the same volume of business in Blacksburg as in Roanoke because students don't spend as much money.
Elich said he and Johnson have looked only casually at other communities for expansion.
"We're not in a big rush to open another store," he said. "We really should get the Richmond one further along first."
by CNB