Talk to me about owning a coffee shop

[feralunderclass]

This is all in my head theoretical. I'd love to open a coffee shop, with a sort of theme/inspiration of a city I love in the ME. It would have quite an extensive tea/coffee menu, but simple food/sweets that I'd buy locally. No cooking necessary I'd do that in my house in the evenings. My cat would be asleep in one of the chairs. I'd have beautiful reference books on a shelf for people to peruse. It wouldn't feel like work, because in between chatting to customers I'd sit and have a coffee myself and read.

Has anyone had a coffee shop, and what was it like?

I'm thinking there are a few regulars who would be happy to take over when I'm not there. My shop is a community initiative (it wins awards for this) and people are happy to help. The shop has changed their life, so they are happy to give back. Don't forget many people are 'investors', they pay monthly to keep the shop going. There might even be an honesty box policy when no one us there. My customers wouldn't dare steal.

I love this. Maybe my successful bakery can supply your cake.
In my dream I have a beautiful bake and coffee shop. Fresh crossiants, brioche, buns. I also do wedding cakes and birthday cakes on the side (I have only ever baked a cake from a box before).
Also by the sea obvs, and as the mood takes me I close up to do some paddle boarding or sea swimming (again never paddle boarded but looks fun)
My staff are all my friends who of course do not wish to paid, our kids come and go as they please.
Upstairs I have a studio for different classes like yoga, which I of course teach (can barely do a downward facing dog) or can be rented by all the delightfully eccentric locals to offer things like reiki or crafts.
It's a homey place, always smells amazing and the lighting is ambient and perfect.
When I'm not serving customers I'm working the next book in my best selling serioes. Which is if course wildy successful-actually in talks to make it in to a TV show with HBO.

Woah woah, I didn't say melamine, just sturdy enough crockery I'll not break if I breathe too hard on it.

I'm going to install DH upstairs. People can watch him draw for fun and I'll make him dress like a hot artist from whatever period they all wore their hair longi n leather thongs and flouncy white shirts. But the dress up is for my titillation, not yours.

I might stick to pottery on the veranda.

Perhaps I can do a heated patio outside for the kids for nosie purposes?

It sounds lovely, OP. When I managed a café, I dreamed about somewhere very similar.

In reality, the customers stole the lightbulbs and toilet roll from the loos, one punched me in the face, and some tracked tar all over the floor. We had to open long hours, but that often meant dealing with people who were drunk. It was often either extremely busy or mind-numbingly slow. And the toilets, I don't even want to think about cleaning the toilets!

By the time I left, I was so miserable that I wasn't doing a good job, and I wasn't being paid regularly because we were making so little money (and also because the owner was an arsehole!).

@BelBabe thank you very much for the offer, the community will be delighted. @SleepingStandingUp apologies for the false accusations of melamine, I wish you well. I haven't thought about the outdoor space yet, but definitely some type of heater will be needed. I love the pottery idea.
@HarpieDuJour sorry to hear about that, that sounds horrendous. The people in the vicinity of the shop who steal, defecate in public toilets and are aggressive will go to Costa. They would never be drawn to my place, they know the unpaid staff regular customers would never tolerate such behaviour.

I would not go to a coffee shop with a cat in it😂

Fair enough, plenty of other shops in the town. My customers will treat him like royalty - from a distance as he doesn't like people - and call him "old chap" and reminisce (with me, not dcat) about their cats that lived until the age of 23.

These visions are reminding me of Shakespeare and Co in Paris!

I have almost got my own coffee shop. It’s more of a kiosk/outdoor café. I took redundancy during Covid and initially worked in a nearby café, but got frustrated at how badly it was run. During the final lockdown I had my horse trailer converted into a coffee/cake/toastie kiosk. It’s at home on my small holding. I have lots of walkers, cyclists and horse riders. The customers are mostly wonderful. Lots come regularly and some have become good friends. We are very dog friendly (and horse), but my own cat is a supervisor at the café, he sits on the roof and glares at dogs while they’re here, unless he deems them as too pathetic, in which case he stays on his favourite bench and sneers. If it’s quiet, in summer I sit on his bench with him and read. I pay for these lovely days in winter when it’s cold! Obviously my business is very weather dependent, so this year especially has been a bit of a nightmare. I do love it, but it’s hard work. I bake everything myself as buying from bakeries takes lots of profit. I only open 4-5 hours a day, six days a week, but it’s still a lot of work.

I absolutely love this. When my shop gets established I'm definitely thinking to go mobile. A little vintage caravan, with crotched cushion covers, a serving hatch and some up cycled palettes as tables and chairs. Do you make a decent salary from this?

crocheted cushion covers. No crotches on display under my roof please.

@feralunderclass never mind a coffee shop, you are a true visionary and ought to be running the country not those Tory wankers. Can you start a political party please?

I think everything should be run along the lines of honesty boxes and only working when you feel like it and nice cushion covers. What could go wrong?

Can I be in charge of the Ministry for Cushion Covers please? Cushions are very much part of my thing.

Why thank you 💐. What could our party be called? Making memories not money, perhaps?
I'm more than happy for you to be head of MOCC, but I would like to approve them first if you don't mind.

I actually do have an honesty box in the summer with cold drinks and wrapped (bought in) cakes. This is my second summer of doing the honesty box, and nothing has been stolen yet! Sometimes I think “ah someone didn’t pay” and then somebody turns up at the kiosk and says “I need to add for two cans to the bill, I used the honesty box last week but didn’t have any cash.”

I do make a salary from it. Not a massive one, but enough that I don’t have to work for someone else. I only work part time as I care for my mother. It’s been a little too quiet this year due to the never ending rain, and I am thinking I might have to find a mid week/term time job to top things up. I really don’t want to have to work for someone else again unless I have to.

id post a pic but it won’t seem to load.

I worked in a very busy cafe for 6 years , 9 hour shifts no breaks in summer months so so just

Busy!

Name for a political party - hmm - needs to be snappy like Macron's En Marche, but representing the values of the original laissez faire coffee shop vision.
How about En chaise longue?
You can approve the cushions (I have impeccable taste so no fear of you rejecting any I choose).
I think the principles you espouse plus my cushions could transform society, which is far too aggressive and stressful these days. Lovely coffee shops, relaxed employment rules, and everyone with a nice set of cushions.

And no dogs. (Runs away now to hide from mumsnet band of dog lovers...)

@feralunderclass “I love wool shops (the trendier ones in my town are called 'yarn shops')”

It may seem trendy but they are correctly called yarn shops because not all yarn is wool, eg, some can be acrylic, cotton, raffia, silk or a mixture of the foregoing. I love yarn 🧶

@heldinadream to go from an ethos of the country needs to relax more and worry less to a position of no dogs seems the opposite of encouraging a relaxed laissez-faire society 😛

There's a cafe near me that's completely unmanned and works on an honesty principle. It has really good reviews and is in a prime location so it must be doing OK. Glad to hear it's working out for you. ((Hugs)) from one carer to another.

I'm loving the idea of Turkish coffee and cushions being the impetus behind change. Perhaps we could use those in our party logo? And we definitely need to write something about dogs in the manifesto. We can use the threads on here where people say they love their dogs more than their dc to highlight how the world has gone mad, and is in need of the shop to create a shift! We will be a voice for the children! (But I'm not really keen on them in the shop, unless by prior interview/assessment).

I would love a cafe / coffee shop that was open longer hours 5:30/6, go8ngbhome and then out again is a pita. Instead I sit in a carpark with other dc, waiting, as all the cafes round here stop serving at 4/4:30, and the pubs don't open / start serving till 18:00. I'm sure I'm not the only one, sat twiddling my thumbs wishing for a place to be open

You will be most welcome to come in and wait, we will definitely be open in the evening ☕

In all my long years of hanging around the outskirts of random towns in the late afternoons/early evenings while DD did things in a leotard, I would have loved to be able to find a coffee shop that was actually open, rather than shut fast already, or in an untidy mess with an assistant pushing a broom around my feet and muttering at me to hurry up because they close at 7 and it's already 6.43.

I've just decided that the shop will have a lock box thing where anyone can access the key to let themselves in at anytime to relax, make themselves a coffee, or even just shelter from the elements.

🙋🏼‍♀️ please can I join the political party? Coffee, lovely cushions, and no dogs are all things that I can get on board with.

My DD (9) loves to design and sew cushion covers, could she be a junior minister underneath @heldinadream perhaps?

I could take on something cake related if you have any positions vacant.