Fresh Cup Magazine

A Day in the Life
A Glimpse into Retailing Specialty Coffee
By Nick Obourn
Photographs by Kenneth R. Olson

Roasting

It is 5:30 a.m. in Portland, Ore., and my street, a quaint residential slice of life, is still fast asleep. The only sound echoing against the pavement in the darkness of eclipsing night, comes from the camouflaged crows cawing from their treetop perches. The moon hangs high as I ride my bicycle through the chilled morning air to spend the day at a local coffee shop taking in the sights and the sounds, and submerging myself in the hectic lifestyle that is a coffeehouse owner's daily routine.
   Ruby's Roadhouse is a small café resembling the room above the garage your friend moved into during his rebellious teen-age years-dimensionally speaking only. Every other aspect of the place identifies Ruby's simply as a friendly neighborhood coffee shop-from the inviting, warmly painted reds, purples and yellows enveloping the building, to the casual outdoor area dotted with yellow and red picnic tables and surrounded by a white fence and blooming flora, to the letters "RUBYS" carved from wood and framed on the outside wall. As I approach Ruby's, the sun begins to edge over the horizon of the shop's roof. I enter under magnetic poetry affixed to the front door that reads, "Mother I believe you were a whisper of blue and yellow light." The interior of Ruby's is a single room split by a counter. Customer seating consists of a mere seven stools lined along a large window and against the counter. Already, Ruby's owner Shirley Choy is hard at work, her dexterous hands busily grinding beans and boiling water for the day's coffee. Ruby's Roadhouse does not open for another hour, but there is much work to be done before the neon Open sign will flicker red.
   6:00 a.m.-Choy grinds beans for the two French presses she uses to brew her coffee, a practice her wholesale supplier strongly recommends. She fills two airpots with the brewed coffee, one decaf and one full-strength. The process requires at least four pressings to fill the airpots.
    Choy opened Ruby's Roadhouse in the summer of 2001, shortly after moving to Portland. She acquired it from the previous tenant, who ran it under the same name as a coffee shop, and with financial assistance from her brother, Choy breathed new life into Ruby's Roadhouse.
   Born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Choy moved to New York City in 1987.

She lived there for 14 years, laughing as she refers to the city as "a zoo for humans." Lucky for her, she is petite-a taller person would have trouble under Ruby's squat ceiling. But the smile on Choy's round face, makes up for it, seemingly stretching the length of her coffeehouse.
   By using French presses to make her coffee, Choy emphasizes the flavor of the beans. As I watch her saturate the grounds, I recall the early mornings I myself spent working in coffeehouses. The memories come flooding back. Arriving at this hour to witness the effort that goes into every day at Ruby's causes a swell of admiration in my stomach. These are some of the hardest working people in any business-the hours are never-ending, the dedication, unfaltering, and the responsibilities, perpetual. I ask Choy about her morning routine as she flutters around the small room. The hour before she opens is spent grinding and brewing coffee, waiting for the pastries-which are late this morning, she says-and prepping.
   6:20 a.m.-The pastries arrive from a local distribution company and the delivery man lays the tray of goods atop the split Dutch door in the back of the kitchen. Choy unloads the bagels, cookies, muffins, scones, and danishes and exchanges a smile with the delivery man. Then he is gone as quickly as he came.
   There is something undeniably picturesque about the pastries arriving, the simplicity of one tray of goods being delivered and unloaded by hand. It all adds to the feeling I have of sitting in someone's living room. And this is an ideal that resonates throughout Ruby's. I get the sense that Choy's hands gracefully run Ruby's one day at a time.

   Still acclimating to the early hour, I suddenly notice the manual espresso machine. Its slender handles-the top of which are only about three feet from the ceiling-stand tall above the hands of the conscientious barista. The daunting stainless steel goliath is another testament to the hard work and quality standards Choy insists on at Ruby's.
   Start-up coffeehouse owners often struggle to maintain quality. But quality as well as consistently good products and services are the critical catalyst to spur customers into coming back.
   6:30 a.m.-Choy takes a break from pressing grounds to arrange the pastries in the display case. She places the cookies and scones and muffins in wooden baskets and stacks the bagels in a large glass jar.
   6:45 a.m.-Fifteen minutes before Choy will flip the Open sign, the first customer walks in. Instinctively, Choy greets him by name and begins preparing his usual.

7 a.m.-When it is officially time for Ruby's Roadhouse to open, Choy is already taking care of the four additional early morning customers who've walked through the door. The second customer orders a latte and Choy takes to the manual machine with skill, taking time, applying the right pressure and extracting a perfect shot.
7:30 a.m.-Choy's landlord stops by for a cup of coffee and some breakfast. He rests his arm on the kitchen's rear Dutch door and places his order, an egg sandwich notoriously known as the GEC (garlic, egg and cheese). "I bought [the building] in 2000 and converted it to a coffeehouse," he says of Ruby's Roadhouse. He tells me that this one room building in which Choy and her single employee greet customers, cook, and serve coffee day after day is a mere 325-square feet.

Half-an-hour after opening, customers have filled the small space. After its first two years of business, Ruby's celebrates modest success. Because the café survived the dreaded first year, often the chronological benchmark of life or death, Choy can look forward to smoother sailing. Making it through the first year of coffeehouse retailing is a matter of trying new things, building a customer base, and observing what works and what doesn't. "[I serve] more breakfast and fewer lunches, but I kept the popular lunches," says Choy. She also notes that one must "be creative, do something different than just coffee and pastries. You don't want to be just like your neighbor." The menu at Ruby's has changed many times since its inception, a trial-and-error practice a new retailer can only indulge in for the first year or two of business before they are expected to exhibit more consistency.
"Business owners should develop the business concept by identifying and researching the client, the [potential] customer's age, ethnicity and social class," says Willem Boot, president of California-based Boot Coffee Consulting and Training. "Creative promotion and marketing and not doing what others do," Boot says, are critical to success in the beginning. Choy's customers are mostly young, and tend to be members of the coffeehouse's immediate community; her food and décor choices are responses to that.

According to Bruce Milletto, president of Bellissimo Coffee InfoGroup, a Eugene, Ore.-based coffee business consulting firm, there are some keys that can help a new coffeehouse from being swallowed up by the business quicksands. "You have to have working capital because you might not turn a profit in the first year," says Milletto. "Training is so important. Asking equipment sales people to teach you how to operate [your] equipment [is a big mistake]. I've known many people who were in a lot of fields and then [entered into the coffee business and almost immediately think] they are the 'expert.' People should learn how to prepare their products properly. And I think its really important for the trainer to be trained." Milletto cites the major pitfalls he has seen to be the downfall for many start-up coffeehouses. He recounts a conversation he had with a famous restaurateur who explained to Milletto that labor and portion control, if poorly managed, can be the most detrimental to a business. Choy hasn't had to worry about labor costs much-she has only one employee. As for monitoring her portions, Choy keeps track of her egg usage (about two dozen on a weekday, three dozen on a Saturday) and her daily coffee bean usage during the day (about four pounds). And she is the only one who stocks for the coffeehouse, keeping complications to a minimum.

7:50 a.m.-The customers forming a single line keep Choy busy cooking eggs and pulling shots. Her most popular dish is the GEC, and as she cooks it, the aroma of garlic and soy sauce fills the café. She uses soy sauce to add a distinctive scent and taste. Sure enough, another couple walks into Ruby's, having been seduced by the aroma.
Choy's GEC specialty is another good sign of success for her business. The unorthodox combination of soy sauce and eggs was part of the adventure for her. "Before [I started Ruby's Roadhouse], I never really cooked, but I learned [by] experimenting." According to the experts, experimentation is a must for new coffee shop owners. "Develop great-tasting products and a strong product image" says Boot. "Invest resources to develop your products before the business opens." Choy worked diligently to develop her cooking skills, and design her menu which is heavily influenced by her Asian heritage. It includes such dishes as noodles in black bean sauce and Indonesian salad with mixed vegetables, fried tofu, almonds, and sesame.

8:45 a.m.-Choy's sole employee, Heather Cummings, arrives at work. She reports just in time to assist with a new wave of customers. Even with one employee, and a part-timer at that, Choy finds it easy to manage the labor Ruby's requires. Cummings and Choy, like two big peas in a very small pod, work well together and greet customers by name. Most patrons don't even call out orders, confident that their usuals are in check in Choy and Cummings' heads. Choy grabs bagels while Cummings operates the espresso machine and the cash register. Some customers take coffee and breakfast to the outdoor patio where they retire with the day's paper. Others rush away to the office clutching to-go cups.

During a lull, I ask Choy and Cummings what makes running a coffee shop rewarding for them. "Customers," says Choy. "Customers that come back regularly, daily or weekly." Speaking from her eight years of experience at various coffeehouses under her belt, Cummings agrees. "[It's] very comfortable for me," she says of the Ruby's environment. "I like the regulars that come in... [But] this is probably the smallest coffee shop I've worked in." She and Choy chuckle at that, and Choy counters Cummings by asking, "but the [most fun], right?"
10:00 a.m.-The breakfast rush has subsided for the most part, leaving only a few customers seated outside reading newspapers. Choy begins peeling potatoes in preparation for the mashed potato dish she'll serve on Saturday. She goes outside to clip some fresh rosemary from a thriving bush on her patio, and the shop fills with its fragrance as Choy washes and chops it. At this point in the morning, Choy spends most of her time prepping for the days ahead.

   I can't help but feel at ease at Ruby's Roadhouse. I do not feel cramped as one might expect in such a small space. Instead, this is a place where customers sit outside in the sun on a nice day or read the paper at the bar counter inside, far from the impatience they might encounter at larger, more corporate establishments. Choy offers me some lunch and recommends the special of the day: a curried egg-salad sandwich with carrots, scallions, avocado, curried mayonnaise, and a touch of her famous hot sauce. How can I refuse?
   "The first year [as a retailer] is your statement," says Milletto. "Often people get so antsy to open, they forget to dot all the Is and cross the Ts.' [But] your first year is where your customer base comes from. As a testament to the experts' suggestions, Ruby's Roadhouse may be the epitome of a start-up success: around 75 percent of Ruby's customers are regulars, an average that can keep a business alive for a long time, according to statistics.
   12:15 p.m.-Cummings is done for the day, and she leaves Choy to handle the remaining customers and to carry out closing duties for the afternoon.
   With a full two hours before she'll lock the doors for the day, Choy gets a jump on her final chores. These include continuing to prep for the next day, cleaning all the dishes and tidying up the shop in general. I take the quiet time as an opportunity to ask about Choy's inspiration for Ruby's. She looks up at the ceiling, contemplating the question. "I wanted to try to be my own boss and have people work for me," she says with a chuckle. In a more serious tone, she adds that she "wanted to try something different." Choy spends the rest of the day cleaning, prepping and helping customers as they come in, all the time addressing the majority of them by names.
   2:15 p.m.-Choy wraps the foods that remain out in the open including the pastries and bagels and the open foods stored in the refrigerator. She takes the rubber mats from the floors and sweeps them before lugging them outside. There, she drapes the mats over the fence and rinses them with a hose. As I watch her mop the floor inside, I am suddenly overwhelmed by exhaustion. Choy, on the other hand, continues full speed ahead.
   2:30 p.m.-Standing outside of Ruby's Roadhouse, Choy finally flips the Open sign to Closed. Today, she will go home after work, though most days she leaves Ruby's to attend to a whole new set of tasks, sometimes shopping for supplies and food, washing the countless towels and aprons in the coffeehouse laundry.
   On my way out, Choy thanks me with a warm smile for my interest in her business, and I thank her, too, feeling that I was the one who was privileged by the experience. In the afternoon sun of a hot Portland summer day, I mount my bike once again, this time heading home. But I turn back one last time as I pedal wearily, watching Ruby's Roadhouse recede in my wake.
Consider the intangibility of success as you do the nebulous nature of beauty; very often it's in the eye of the beholder. Choy's definition of success is a modest one. "I want my customers to come back," she says. "I want them to be satisfied." For Choy, succeeding in specialty beverage retailer can be just as simple as that.

Fresh Cup Magazine would like to thank Shirley Choy and Heather Cummings for hosting our writer and photographer for the day.

Nick Obourn is the associate editor of Fresh Cup Magazine. Contact him via e-mail at nick@freshcup.com, or by phone at 503/236-2587.