The Night Shift
Five Secrets To After-Hours Success
By Michelle Anderson

On any weeknight, walk into Bucer's Coffee House & Pub in Moscow, Idaho, and you'll find it packed with an eclectic mix of customers-students, workers, retirees, even a rancher or two. A closer look reveals that these people are enjoying more than just coffee. Bucer's seduces evening customers with caffeine, tobacco, calories, and alcohol. The Main Street establishment, named for 16th-century German church reformer Martin Bucer, offers a sinful selection of fine wines, premium beers, elegant desserts, cigars, and coffees. The sophisticated products and elegant atmosphere keep the place packed until midnight, when the coffeehouse closes. They also demonstrate that it takes more than extending your hours to draw in the late-night crowd. Owner Gary Greenfield studied the coffee industry for three years before opening Bucer's. Success in roasting and running an espresso stand and drive-thru gave him the confidence to open the pub-style coffeehouse in 2000. Here, Greenfield and his wife Pat share five lessons that helped them create a thriving nighttime business.

Step 1: Consider your crowd
Before you decide to create a nighttime atmosphere, it's important to consider your ideal evening customers. Are they young or old? Locals or tourists? Are they club-hopping hipsters or dreamy granolas? Are they budding poets or cell-phone junkies? Outlandish actors hoping to be discovered, or silver-haired "snowbirds" hoping to discover the answers to a crossword puzzle? Do they pop in for an espresso on the fly or nurse an Earl Grey for an hour while reading Proust?
   Identifying your clientele is the easy part, because it's not entirely up to you. Location often will dictate the demographics you have to work with. Beyond that, appreciating your market will help you determine how, and for whom, to tailor your shop.
   Bucer's is located in Moscow, a small city of 21,000 in the Idaho "panhandle." Moscow is home to the college of New Saint Andrew's, and close to Washington State University and the University of Idaho only one mile away, which accounts for its high number of students (8,000) and low median age (24.7). But it is more than a campus town, boasting a strong agricultural community. The downtown is a hub of arts, entertainment and leisure activities. Bucer's is strategically located on the north end of Moscow's bustling Main Street. Its neighbors include a winery, a sports bar and a knitting shop. Down the block, residents can choose from a variety of Mexican, Chinese, Indian, and Italian restaurants. An old theater doubles as a community stage and cinema. An art museum is also next door.
   Moscow's unique mix of people creates a diverse target market, which is amplified by the many downtown entertainment options. With this diversity in mind, Greenfield has created an atmosphere in which many different kinds of people feel welcome and comfortable. "When people come here, they know they'll probably see friends," he says.
   The furniture satisfies this larger goal of community. Large tables near the entrance help bring people together throughout the day and initiate interaction at night. "You get older people and students, Christians and Muslims, all sitting around the table, talking," says Pat Greenfield, Gary's wife. "Maybe they're talking about politics or religion, but the important thing is, they're interacting as a community."

Step 2: Decorate with the evening in mind
If your customers feel welcomed during evening hours, then they're likely to join the crowd and enjoy your coffee. The trick is to create an atmosphere that draws people in and makes them choose to stay.
   "I want people to come in and slow down-to take a break from life," Greenfield says. At Bucer's, that means creating an escape from the modern world. Deep, warm wood and rich wall colors transport customers back in time, while vintage furniture and older European art create an atmosphere at once timeless and familiar.
   The Greenfields admit that Bucer's reflects their personal style. Sit down for the evening in one of the coffeehouse's leather chairs or the overstuffed couch, and you might as well be joining the Greenfields for an evening in their own home. By decorating the pub to suit their tastes, the Greenfields feel they are inviting customers to stay and relax, like good friends.
   This is a conscious choice, and an important one. If the owners are comfortable in their work surroundings, they'll be better hosts, and more capable of helping others feel at home. In addition, many coffeehouse customers are drawn to the personal, unique and downright quirky. It's important to note that the nearest dedicated coffee shop is a chain outlet in an outlying area, while downtown, a bookstore and bakery also serve espresso. Unafraid to make Bucer's a projection of themselves, the Greenfields have struck a note that appeals to many Moscow locals and offers an alternative to the more impersonal surroundings of national franchises.
   In accommodating the morning rush-all paper cups and scones-to-go-and an evening clientele that transforms her coffeehouse into a destination, Pat Greenfield knows that the personal touch must remain an abiding constant. "Whether their stay is long or short, we want them to be comfortable while they're here," she says. Another big help is that evening hours of operation were part of the Bucer's concept from the beginning.

Step 3: Mix your product
If extended hours have an inherent contradiction, it is this: people generally don't drink lots of coffee at night, for obvious reasons. So at Bucer's, coffee is paired with more mellow beverages, such as microbrews, wine, teas, and locally fresh-pressed hot apple cider. The selection includes high-end products that customers can't find at other establishments in the area. Hewing to local custom and the legal ability to do so, Bucer's also offers a selection of smoking pipes, tobacco and fine cigars.
   In the evening, Greenfield estimates, Bucer's sells 80 percent coffee and 20 percent alcohol. Sometimes it's closer to a 70/30 split. Wine is sold by the glass or bottle, and microbrews are available, but only by the bottle or pint. "We don't sell beer by the pitcher," Greenfield says. "People know this isn't a place to get drunk, and that's not why they come here. It's more like a European pub. People can go somewhere else if they're looking for a tavern."
   Before adding alcohol or tobacco to your menu, it's important to know the local and state ordinances, and to understand the responsibilities associated with selling controlled substances. At Bucer's that responsibility is taken seriously and involves specialized training for employees, who are forbidden to dispense alcohol to intoxicated persons or minors. Greenfield also hires a local bouncer to teach employees how to recognize fake IDs. These measures help preserve Bucer's family atmosphere and reputation.
   "In Idaho, obtaining a beer and wine license is not difficult, just time consuming," Greenfield says. In the case of Bucer's, the authorities required business organization papers, background checks, fingerprints, a diagram of the café's floor plan, a copy of the menu, and proof that the business met local health codes. In addition, routine inspections are performed to ensure compliance.
   You can also expand your food selection to entice evening guests, but be mindful of their changing tastes. While nothing kicks off the morning like espresso and a Danish, the after-work crowd may want something more substantial, such as a light dinner before a movie. For its part, the after-dinner or theater crowd is often looking for delectable desserts to enjoy with a cup of coffee or an espresso.
   Before deciding on food items for the evening, you should carefully consider such factors as cost and logistics. Figure on adding a prep area and prep time, along with storage and display space. You should also give thought to food items that complement hot coffee beverages. Soups are easy to prepare and take minimal space, but "soup & joe" may not catch on. Once again, local or regional preferences are important, so know your clientele, and listen to their comments.
   For his part, Greenfield stocks the vitrine with attractive desserts that deliver high profit margins along with high calories. Rich flavors, including dark chocolates and creamy cheesecakes, sell well, as do cookies and biscotti. More substantial meal items include panini, quiche and pasta salad.
   Greenfield likes to keep food preparation to a minimum. The prep staff assembles salads and bakes scones, muffins, quiches, and cookies. Greenfield, on the other hand, purchases his truffles, biscotti and panini breads from a local bakery. Soups and cakes are ordered from a food supplier.
   This blend of sources works well for Greenfield, who has a simple formula for dealing with this complex problem: "With all of our food items, we consider what is the most cost-effective way to get the product to our customer. That's determined by what we can accomplish in our small kitchen, what our food prep people are technically capable of producing, and what is going to ensure freshness on the plate."
   The Greenfields have found that mixing up the menu with food, beer and wine may draw in more nighttime customers and even increase profits, but that, from a business perspective, it is important to be selective and to stay focused on the primary product: great coffee. "We want to keep espresso-based drinks as our main feature," says Greenfield.

Step 4: Entertain the masses
Providing music and entertainment is one of the best ways to bring in a weekend-night crowd. It increases the buzz about your establishment, and attracts new customers on their way to other night-time events.
   At Bucer's, live music is the order of the evening on Fridays and Saturdays.
   Pat auditions every potential performer, after reviewing a demo CD. She taps into local talent, finding some of her best talent in the music departments of the local colleges. This keeps costs down, and keeps the events rooted in the community. The trick is finding music the majority of your customers will enjoy. For Pat's market, that means jazz and blues standards from the 1940s, mostly instrumental but occasionally with vocals.

Step 5: Create some quiet
When letting the poets and painters and jazz combos in through the front door, it's important not to leave the chess players and magazine readers and talkers out in the cold. By creating an oasis of quiet, you'll not only provide the kind of haven many of your customers want, you'll be holding onto their business.
   In Moscow, there's a lot for a 21-year- old party animal to choose from. The bars are very active during the evenings and on weekends. People can dance, watch sports over a pitcher of beer or listen to live rock bands. Bucer's is consciously just the opposite.
   The Greenfields have found that simply dividing the floor plan into public and private areas provides a place for everyone. On a lively Saturday night at Bucer's, quiet-seeking customers can move toward the back of the coffeehouse to relax, play games or chat. Large tables away from the bustle provide ideal places for study groups and card games. Small tables with low light create romantic spots for couples to share desserts. Beyond a set of French doors lies the smoking room where customers can sink into a deep leather couch with a pipe or cigar. Bucer's also has a large selection of used books for sale. A mix of classic and contemporary literature fills ceiling-high, built-in shelves complete with a library ladder. Guests can pick up a book and read it while sipping coffee, and if they like it, they can purchase it and take it home.

A Place To Gather
Depending upon your market and your vision, your coffeehouse has the potential to become a gathering place for your community, hosting activities and events that strengthen the bonds between people while boosting your profits. As Bucer's demonstrates, adding nightlife to your coffeehouse doesn't have to mean subtracting from its identity.

Michelle Anderson is a freelance writer based in Moscow, Idaho.