Brewpoint Coffee

independently owned coffee houses are in a race against big corporations to serve the best Java. The advantage for these unique shops is the ability to construct a cozy spot for regulars to take a minute for their morning, noon, or evening cup of joe. Seven years ago, me and my six month boyfriend ended up finding a coffee shop that was so perfect in Elmhurst and bought it without knowing anything of what were doing. So were really dedicated to getting a little bit better every single day. Now we have four coffee shops, wholesale grocery, an event space, and I'm the author of a book called Starting and Running a Coffee Shop. We've been able to do everything as thrifty as possible, so in the beginning a lot of our decor was just the best we could do as thrifty as we could and over time it's definitely evolved to a look that And over time we've been able to invest more and more into marketing. At this point it's mostly social media, our websites, things of that sort. Two of BrewPoint's locations also offers cocktails and charcuterie. We launched our peppermint mochite, but also our alcohol locations have a pep in the step peppermint martini. BrewPoint's menu is a lot like We have specialty lattes, specialty teas, assortments of craft pastries, we do gluten-free, we do vegan. Our most popular drinks I would say is our Borealis, which is Another drink that's worth highlighting is our lavender chai latte. That drink I think really got us in the map. We had people driving out 30-40 minutes just to try it out, so it'something we'really proud of. It was really important for me as a one-of-color business owner to really create authentic relationships and partnerships with organizations that were led and invested in communities of color. And so part of the reason why BrewPoint expanded out of Elmhurst was so that we could build relationships with community leaders who were making differences in black and brown communities. The hardest part of opening a coffee shop is being able to push through the harder times. Being able to trust that what you're doing is something that people will come to once they find out about you and it just takes time. That'something that I think that we just kind of put our heads down and believed in and hope that it would come into fruition and it has.