River Roasters Coffee Co.
Pomeroy, Ohio
“We both grew up in West Virginia, right across the Ohio River. We got married and lived down in Virginia Beach for about 10 years, but we felt a draw back to the area and ultimately decided we were going to come back.
We would drive through Pomeroy daily and appreciated the beauty of the river and the sunrise as we were going to work. It’s just an amazing place to be—without even mentioning the people. The shops, the location, just the sheer beauty of the river every morning is awesome.
Then we started to make friends with the people at Court Grill, a blues bar and grill with awesome food and music. We love music. We're musicians.
Then we started to fall in love with the entrepreneurs around the area we would meet who were doing cool things. Sometimes, especially in a rural community, you have to dive a little deeper to really understand what's going on and where the community support is.
We saw that there were things happening in the community and that the people here care about this place. We began to understand that there was a lot more to ‘here’ than what you might initially see on the surface just driving through.
The day we decided we could be part of that momentum, we were walking through Pomeroy one morning as people were setting up for the Big Bend Blues Bash.
We were craving a cup of coffee but there wasn't a place to get one. We thought, ‘....It would be so nice if somebody would open up a coffee shop in Pomeroy, right here, downtown...’
And then we said, ‘Maybe that 'somebody' is us.’
Over the next week, we looked into what it would cost, what we would need to do, and how we would raise the money.
Because we're musicians, we started by making a Spotify playlist for the coffee shop. We know music sets the vibe for a place, so the music was part of the business plandan. The first song we added to the playlist was ‘Hold On’ by Alabama Shakes.
After that, we started to look at what buildings were available. Entrepreneur friends we had made here on Main Street suggested that we speak to the owner of the building we’re in now. It needed a lot of work, so we initially passed on it, but later came back and decided that this was the place.
We sold our house to help with the initial investment. We put a ‘For Sale’ sign in our front yard and then took our dogs for a walk.
When we got back, there was a guy sitting in our driveway.
The house wasn’t ready—we didn’t think somebody would want to look at it that same day, but he came in, looked at it, and said he was going to talk to the bank. It was the next day when he said, ‘Let’s get this thing rolling.’
We realized we had to buy the building.
Now.
We lived with our family for several months while we renovated the building and continued to work our day jobs. We put everything we had into this business. We had a lot of volunteers from our church, the community, our friends, and even people who would stop by and say, ‘Hey, I want to demolish some stuff.’ We’d give them sledgehammers and show them where to dump the debris. We tore the entire building down to the bones and built it back from there.
We worked with a local community bank, Farmers Bank, and the thing I remember most about COVID is the day they announced we were going on lockdown and businesses were closing, the president of Farmers came walking down Main Street—he's in the coffee shop every day anyway—but he came in and he said, ‘You guys, I just want you to know, you don't have to worry about any of what’s happening affecting your business loan. Don't worry, we're going to work this out and we're going to take care of it.’”
That would never happen in a big city. We were lucky to have selected a community bank that's about community first. They're really invested in making this area thrive.
This coffee shop is about coffee, but it's about community, too. Coffee shops are a hub for people. You can walk in, see people you know, see your friends, have conversations.
It can be a meeting space. It can be all these different things throughout the day that are important for our community. We have community leaders who come in and make themselves available to residents for a conversation here.
To be that spot, that hub for all these conversations happening in the community, is special. Coffee is at the center of a lot of communities and people don't realize it.
It drives deeper, more meaningful conversations as well because you go there to kind of hang out or get some time to yourself, but you're also available for those conversations. There are those chance encounters that happen at other stores and restaurants and things, but it's different at a coffee shop.
Most of our customers are repeat customers, so we have relationships with all these people. And our employees get it. They get what we're doing. The center of our business is love. We love people as soon as they walk through the door until they walk out the door. And they grasp the whole of that and they're doing it and it's amazing.
In a big city, you may see 15 to 20 tenants go through the same building over a three- to four-year span. That’s not the case in a small community like this. We bought this building and we plan to stay, and the same goes for almost all the businesses around here. There are people who believe in what they do and they don't want to see a community lose that.
With a big chain, it's not really like that. There's no connection with people besides through branding and the marketing they do. There’s no real connection. Here, we work right alongside our employees. We wash dishes, take the garbage out and clean the restroom. That's not happening at the big chains.
That's special for our employees, but it also makes a difference for the customer experience as well because it means we care, and care means everything."
—Candice and Larry Hess Jr., River Roasters Coffee Co., Pomeroy, Ohio
Personal note:
Candice and Larry are just the best kind of people.
During our remote interview, we talked about our love of music, about how "Hold On" by Alabama Shakes was my favorite song and the first song they added to their shop playlist.
When I arrived in Pomeroy to take the photos accompanying this story, the sunrise off the Ohio River was everything they said it was, and the town is arranged so that the buildings downtown all get a front row seat.
I walked into River Roasters, chatted with Larry and Candice, and then said I needed a few minutes to set up my gear.
Digging things out of my bag, music starts.
"Hold On" by the Alabama Shakes.
"You remembered!" I said. I swooned.
Then Larry asked me if I wanted a cup of coffee. I gushed, because their menu is FUN. They serve things you can't find in Detroit. I asked for a Cubano, and took photos as Candice made it for me.
I don't mean any offense to all my coffee shops I love, but it was the best cup of coffee of my life. This was a year ago, and I still think about it at least once a week.
A great story with great people and great coffee.
Doesn't get any better.
Story and photos for Ohio SE and their #WeAreOhioSE story series campaign. You can find these stories archived at www.ohiose.com.
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