Wow, what a journey the past year has been! Finally reaching the goal of opening a full service, quality organic coffee shop has been achieved. The shop has been open for 3 weeks now and we are starting to hit our stride. We have new customers finding the Hidden Fortress every day, and many are already coming in regularly.
A full cafe on grand opening day!
It is so good to have money starting to trickle in on a daily basis. For a year we have paid rent on an empty space during the planning and building process. Opening the doors a few weeks was an amazing transformation: Hidden Fortress has come home, and the space has come alive!
The total cost of this project was just over $250,000. Most of that expenditure is now debt in the form of two 10 year SBA loans that we will be working very hard to repay! We also raised about $25,000 through several crowd funding campaigns. Though a small percentage of the total, that $25k really made the difference when we needed it most. Not only that, the pledges we received were a huge boost to our confidence, especially during the scary moments when we really did not know how we were going to pull this off.
It takes a village to build great things, and I am so honored that so many coffee lovers chose to be a part of this village that built this awesome little coffee shop!
We hope to see you soon! We are open:
Monday through Saturday 6:30am to 3:30pm
Free wifi, free filtered drinking water, free tastes of drip coffee
I won’t be annoying and write much in all caps but I do feel like shouting:
THANK YOU!!!!!
Thank you to all of you who have been a part of this, through supporting one of our crowdfunding campaigns, buying our coffee, being a subscriber, participating in the buildout, contributing extra effort with things like web work, or just being there with moral support and good advice! Extra Special Thanks go to:
General Contractor: F. John LaBarba Construction
Custom Cabinet Work: Thomas Merida
Contribution of antique wood apple crates that were used to face our cabinets: Casalagno Family Farm
Beautiful artwork hanging on our walls on opening day: Peter Loftus
My husband Patrick, who is my anchor through all the ups and downs, and who works extra hard caring for our little farm when I cannot be there!
Taylor and Darrell, Hidden Fortress Baristas extraordinaire. You both have been with Hidden Fortress through all the stressful moments, sleep deprived days, and cash strapped weeks that it took to reach opening day. I am proud to have you on my team!
Cheers & Blessings,
Amelia