Backwoods Bean
As some of you already know, I've sold the Backwoods Bean Coffee Shop up in Sparta and have basically decamped back to Cary.
Operating the coffee shop was one of the greatest and most rewarding experiences in my life and, under the right circumstances, I would do it again in a heartbeat. I met many, many interesting people not only from throughout the United States but also from around the world. And, without a doubt, the musicians who struck up jam sessions were the most enjoyable. I already miss the shop badly.
But, alas, Sparta wasn't interested in joining the 20th century (much less the 21st). I could sell a 12-oz cup of Jamaican Blue Mountain to flatlanders for $5, but the "good old boys" would rather go to the Kangaroo convenience store than to Backwoods Bean for their $1.50 cup of "regular" coffee.
The shop made a modest profit over the 15 months I owned it and the "straw that broke the camel's back" was a completely inept, ineffective Chamber of Commerce coupled with an anti-business Town of Sparta city government. These "good old boys" stuck their heads in the sand about 50 years ago and haven't seen the light of day since!
God bless 'em.
They don't like me and I sure as hell don't like them.
My original plan was to move the shop lock-stock-and-barrel to the Raleigh area. Alas, I was approached by three buyers (none of them "good old boys") before I could do that and the rest, as they say, is history.
Operating the coffee shop was one of the greatest and most rewarding experiences in my life and, under the right circumstances, I would do it again in a heartbeat. I met many, many interesting people not only from throughout the United States but also from around the world. And, without a doubt, the musicians who struck up jam sessions were the most enjoyable. I already miss the shop badly.
But, alas, Sparta wasn't interested in joining the 20th century (much less the 21st). I could sell a 12-oz cup of Jamaican Blue Mountain to flatlanders for $5, but the "good old boys" would rather go to the Kangaroo convenience store than to Backwoods Bean for their $1.50 cup of "regular" coffee.
The shop made a modest profit over the 15 months I owned it and the "straw that broke the camel's back" was a completely inept, ineffective Chamber of Commerce coupled with an anti-business Town of Sparta city government. These "good old boys" stuck their heads in the sand about 50 years ago and haven't seen the light of day since!
God bless 'em.
They don't like me and I sure as hell don't like them.
My original plan was to move the shop lock-stock-and-barrel to the Raleigh area. Alas, I was approached by three buyers (none of them "good old boys") before I could do that and the rest, as they say, is history.
decamp >verb depart suddenly or secretly......
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you are back posting, but not Sunset Ridge? Isn't it hot down there in Cary? Won't you miss Hawk's Produce? Who tends your mushroom crop?
Whatever happened to the dogs? Cat?
ReplyDelete