Cuppa Joe
There are few places in Traverse City more cheery on a wintry, blustery morning than inside Cuppa Joe Café, looking out on the gray skies and whirling snow flurries from a comfortable chair in the semi-classic diner, with the grounds of the surrounding Grand Traverse Commons and spires of historic Building 50 as a backdrop.
That is where I found myself to talk with Sandi Daley, sole owner of both Cuppa Joe businesses—this café and the Cuppa Joe Drive Thru on the other end of town at Garfield and East Front Street. At 17 and 20-plus years respectively, both locations have grown into local hubs for coffee drinks, tea and baked treats; the café also offers home-cooked breakfast and lunch fare.
Sandi is just back from the Coffee Fest in Tacoma, Washington, where she was able to hobnob with her peers and test-run state-of-the-art equipment to replace some of the older pieces in her shops. She also attended owner/administrator workshops covering management, retaining good employees, new tips and trends. Apparently current trends in the industry include drink alternatives to coffee such as green matcha lattes and smoothies and golden milk infused with turmeric and other spices. (For the record, matcha latte is not a trend she will follow. As advised by local tea master and founder of Light of Day Organics, Angela Macke, Sandi is careful not to put her matcha into dairy milk, nor will she heat it.)
“We offer Angela’s Light of Day teas, and were possibly her first retail customer. We were one of the first shops here in Building 50, and Angela was taking classes down the hall at Yoga for Health. We jumped on the chance to work with her right away.”
Sandi and her then-husband, Shayne Daley, purchased the original Cuppa Joe Drive Thru from Jean Peltola, who had been influenced by the growing coffee culture in her former home in Seattle. As soon as local coffee roasters first emerged in Northern Michigan, Sandi switched from the Seattle imports to buying locally, first in Beulah, then from Roaster Jack out on East Silver Lake Road—owned and run by Jack and Sarah Davis, who worked at Cuppa Joe as they developed and manifested their business plan.
“Our history kind of lines up with the growth of Traverse City into a food and drink mecca,” Sandi says. “When I first moved here, Front Street had a lot of empty storefronts. TC had its little gems. The potential was there, but it was only just starting to emerge. We grew up with all of those cool things happening, all these artisan things happening, including Bob Pisor at Stonehouse Bakery.”
It was through Bob that Sandi experienced an early epiphany. Bob brought his sister-in- law, Alice Waters, owner and creator of the renowned restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, and an early advocate of working with local farmers and producers, to the coffee shop. Sandi knew of her, but didn’t recognize her when Alice started asking her “Alice Waters kind of questions” about where she purchased her ingredients and from whom and why. Alice pushed Sandi to consider working as locally as possible, and that has been a mission and focus of Sandi’s management of Cuppa Joe ever since. It has not always been easy. In the early years she would have over a dozen suppliers of various items. She would suffer alongside her farmers the loss of a key crop of lettuce or tomatoes, and scramble to make other arrangements to fill the needs of her lunch menu.
“Being a fledgling business and not entrenched in the culinary world, I was finding my own way. Her questions did rattle me, and wake me up. But I’ve also learned that it’s not always possible to be 100 percent, and I’ve learned to be OK with that, and to just keep persevering,” Sandi says.
The structure that now houses Cuppa Joe Drive Thru used to be a bank, and it still has that quirky feel of a drive-through where you might once have deposited your checks. You enter from Garfield Street and follow the curving driveway (quite close to 360 degrees) to the covered area beside the sliding window. The menu is fixed to the building, easily viewed as you wait behind the coffee customer ahead of you. Once in front of the window, you give your order to the capable baristas who deliver your coffee in efficient and friendly fashion, whether you offer them your own coffee mug or accept one of their disposable cups.
As the original Cuppa Joe adapted to the shape of its building, so Cuppa Joe Café has creatively incorporated the structures and furniture in place at what had once been a cafeteria within the former hospital. Green vinyl-covered stools are set in the floor around the original wrap-around counter, complete with a well-worn foot rest, and retro booths line one wall. While making use of these original elements, Sandi asked the building developers to cut the original space down to a more manageable size (making room for the window-lined hallway and retail space across the way). She has decorated the windows with decals of steaming coffee, put appealing café tables and chairs throughout and hung local artists’ works on the walls, including the psychedelic and highly-detailed paintings and water colors of Steve Barber.
Whenever possible, Sandi opts to work with her local colleagues: to supply her coffee, vegetables and pastries; to design her website, logo and mascot (the coffee cat-bot designed by her friend Robert Green); to paint her murals (including the not-yet-finished, marvelously multicolored wall now being painted by Chase Hunt on the east side of the Cuppa Joe Drive Thru with the words “Local First”).
The past few months have brought new challenges beyond the difficulties of a tough growing season for our farmers and paying staff wages sufficient to cover the rising costs of living in Traverse City. Over and beyond the other local, independently owned new coffee shops that have popped up in different neighborhoods (which Sandi welcomes, pointing out the different feel and personality of her new colleagues), there is now the town’s first stand-alone Starbucks directly across the street from her little shop on Garfield, built complete with a drive-through. It is right out of the Nora Ephron movie You’ve Got Mail from 1998, only in this case the product in question is not books, but coffee to go.
“When I think about Starbucks and the impact they have on us … well, we’re still gauging that. They have bajillions of dollars, they have people who research the look and feel and who pull that together,” says Sandi, matter-of-factly.
Sandi is a thoughtful and passionate advocate of the local and small. And, as a local businesswoman and devoted resident of Traverse City since early 1998, she considers the direction of the growth and expansion of this little piece of Michigan.
“We’re getting press for the Dunes, for livability, for the local growth, as a food-focused town. Traverse City is solidifying its localness—restaurants, farmers, cheese- makers, wineries, breweries, roasters … We’re growing and changing—what is the next step? I hope we can continue to grow and embrace all the wonderful things we have that are organic to us, let that be part of our future. But large conglomerates will begin to target us. We’re on the map now.”
In the meantime, Sandi intends to stay true to her values, and true to her extended family of former, current and future employees, some of whom have been with her since the beginning, some of whom have gone on to own and manage coffee shops of their own, one who is currently the mayor of Traverse City. She loves running her businesses, working with local colleagues and contributing to her neighborhoods. The challenges will keep on coming, changing with the years. She has grown up with the region, watched it evolve and participated in her own way in guiding it forward. And she plans to continue offering great coffee, teas, locally sourced ingredients, breakfast and lunch options and more to her discerning and appreciative customers.
Looking toward the future with optimism and 20 years of business experience, Sandi tells me as I ready to depart, “There will always be opportunities. And the one thing I know is who we are.”
IF YOU GO:
Cuppa Joe Drive Thru
(with several seats inside)
1060 E. Front St., Traverse City
231-947-4590
Cuppa Joe Café
1200 W. Eleventh St., Traverse City
231-947-7730
