This week we are at Storied Coffee speaking with co-owner Christine Sarnacki! You may already know Christine and her husband Rich founded Storied Coffee in 2018, but their story was no instant success. Much like a great cup of coffee, Storied took time to brew from the idea to execution. Christine joins us to share about their entrepreneurship journey and what makes Storied Coffee a necessity for your morning cup, no matter what you drink.
Q: Tell me about young Christine- what did you want to be when you grew up?
I’m from Ulster County, my family moved around the Kingston/New Paltz area. Young Christine thought she wanted to be a lawyer- she was very good at arguing and bringing people to my side but I chose in high school to pursue education as a career. I loved so many things and teaching people and knew that was a route I would be successful in and knew I would enjoy.
Q: Today, we’re in your coffee shop, Storied Coffee. Talk to me about how this came to be?
Rich [Christine’s husband] was looking at a career change a couple of years ago. We had talked about “someday” we would open a business together. Maybe a bookstore, maybe a coffee shop, someday. We started asking ourselves why isn’t someday now? What can we do now to open a business? We were fairly naive, I think, about the cost and intensity of opening a business.
My parents are business owners so I had that in my background and Rich had a sense he would be happiest working for himself. My mom and step dad are gunsmiths in Kingston, so a very different business but a similar concept of owning and running your own business. For us to move forward, it meant looking at spaces and seeing how much capital we could get, purchasing equipment, things like that.
Q: Can you walk me through the moment when you decided to open the coffee shop?
We had a couple other business ideas, but ultimately the ideas I was most passionate about were set aside for now because I continued in my full time job. Rich is most passionate about coffee. We’ve always been into coffee shops, so we wanted to focus on something that Rich was passionate about because he was going to be managing and running it full time. With a lot of thought and prayer we came to the decision, Yes this is the right decision for us. We jumped in with both feet, we started the LLC and followed the path from there.
Q: What was the process from doing your pop-ups and kickstarter to get the shop going?
We had a sense that we would not be successful unless we had community support and a community buy in. We did pop-ups strategically, close by in the neighborhood, getting our name out there, taking any opportunities that came up. We continued to do the pop-ups but not as frequent during renovations.
The Kickstarter made sense because we pursued a lot of different funding options and opportunities, while we did have some of our own loans and investors but we thought the Kickstarter would work because the people in the community wanted this. We felt like the response did prove that people wanted us here in Scotia.
Q: What does Storied Coffee mean?
There is a lot of levels to that. We saw it as a third space, where its not home and its not work that was missing in the community. Scotia hadn’t had a coffee shop in about 5 years before we opened. It’s [Scotia] is not lacking in business but is lacking in places to just hang out rather than get a full meal or get a drink, its a place for people to just sit and be without anything else.
One of our tag lines is “Every cup tells a story” so for us it means people really connect over a drink, “You have coffee and I have a latte and we’re connecting” We think that’s true with any drink you have, people are connecting, sharing their stories, their struggles and things like that. We value that and wanted to give people the opportunity to do that.
Q:Rich says Christine is the backbone of the shop and encouraged me to talk to you for this podcast. You’re working full time as a special education teacher, and after working with kids all day you’re at the shop until late at night. How and why?
“How” is being a special education teacher and a coffee shop owner are two really different things. So that helps me separate them. If you are interested in having more than one career, its helpful to have them be completely different from each other so you can switch gears. You can turn off one and move to another mode, wear a different hat. This way I can do those 12-14 hour days without feeling burnt out.
Q: How has being a teacher helped you as an entrepreneur?
I think everyone would agree that teachers work really hard and have to be high energy. I consider myself a hard worker and someone that naturally has energy. Fun fact- I don’t drink coffee in the morning. I think that type A personality has really helped me.
I’m a people person, I love relating to my students and also to my customers. I have 6 teaching assistants in my classroom so I’m managing several adults as well as students. Being an effective leader for adults in my classroom setting has helped be an effective leader for our staff here at Storied Coffee. We currently have 4 employees.
Q: What makes Storied Coffee different from other boutique coffee shops?
One of the first differences we hope people notice is we care about our customers and our community. We engage with customers and get to know them, at whatever level the customer wants to interact on. We remember names, what they like to order, just showing that we care. We want to create that environment in which people feel welcome and know they are cared about. The community we also care about, we contribute to local fundraisers, we’re a place to host events, we want to be a positive spot and influence on the community and businesses here in Scotia.
One of our focuses is to provide a high quality of coffee over quantity. We strive to have the best quality coffee, tea, milk. Our focus is to create a high quality drink for our customer. The point isn’t just to serve a really great product but to also connect with our customers.
My sister came to visit from Rochester and wanted to go to Storied Coffee but you are closed on Sunday…
We decided early on to be closed on Sundays. We personally are part of a church community and we knew that we would not be working on Sunday. The question was would we have staff that wanted to work on Sunday and we could be open 7 days but we decided its most important to us that everyone gets a break, regardless of what they do on Sunday. It was important to us that everyone get the day to rest. Being that Rich works all the time and with me working 2 jobs, it was peace of mind there would be a day to not be at the shop- as much as we could manage to be.
Q: Talk to me about the curator corner and how you partner with other businesses.
One of our big values is collaboration. One of the major ways we so this is by using local suppliers. Tea, coffee, milk, food is all local. We found that working with local businesses could extend beyond our menu.
At first we thought we could just sell things from people who are local makers. The corner was Rich’s idea but I manage and seek people out. A local business for one month can show off their product, no matter what it is. We’ve had a lot of different things like clothing, candles, soaps, we’re open to anything that can fit in the space and have loved what people come up with. We love partnering with local makers to showcase and put them in the spotlight. It gives our customers the chance to support a local business they may not have known about already.
We’ve seen local businesses make new connections from being part of the corner. What started as lets use local suppliers has turned into a much bigger thing where I’ve had to schedule people correctly, host receptions and events.
Open mic is starting weekly on Wednesday nights in December and its going to be originals only. One of the main reasons for that is to be unique, and not let a popular song everyone knows drown out an original work. This is another way to collaborate with the community. We want to focus on unique works and help promote it.
Q: What made you open Storied Coffee in Scotia?
We looked around and checked out a couple of other towns. We asked ourselves where there less or no coffee shops to compete with. Rich was from Scotia and said the only way we will open a coffee shop in Scotia is if we can be on the intersection of Route 50 and Mohawk Ave. A building came available and the landlords were very supportive of a coffee shop.
Previously this building was a jewelry store, a home health office and a bakery. We took out walls, new bathroom, restored hardwood floors and brought the space back to what it was meant for- something to do with food and community. It took a lot of vision on our part to imagine the space, it was a labor of love to create this space.
Q: What is your favorite/least favorite part of owning a coffee shop?
My favorite part is seeing what it has become for the community. When i hear how much the customers love this space. It’s really rewarding and on the hard days a reminder of why we’re doing it. The least favorite is I’m not naturally very organized which is not great for a teacher or a business owner. I’ve had to force myself to keep better notes, make a better calendar.
Rich and I use a shared Google calendar, and have shared aspects of it with our staff for scheduling and days they can’t work so there are no surprises. I also use Google Keep which is a place where you can make notes, draw notes and make checklists and when you cross something off the list it goes to the bottom and its really satisfying! It also sets reminders to help me remember to place an order or to make a call. I have it set up to help me remember what I need to do.
Q: Can you talk about your menu? You have a ton of gluten free and vegan options.
We’ve been working on expanding our menu and one of our favorite partners is Alexanders Bakery. They don’t have a storefront but are selling in places around the capital region. There are top 8 allergen free, so they are dairy free, gluten free, soy free, but free except coconut, vegan and more. Their stuff is so delicious- we have brownies, muffins and cookies al individually wrapped. They’re made in a separate kitchen so there is no chance of cross contamination.
We also have some more traditional baked goods from Puzzles, some from A Natural Way Bakery and we also carry several non-dairy options so can order drink as non-dairy with almond milk, oat milk or cashew milk. Those are all from Elmhurst which is a NY based non-dairy provider.
Sandwiches are also all available in a lettuce wrap if someone doesn’t want bread or a bagel. If you have a food allergy, we will help you order something delicious that will make you feel good too.
Q: As we approach the holiday season, what do we have to look forward to at Storied?
We are going to have some great people in the Curated Corner where you can buy gifts locally. We have travel mugs, coffee, gift cards, we are working on having tshirts in the future. Rich and I are working on another blend. We are planning some extra events, gift making events. Facebook is usually the best place to share events.
Q: What’s next for Storied Coffee?
Rich and I have from the beginning talked about our 5 and 10 year plan. We’d like to see Storied be a business that’s around for a long time and we’d love to have more than one location, we just don’t know when that will be right. We love the bubble tea side of our business and in the spring and summer you will see us start to do more. A lot of fun and growth.
Q: What do you typically do for lunch?
I’m a leftovers kind of person. I make a big meal for dinner and take the leftovers during the week for lunch. That’s often chicken and veggies or pasta. Today was Brussels sprouts, hummus and tortilla chips.
Q: How can people find you on the web?
