It was all Grandma's fault. Her far-fetched idea, her taste for good coffee, her suggestion that it would work in Salt Lake City.
It was the early 1990s, and Rick Olson was in a funk. Disillusioned with his job in Washington, D.C., wanting something more, or at least something different. And that's when his grandmother's wacky genius grabbed hold of his life.
"Look at the way all of these coffee places are springing up in Seattle. They need these shops in Salt Lake," Olson recalled his grandmother saying. "Everyone needs a good cup of coffee in the morning."
That conversation rattled around Olson's head, and he pitched it to John Hoskins and Greg Bergmann, buddies from their college days at the University of Washington. The three, in the prime of their lives and ready for a professional change of pace, decided to give it a try. They packed their bags and moved to Utah, and in 1994, the first Caffe Expresso was born.
Nearly a decade later, Caffe Expresso this week will celebrate the launch of its fourth Salt Lake location, 2100 S. 600 East.
The concept was so bizarre it seemed revolutionary: Sell coffee (in Utah!). Build your shops on land no one wants — partner with the land-owner to clean up and rebuild polluted, abandoned sites like gas stations and dry cleaners. Share profits with employees, including ownership opportunities.
The concept was so nutty, banks wouldn't loan Olson or his partners any money. So they maxed out their credit cards to the tune of $200,000 and funded the shop themselves.
The city and landowners were happy facilitators. The first shop, 902 S. 1100 East, was originally a Sinclair Oil gas station. Sinclair stepped in and helped with the demolition and cleanup and agreed to lease the land to Caffe Expresso long-term. All of the Caffe Expresso sites — on Highland Drive, Redwood Road and the newest on 2100 South — once were either Sinclair stations or Red Hanger Cleaners.
"We go to these companies and propose to them that we would like to develop a new location," Olson said. "They look at their inventory of possibilities. Then they work with us to implement our development strategy."
And the city applauded.
"Anytime a business can clean up a site like that, it's a service to the community," said Vicki Bennett, senior environmental advisor for Salt Lake City. "We obviously wanted to support and help them through any process they had to go through."
The idea was so far-out, it worked.
"It cleans up the lots, it employs high school and college kids," Olson said. "It takes these dilapidated, polluted sites and turns them into profitable, viable coffee operations."
Instead of clawing out a meager existence within Utah's bleak landscape of java-abstinent communities, Caffe Expresso's business started well and has only improved, Bergmann said.
"The great thing about our business is that it's been a profitable business since day one," Bergmann said. "It's not often you can open a retail type of business and not have negative cash flow. But we've had great support. Our sales have grown 25 to 50 percent a year for the first three years, and then steadily in smaller percentages after that."
Caffe Expresso's owners are loathe to franchise — "You lose the quality of both the product and the service," Olson said — and fight to create a turnover-free work environment. They just made one manager a part-owner in the business and hope to broaden that practice as the company grows.
However, Olson said, "I do not want to expand out of Salt Lake. Salt Lake City has been extremely good to us. What we created here could not have been duplicated in very many cities in the U.S."
Salt Lake City — a good place for small-business success? Absolutely, Olson said.
"The infrastructure here has allowed a small, entrepreneurial idea to take off," he said. "You have employees you can trust. You have companies like Sinclair that make great partners. You have suppliers you can count on and a city that wants to work with you. You do not have a force in this city that is a roadblock to your ideas. People (outside the state) laugh, but I tell them if you give Salt Lake a chance, you'll stay."
For Olson, building Caffe Expresso in Salt Lake was a kind of homecoming — thanks again to Grandma.
"She grew up in Logan, and her family hid their coffee percolator underneath the kitchen sink, as did all of their neighbors," Olson said with a wink. "You have to understand, these people all came to Utah from Norway and Sweden. They had to be discreet about their consumption of coffee."
His enthusiasm for business and the community packs a refreshing punch, like a good cup o' joe. He leaves in a whirl of waves, bits of sentences still in the air.
"It goes without saying that Grandma gets a discount on her Caffe Expresso lattes," he said. "The percolator's name was Peter. And we're looking for a site for our fifth location."
E-MAIL: jnii@desnews.com