Specialty Coffee Retailer is a publication for owners, managers and employees of retail outlets that sell specialty coffee. Its scope includes best sales practices, supplies, business trends and anything else to assist the small coffee retailer.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/103518
URBAN STAMPEDE Grand Forks, N.D. BY DIANNE MOLVIG G rand Forks, N.D. is a long way from Lower Manhattan Register of Historic Places. It's one of the oldest surviving and the Jersey Shore, in more ways than one. But Kelly buildings downtown, with its original dark woodwork, stained Thompson, co-owner of the Urban Stampede coffeehouse in glass windows and tin ceiling still intact. An old wooden bar, downtown Grand Forks, knows exactly what many East Coast which needed post-flood restoration work, stretches along one residents went through during and after Superstorm Sandy wall, inviting customers to pull up a stool. Or they can grab a last fall. spot in one of booths along the opposite wall or sit at a table. He'll never forget the day he walked into his business after Besides a selection of coffee and tea drinks, customers it had been under three feet of water during the 1997 Red can enjoy pastries delivered fresh each morning from River flood. The river hit nearly double its flood stage, forcing Dakota Harvest, an artisan bakery and café just down the the two-week evacuation of most of the city, then-population street. Thompson says now and then he and Eider have tried 50,000. To make matters worse, a massive fire destroyed an preparing and selling other food items, such as panini and entire downtown city block. Thompson's coffeehouse didn't soups, but they always return to focusing on their mainstays: burn, but he had to close his business for three months to coffee and tea. repair flood damage. To enhance its draw as a community center, Urban Stampede "A lot of our customers were helping us to reopen," hosts occasional live music, and it boasts the "World's Smallest Art Thompson says. "They were pitching in to clean up and dig out Gallery," a closet-sized space exhibiting regional artists' work. the mud. We had to throw out everything the water touched." The name of the coffeehouse reflects Thompson's mission Urban Stampede was the first downtown business to reopen. when he launched the business 20 years ago. A native of Grand Did he think about just closing for good? "For sure," he Forks, he'd left after college for the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro says. "But we were saddled with debt that wasn't going to go area. With a background in graphic design, he returned to away. We thought salvaging the business so we could service his hometown to start a screen-printing company with Eider, the debt was the better option. We scrambled and grabbed called Ink Inc., which is still in business and located next door talent where we could so we could reopen and get a cash flow to Urban Stampede. going again." At the time, the gourmet coffeehouse wave had begun to Thompson and business partner Patti Eider made the right emerge in the Midwest. Thompson figured Grand Forks could decision. Today Urban Stampede is a popular destination for use an establishment like those he'd visited in urban areas. downtown workers, students at a high school two blocks away, He added "stampede" to the name to connote motion and young professionals living in new condos built after the flood, excitement. "And it tied into our rural-ness as well," he says. and University of North Dakota students who are drawn to "Now some of our customers just call us 'Urban' for short, and renovated downtown apartments. "We some call us 'Stampede.'" SCR have become a landmark for Grand Forks," Thomspon says. "We're a meeting place and OWNERS: Urban Stampede Kelly Thompson, Patti Eider somewhere former UND students come back 324 Kittson St. to" when they return to town. EQUIPMENT: Grand Forks, N.D. The building that houses Urban Stampede Cimbali M28 espresso machine Mon.–Sun.: 7:30 a.m. – 10 p.m. dates back to 1886 and is listed on the National Bunn brew system 34