small town, especially in this economy. “You can’t just do a coffee shop,” she says. Coffeehouses are getting more popular,
even in tiny Midwestern towns like hers, but they have a way to go before they’re popular enough to survive just serving coffee, says Gowing, who worked in coffeehouses on the west coast before moving to Iowa . “I can definitely see it’s grown, but I don’t
know whether it will catch on here as it did on the coasts,” she says of the potential for coffeehouses in her locale.
WEST COAST
NORTHEAST
Capitol Grounds Montpellier, Vermont
Having a coffeehouse right up the street from the state’s capital helped Capitol Grounds weather the economic storm. “I think it’s going to be a good year,” says manager Megan Damewood.
Viento y Agua
Coffee House Long Beach, California A steady stream of regulars kept one California coffeehouse afloat during the recession. “I think we have a good amount of steady,
regular people, and it’s the kind of thing where everyone loves coffee. Everybody has their daily habit,” Troy Evans of Viento y Agua Coffee House in Long Beach says. The business has been steady for the last
three years, possibly because of the nearby university, he says. The coffeehouse sits in an unspectacular strip mall next door to a barbershop and across the street from an elementary school a few miles away from California State University, Long Beach. The area is bland, but the coffeehouse
is anything but. With its plentiful couches, 17 tables (no outdoor seating) and hip, paintings-hung-on-red-brick-walls feel, it’s a favorite place for late-night study sessions. It’s also a hub for the local arts community. The shop holds frequent concerts, movie nights and art shows, and even has a stage equipped with an upright piano. The place also serves plenty of fair trade
and organic options, which the young, hip crowd likes. When the economy went bad, mobs of people—many recently laid off—poured into the university. So, despite the recession, Viento y Agua did well, thanks to its steady stream of regulars and a growing student body, Evans says.
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