Coaster Coffee

Eric 0:14
Now today we are going to be getting to listen in on a conversation that I got to have with the manager of Coaster Coffee. Coaster Coffee is a locals favorite for sure. If you live in the greater Ocean View area, you need to make sure that you swing down Tidewater Drive some time and right across from North Side Park. Stop in and check out Coaster Coffee you can get right now even as so as I’m recording this intro. We are actually in the midst of the stay at home orders from all of the Coronavirus craziness that’s going on. But when I recorded the episode that we’re about to listen to when I recorded the interview, it was pre COVID 19. And so that’s why we don’t talk about it at all in the interview. But I can let you know that coaster coffee is open. They’re open for carry out and delivery and just a great place there. And I tell you up when the stay at home orders lift. It is a wonderful place to swing in, grab a to go coffee or beverage they have all kinds of drinks there. They’ve got some amazing food and it’s just all kinds of good stuff. And head over to the Northside Park.

Eric 1:41
Something I like to do with my kids and grab myself a coffee and go over and let the kids there play in the skate park or on the playground equipment, whatever it might be. So just a great locals place and if you’re coming into ocean view to visit to vacation here, or maybe you’re already here on vacation, if you want to go hang out for a little bit where some locals hang out, it is definitely worth the couple minutes up the road from the the bay area there come up from the water, Tidewater drive and swing into Coaster Coffee. Now one of the things that I love about coaster coffee that you’re about to hear is that it’s it’s a business designed for the community. But their their whole purpose for existing is to make life better in Ocean View and not by just having great coffee and great food, but by supporting the local community. And so I let that information come to you through the conversation that I have with a Katie, the manager of coaster coffee. So with that, let’s go ahead and listen in and again, thank you for checking out episode nine. For all of our other episodes for our member directory of member businesses. Head on over to ocean view dot biz. Because after all, this Podcast is a production of the ocean view Business Association.

Eric 3:23
Okay, everyone will like I said in the intro I’m sitting here in Coaster Coffee. And I’m with a Katie I’m gonna get I’m not even gonna try. How do you say your last name?

Katie 3:32
Dininny

Eric 3:33
Dininny Katie Dininny yeah, we’re here. Hey, welcome to the podcast.

Katie 3:38
Hi thank you.

Eric 3:39
Yeah, so excited to have you on here. So first off, what is your role here at Coaster Coffee.

Katie 3:45
So I just recently became one of the managers right now we have Chris on staff as manager. He’s really teaching me the ropes. They are going to and I say they is Chris is part of another church, that sisters with OB church. And they are opening a coffee shop and we get so we’re not only partnering in the ministry of church, but also in the ministry of nonprofit coffee shop. So they are planting downtown again, just another place in Norfolk to reach people in a community. So Chris is really teaching me all the ropes and shown me you know how business works and I love the community. So that was an easy it was an easy mesh for me. But the business and he’s he’s he’s helping me help you with that. Yeah.

Eric 4:42
How long see Chris how much longer is Chris gonna be here?

Katie 4:44
He’s gonna be here a couple more months are still in construction phase of their building. They basically had a big warehouse space. And they just open that up to do construction, garage door style type thing, a blank slate and so they really Have to build from the ground up. So it’s really awesome. Much like we had here.

Eric 5:03
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, cuz I think somebody told me pre coaster. This was like Halloween costume stores.

Katie 5:11
It was a Halloween costume store. They would come back every October, September, October for probably two years in a row before that I saw a couple consignment stores.

Eric 5:23
Oh, yeah, that’s right.

Katie 5:24
And then I believe the very reason this building was built was a bread store. I don’t know which bread store but I’m not the history of ocean view always intrigues me so uh, but I think that’s, I think that’s where it landed first when the building was built, which kind of you can tell because it’s so wide in here. storefront with the windows in the front, but we did a lot of demo when we started here that our bar was not here obviously, just had a lot of in house, church congregation members that came together and really put this place together with all their specialties, their expertise of ever countertop building and plumbing and electricians.

Eric 6:10
For that because for those that don’t know, coaster is was started by and what’s what is the relationship between coaster and OB church?

Katie 6:19
So we A long time ago, few of us sitting around a family dinner table said you know we need to we need to do something outside the walls of our church, just to reach the community. Well, we don’t know what that looks like. And you know, after a few more family dinners, we came down to it and really understood that it was maybe look like this up and coming coffee scene but you’re just seeing you know, blow up around here with like bigger. Usually, you’re doing it in your suburban areas with your bigger name brands, coffee shops, the local thing really hit home for us. And because people in ob are a very homebody type based group, we might be transient with the Navy here. But when you come to OB, you really feel like you’re in a small corner of a big city. Yeah. So that’s all we wanted. So when we when we realized that it was probably a coffee shop, I kind of got put on the back burner for quite some time as we weren’t really reaching the community like we should be as a church proper. And when God laid that plan out for us, people came together. Of course, you have to have money to do something like that. But we saw a growth in our church congregation and just their generosity. One of the things I hear often from Pastor Aaron, is that we’re not a congregation of means. We’re just hardworking people that want to give over and above.

Eric 7:49
Nice, yeah,

Katie 7:50
That’s all that this has turned into.

Eric 7:52
So this is a place where you guys can meet the public, and just engage and be a part of the community. But also, proceeds from the coffee shop, are going to be put back into the community. You already do that some yet with the easter egg hunts and some other things, right.

Katie 8:13
So really, the sky’s the limit. The Easter egg hunt is huge for us. We had our first one Oh, across the street here from Coaster, Northside Park. And we handed out flyers to a few community elementary schools. And we had no idea that we would stop traffic and that the police would have to stop people from coming into the park because the number the capacity was too high for the brown. It was amazing. So they wanted us to use a different location the second year Carrollton Elementary. So we went to Carrollton. Those of you familiar with the area know that Carrollton is hard to get to from a main road? back in? Yeah, it’s back in Yeah, it’s back in there. So we were like, Oh, I don’t know about the success of at all. How is it going to work? We had more people that year, too. So the next year we did two locations and it was dropped 50,000 eggs

Eric 9:14
50,000 eggs

Katie 9:16
50,000 eggs 2 locations and equal numbers. We didn’t it didn’t spread thin it grew twice as big. So so the Easter egg hunt. We have the we partner with ob church do affordable Christmas. Yeah, it’s a storefront we’ve basically just stripped down the worship center and we make a storefront out of generous donations. Brand new toys are given. We always try to reach five toys per kid. We partner with Ocean View Elementary School to make applications be fulfilled for every child that the parents need to Christmas their children and it’s not a hand out. It’s hand up, like you we buy, we might buy a $10 toy, but it will cost that parent $1 to buy that toy. So they can leave with five kids times 5, 25 presents, and maybe spend less than $40 on Christmas. So that’s just something that we’ve felt a need to be generous in the area. Other ways we’ve October we do cancer research, we try to pick a local place that has just a community feel. Sometimes you have large cancer research, and there’s nothing wrong with those. But these local places that just come up and they, they they hire people who live and work in the community and that want to give back to these patients that maybe don’t have any family or, you know, so we’re kind of we’re searching out the best way to be local in our local community and give back to those local places. So

Eric 10:59
Well, that’s very cool. That’s very cool. And then the name coaster, you mentioned a little bit ago about the history of the area. And Oceanview does have an amazing history. That’s why our first our first podcast episode was the ocean view the station museum. And man, people need to go into that place It is so the unique history. You know, the first plane to take off from the deck of a navy ship, you know, landed here on the beach. And there’s a funny story behind that that we talked about in that and then this year marks the anniversary of the longest underwater walk. Some diver walked from Hampton across the bay to this area, and I don’t know how he did it, but yeah, yeah, yeah, he walked underwater the entire way instead of record for the longest underwater walk. So anyway, just to you know, this place has cool history but so the name coaster. Where did that come from?

Katie 12:10
So we Ocean View church, formerly formerly Ocean View Baptist church started with just a handful of people underneath the roller coaster in the tool shed the roller coaster It was called the rocket at Ocean View amusement park. So these people started this church and they quickly you know, he said under a roller coasters and but for so many bodies, so they quickly outgrew the tool shed, they moved to a new location. I know that there was a location for our church on first view at some point and then finally resting in pennwell neighborhood right off Granby Street, and then change the name to Ocean View church. And when Oceanview church decided to go outside their walls to reach the community in a business type of way, coaster coffee was born. We just we we decided to give back to that. We wouldn’t be a church if someone didn’t find the need to start something in an area where people could gather. Yeah, so we just turned it back around and

Eric 13:26
That’s cool. And your logo your logo is a coat is a picture of the roller coaster. It is. Yeah, yeah. And in the station Museum, they have one of the cars

Katie 13:35
They do. Yeah, yes. That’s really cool. You can get your picture taken with it. It’s kind of neat.

Eric 13:39
Yeah, so very cool stuff. All right. Well, that’s really cool. So we’ve got kind of the history there stuff like that. Now you live here and OSHA do what you did. You’d live up on Willoughby now close enough we’re still good friends with Willoughby? Yes. Okay. And so married got kids you know what is it for you that living in Ocean View? You know this area? What is it you got you love about it as a mom and a wife and as a business manager now?

Katie 14:09
Yeah, I love I love ocean do I didn’t realize when I moved here, when I moved here from the sticks in a small town with one red light that wasn’t always working is blinking once in a while. When I moved to ocean view, I felt a small, small community in like a big pond, you know, I I was going to be I was going to be a tiny fish in a big pond Anyway, moving to the city. But when I found when I came to ocean view, we started going to the church pretty quickly. And I just found this community inside the walls of the church. But as I’ve ventured out and then worked a couple different places in Ocean View. I realized that the people were just like the people I grew up around.

Eric 14:57
Yeah,

Katie 14:59
Just hard working. We want to make a living for their families. And as you grow with a church that has to go through aches and pains and changes, we just really saw people grow beyond what, what they could have ever imagined. And that was something that I could get on board with, because I never knew that God could do in my life, what he’s done. And it’s not about being a manager of a coffee shop, or, you know, it’s really just meeting with people at the door and saying, we get to open the door for you every day, because God deems us an outpost. So, you know, we try to we try to show that in everything we do. We just went through some renovations, we needed some TLC. We’d been open for three years. Not open on Sundays. But that’s, you know, that’s our day of rest, but going hard and doing that for three straight years, we needed some TLC. So we came together and put together our people and did some construction in here.

Eric 16:03
It did. There’s a new counter. It’s amazing. And the mural

Katie 16:07
Mural by rocky roads. Oh my goodness, amazing. And he really captured what ocean view is about. I mean, there is a ship. We’ve got our local pillars in our community right now. The pier has been here for such a long time. Fishermen people playing on the beach. There’s a coffee shack on. I don’t know what that looks like. We’re not by the beach right now. But I don’t know,

Eric 16:31
Projecting their little bit.

Katie 16:33
Yeah, I asked her on the road. I asked him if profit was in his spiritual gifting, but he doesn’t know.

Eric 16:41
That’s really cool. That’s really cool. So the coaster coffee, it’s amazing to hear it people regular listeners to the podcast know that. I’ve done lots of interviews here for the podcast. So Aaron Sherwood with own real estate, Andy Sutton with freedom Boat Club. Let’s see Matt keen, keen interior design so it’s a great place to meet up you know, hang out get a great cup of coffee, but you’ve also got you know, lunch stuff.

Katie 17:13
Yeah, we do.

Eric 17:13
What’s your menu kind of like

Katie 17:15
So we have. We have the breakfast sandwich and I call it the breakfast sandwich because the breakfast and the breakfast sandwich is our number one seller. We try to create new things amidst what we already have. Two of the main things that we have top sellers are chickens out we’ve had that from the beginning and then our turkey pesto sandwich. And then we have a ham and cheddar and then we have a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches. But we were not huge on lunch we do some lunch business. But what what we try to do is is help people you know stop in but we’re like grab your coffee and oh you can take a sandwich to go right so let’s you know we want to see you a couple times a day but…

Eric 18:03
Nice nice and you’ve also got then your coffee to go but also in bought like we did is it is it all pre ground is it beans and pre ground.

Katie 18:13
So we have we get our our coffee in from our supplier from Auburn Alabama trician Sandy Toomer, their coffee for missions. And they came here when we were first starting, and did like a consultation with us and really showed us how this could work for us. So they are just our, there’s their coffee supplier, they send it Whole bean. We can ask for ground but we like to grind it here so that you know, it just it keeps everything fresh. They send it to us weekly when we order with them but they keep up with us too for our business structure there how you doing how’s your, you know, price points or whatever, they’re really, they’ve been a really great partner in this mission. And Trish has told me that that we were one of the first people to get permission like to to see really what they were trying to do from the beginning and they always want to do roast coffee and Sandy’s steeped in in the coffee business from the beans when they get harvested from the farms to the roasting process. And so we’ve learned a lot from them. But…

Eric 19:35
Yeah, that’s cool. So and people can buy it, you know, bulk that you got your to go copies and then catering. You guys do catering we do that was a surprise to me.

Katie 19:46
We do it we mean call ahead and catch us on any day really we we have items that we do buy from the store but we also have some other items that we make one of our main main sellers are the scramblers. And it’s just a mini quiche has a tater tot bottom, and it has eggs and egg whites. And then we have a spinach and feta or bacon and cheddar. So we have a little bit more of a healthy option, and then we’ve got our cheesy bacon. I like both. So I can’t really say that I’m partial. But you know, when we, we just try to try to hit all the markets to serve. Because we know that not everybody can stop here on a morning or daily basis. Sometimes they need to take like something to work with them and share with their friends. Yeah, you know, whatever it is that they need. And so we just we have options for that on our website, we have a conference room that you can have catering in as well. Or it can just be used for meeting space. And when it’s not reserved, we have people back there kind of if they need a quiet second, or, you know, something like that, but we’ve just really tried to make every aspect of our business friendly to whatever your walk of life is.

Eric 21:02
Yeah. Great. Well, thank you very much. It was I had been wanting to do this conversation for a while. Because I am several past episodes have been like I’m hearing Coaster Coffee. And I thought it was important to get you in here on the podcast and think talk about coaster a little bit. So in the show notes, I will put a link to your website, and all of that, and people can go there and get more. And how about so are you guys on social, you’re on Instagram is really active on Instagram.

Katie 21:34
Yep, we’re on Instagram. We’re on Facebook as well. We do have quite a bit of we do have quite a bit of Instagram traffic. We try to we try to post the things that we’re doing active in the community as well. So that’s kind of why we’re used. I mean, of course, you know, when it hits your Instagram feed, you’re like, Oh, yeah, I need some coffee. That’s right. But really, we want to get the word out there to about the missions that we’re partnering with. And right now we’re doing one less or serve Norfolk. It’s a mobile barbershop trailer. Oh, and right now they are handling the needs of the homeless community. And in cold weather, you know, we got to take care of all the people.

Eric 22:16
Yep, yep. Absolutely. And that’s what I love about Coaster Coffee. It’s a it’s a business on mission. And the business I run is very much the same. You know, we’re a business on mission. We have a completely different, you know, focus. But yeah, so businesses that have permissions or, you know, exciting things to be a part of So, all right, Katie. Well, thank you very much.

Katie 22:37
Absolutely. Thank you.

Eric 22:40
And friend, thank you for listening to episode nine here of the DiscoverOV podcast. Again, for more information about coaster coffee, or for all of the businesses that make the ocean view Business Association possible through their membership, head on over to ocean view dot biz. Again, that’s ocean view dot biz, you can learn more about the association, you can learn how to join the OVBA, or one of our most powerful features is our local business directory. For our member businesses, you can check that out, as well as find the other episodes of the DiscoverOV Podcast, where you can, you know, explore and get to know more about the different businesses in Ocean View. Well with that, thanks again for listening. Thank you coaster coffee for this interview, as well as letting us record many of our podcast episodes there. And so with that, until the next podcast episode, take care. Thanks for listening