Cool Beans Bagels. (Derek Sidian, KBRF News)
Fergus Falls, MN – Cool Beans Bagels in downtown Fergus Falls held a ribbon cutting Monday morning celebrating its grand opening.
Missy and Mike Butler opened Cool Beans in the old Higher Grounds coffee shop after the previous owner retired in June.
Missy says that when she and her husband were approached with the idea of taking over for Higher Grounds, they weren’t very interested due to the amount of coffee shops in town. But after looking at the demographics, she says they didn’t see many places around for nearby workers to eat lunch, and they started thinking of different ways to meet that need.
The thing that Missy and Mike weren’t expecting to catch on was the bagels. The owner of Higher Grounds had sold some of the same bagels, but Missy says, “Once we started selling them, people would say, ‘We’re so thankful that there’s a bagel shop in town,’ and we’re like, oh yeah, I guess we are a bagel shop.”
The front counter of Cool Beans. (Derek Sidian, KBRF News)
Missy says she’s most proud that Cool Beans has become a place to come and hang out, “It has that feel where people really feel welcome and really feel comfortable, and somebody had mentioned to me just the other day how they like to make memories here. And I never really thought about it that deep, but then when I sat back and kind of watched the different groups of people having conversations at each table, I guess it kind of hit me.”
Missy added that she’s also proud to take something that you’d more often find in a bigger city and bring it to a small town, while still giving it a “hometown feel.” She says, “We’ve had people from New York come in and say, ‘It’s been so long since we’ve been able to have a bagel at a bagel shop.”
With the state of the economy in mind, Missy says one of the biggest challenges of starting and running a small business has been keeping food prices down and affordable. She adds, “The thing about business is there’s always something. There’s never really a perfect time to start. I think you just get started and you just start adapting to whatever you have to at the time and get through it, and then just hope for the best. That’s kind of the name of the game.”
Cool Beans is celebrating its grand opening all week long, with every order earning an entry for a daily giveaway.
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