Stumpjack Coffee is officially fini in Two Rivers. The space we formerly occupied is now a very different coffee house under different ownership. For five years we brought excellent coffee, food, music and ambiance to the small town of Two Rivers. We made many, many good friends...many that will no doubt remain dear friends for a very long time. The outpouring of love, support and sadness that people have shared with us since learning of our closing is almost overwhelming. Thank you all, so very, very much.
We met so many wonderful, positive people and enjoyed so many fantstic experiences there. When we started many people told us that Two Rivers would be a tough nut to crack,that it is an insular, provinicial town. Those cautionary tales turned out to be only somewhat true, with a select few relentlessly vocal detractors doing their best to make life difficult for a few businesses.
(One or two of those short-sighted types are also members of the Two Rivers City Council, which speaks volumes for the direction that Two Rivers may unfortunately be headed in the coming years. When council members, who are supposed to have the city's best interests in mind when they assume office, instead use their positions to discourage businesses and carry out personal vendettas, then what results is dysfunction, stagnation and petty personalities taking precidence over a city's growth and opportunities. We hope that the larger population steps up to address and discourage that kind of counterproductive attitude.)
But that's a somewhat tangential gripe about things swirling around the city in general. By and large, Two Rivers is home to many wonderful, progressively-minded and welcoming people. There are small businesses there that are interesting (Bark, Bath & Beyond comes immediately to mind) and long-standing (the wonderful Kurtz's Pub & Deli and Schroeder's Dept. Store, for example). We've certainly had a fiercely loyal and very vocal group of supporters and friends, many from the area and even more from outside the area.
But the up & down, seasonal nature of the business in TR is not something we had anticipated, and in spite of achieving a consistent monthly increase in sales and traffic every single month since we re-opened late last winter (2010) we came to feel that the size of the community itself would, at some point, create a ceiling over how far we could grow. And we want to grow, grow and expand beyond what we believe we is practical in this particular location.
So, we decided that we needed to "make a decision." And our decision was to move forward, into a more populated area, one where we might better mesh with a larger, more diverse population that will enable us to do more things and reach more people.
We have a lot of work yet to do while pursuing that plan: debts to clear up from the closing of this location, groundwork in preparing for the next location, family considerations, etc. It will be a little while before we announce the next grand opening. We want to take along the hundreds of people who have been with us for so long. But since we can't do that we will of course put out special invitations to all of our friends that helped make Stumpjack the unique and successful adventure that it was.
The blogsite and other things will continue as we work toward that goal (there's always something to talk about!). Let's stay connected.