Happy Small Business Saturday! I might be biased, but I really appreciate this day every year. It solidifies something we have always believed at Tala, and yet often forget: there is something we can offer as a small business that a giant company cannot. We absolutely love that we get to know our customer’s names, that we can offer a place of genuine connection and also a high-quality product that isn’t watered down by big business agendas. So thanks for celebrating small business with us—we’re in great company.

Our story

We get the question all the time: how did you start Tala? Well, here’s the story.

The dream of Tala started stirring in big and little ways in each of our minds, but we had no idea it would turn out how it did. It all began one day when Ryan—who was successfully running two pizza franchises—asked Keith if he ever thought about opening a shop together. Ryan, looking to get out of pizza and pursue something he was more passionate about, knew that Keith would be the perfect fit for partnering. Keith responded with an overwhelming, “that’s literally exactly what I want to do.”

Once the ball got rolling, Ryan and Keith invited Stefan and me in on the process. We never really thought about opening our own shop, but we really enjoyed working in the coffee industry and we knew we had so much more to offer than we could accomplish where we were. As newlyweds, we debated the wisdom of quitting our jobs and jumping into the unknown, but ultimately we all came together to make the vision for what Tala is today.

In March 2017, we all quit our jobs to work on Tala full-time. We started in a cold warehouse with no furniture. Our first few meetings we sat on toolboxes and random pieces of furniture from Ryan’s garage in a circle, dreaming up what would one day become what you all know as Tala Coffee Roasters. Our humble beginnings had us waking up at 4am to serve coffee at farmers markets, and long hours perfecting our brand to propel us into the hard world of online sales. Almost immediately, though, we found the perfect spot to open our first cafe, and we had plans underway.

Ultimately, the four of us made the absolute perfect team to bring Tala together. Starting and running a small business is never easy, but with this team it’s always good. There’s no team I’d rather stay up until 2am with installing bar top tables with, and no other three people I’d rather blast Chance the Rapper with while painting our logo on the wall, or cupping our first coffees. I could say a thousand things about each of my partners, but I think we can all agree that Tala was born out of a beautiful place of vision, dreams, determination and a really great team.

Our values

Our values have shaped us from the beginning. Our vision widely came from what we felt like was missing in the coffee community—especially in the suburbs. We wanted to offer something that was high quality and approachable, and that highlighted everything we believe that coffee is.

APPROACHABILITY

Our hope is for everyone to feel welcome in our door and by our coffee. We want to do the leg-work for our customers from crop to preparation so that they can just be wooed by excellent coffee. Our hope is to translate the entire process of coffee into something that makes sense to any and every consumer, whatever their experience or knowledge.

QUALITY

We want to make a product we are proud of. We hope to uphold the innate taste and beauty of coffee at harvest through each step of interaction we have with it. Ultimately we want to have the best product and experience a consumer can enjoy and appreciate.

CONNECTION

We are in the business of people more than the business of coffee. Coffee’s single best quality is its ability to bring people together. We want to facilitate this connection every step of the way. We want to connect the community around us, and we want to connect our consumer to our product and its meaning (the farmers and growers, etc.). We want a level of transparency in our product and in our company that just brings people in—from employees to customers to interested parties all around the region. We want to invest in people, and we think the way to do it is with coffee.

INTENTION

We believe there is an importance in being intentional. Our hope is that every decision and aspect of our company is marked by intentional design. We want to value slowing down to make the right decision in the long term. We hope our customers feel that in our interactions and our product. Decisions are made deliberately and implemented with order to the benefit of our management, employees and customers.

Our coffee is the harmony between quality and accessibility. We believe in the connective power in the simple and the extravagant.

Ultimately its our customers that make us who we are. Without the support of so many of you, we would be dead in the water. We are so grateful for the community we’ve had the privilege to serve, and we hope to serve for many years into the future. Thank you for supporting small business.