Today is Small Business Saturday! As a small business we—of course—appreciate this local-friendly addition to the Black Friday / Cyber Monday ordeal. But the truth is, we feel the love all year round.

Running a small business is always a wild ride, but running a small business through a pandemic has been a new kind of wild. What’s more: our cafe has officially been open longer during the pandemic than not. What felt like an emergency interruption has become our new reality. But that’s not unique to us, that’s everyone’s story as of late.

Every person, every family, every business and every community has had a unique experience of this pandemic, and widely it has been terrible, of course. The loss, sickness, loneliness and everything else that has come out of the past two years is incalculable. The loss is so profound, in fact, that we usually keep the more positive aspects of our experience quiet to avoid insensitivity. But seeing as this is Small Business Saturday and Thanksgiving weekend, we will take this opportunity to say thank you to our community, because we’ve actually experienced so much growth and support during this season.

Someone asked me recently why I thought we’ve done so well through this pandemic. There are a handful of reasons, I suppose, but I want to honor this day by highlighting three main things.

FIRSTLY, YOUR OUT-OF-THE-WAY SUPPORT

When the pandemic hit, we immediately received overwhelming support from people. It wasn’t just consumers panic-buying coffee like toilet paper (okay maybe a little bit of that). It was people going out of their way to support small businesses they wanted to see survive the pandemic. We felt the brute force of that support from the first announcement of indoor dining closing and through every up and down since then.

This kind of out-of-the-way support is such an amazing aspect of our community. The fact that so many of you would think about us when it comes to how to spend your money during a time like this is truly so amazing. The fact that so much generosity is generated in your hearts by the motivation to keep us open through it all. It’s so incredible to be surrounded by people who care what happens to us as a company and as people. This community has rallied around us in a way that we cannot repay.

SECONDLY, YOUR CONTINUED CONNECTION

When we first launched this company we all felt so strongly that we wanted our coffee to create connections—to really foster community in and around our business. This is one of the things coffee does so uniquely, so beautifully, and it is largely the reason most of us have stayed in coffee so long. When the pandemic hit, it seemed like a huge interruption to this end. We weren’t the place you could go and see a smiling face anymore (hello masks!), and we weren’t the place you could hang out for hours with friends, or even the place you could chat with your barista while drinking espresso at the bar. It seemed like our connection was going to be lost.

But somehow it wasn’t. Instead of high-fives we were waving, instead of for here it was to-go, instead of smiling with our mouth we were all smiling with our eyes. But it didn’t seem to matter. You all still showed up. Many of our regulars became more regular, and many strangers became regulars. It’s impossible to understand exactly how or why that happened. Some of you have told us that Tala was your only outing every day during the long hours at home during lockdown. Others have said it was the only place they felt safe getting coffee. Still others have said that it was the one thing that still felt kind of normal while so many things were different. Some of you just wanted good coffee and we happened to stay open. Whatever the case, we can truly look back on this whole experience with overwhelming gratitude that our connection wasn’t lost.

Thirdly, our team

Our small business is what it is because of our team. We are so proud of our staff who tirelessly works to serve quality coffee day in and day out, while also genuinely loving the impact they have on the people they serve. Many of you, as customers, come in each day to see these smiling faces. We are so grateful for each of them, and we couldn’t be where we are without them.

Thank you!

We are proud to have been able to offer more than just coffee to our community in a year like this one, and we want you to know that your connection and support through this time is what has sustained us. You’ve kept our dream alive. Thank you.