Downtown business joins forces with java shop
What started by chance thanks to the Internet has turned into a shared storefront business in downtown Tonganoxie.
The Coffee Depot, which sells various coffees, hot chocolate and pastries, recently opened in the Vintage Soap and Bath building.
Running the coffee side of the business are Jamie Carlisle and David Howe II. David’s mother, Lana Howe, has operated the soap and candle store nearly eight years.
Carlisle said he started selling coffee in October. A longtime coffee lover, Carlisle went online to find Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, which he had heard was “the best coffee in the world.”
“I went on eBay,” Carlisle said. “Sometimes on eBay you can get great things, and sometimes you can get suckered into things thinking you are getting great things.”
Carlisle paid less than the going rate for the coffee via eBay, but didn’t read the fine print in the advertisement that the beans were nonroasted.
Needing roasted coffee beans, Carlisle contacted the seller and for a price, the seller would roast the beans.
