Silk City Coffee is a small local coffee shop, co-founded just two years ago by Rob and Sarah May. Married just a couple of years after graduation, the high school sweethearts had dreams of opening up a coffee shop someday, more as something they could do when they retired, but God had other plans. Rob had a passion for all things coffee, and Sarah loved to bake; this was the perfect recipe for a coffee shop, but starting from the bottom in their mid-twenties seemed far-fetched. The right connections were all that they needed, as it turns out. Their friends and mentors, Glenn and Tammy Gerhard, were willing to partner with them, and, through hours of prayer, the rest is history!
Silk City Coffee is a place where the residents of Manchester, CT can go to connect, enjoy coffee and fresh-baked goods, and even listen to live music. This coffee shop hit the ground running and is thriving after two years of business. On main street, Silk City Coffee is in a great central location on the town’s main street, where small businesses have been giving the town new life in recent years.
On the back wall of the shop is a bulletin board under a sign that says, “Love Coffee, Love People.” This is truly the mission of Silk City Coffee. The bulletin board is divided into two halves, one for needs that people may have, and one to display needs that have been met. Anyone who enters the coffee shop may write on a card a need they might have, from advertising a piano for sale to asking for prayers for a job interview. Those who write down their needs are encouraged to read the other cards on the board and attempt to meet one of the needs there. Cards with needs that have been met are then transferred to the right side of the board, and from there into a scrapbook when the board gets too full. This just goes to show how invested Rob and Sarah are in helping their community.
The bakers and baristas are always experimenting with new ideas for baked goods and seasonal drinks. I know this personally because I was privileged to work there all last year as a baker. It was truly an ideal job.
This is wonderful. Something that is not taking a whole new concept and trying to make it something, but rather taking this movement of coffee shops and combining it with two passions and creating community throughout. I love there idea of loving coffee and loving people and putting that to practice. Rather than it just sounding good they have utilized the slogan through the use of the bulletin board.
Thanks for sharing this!
To be able to create a company that not only serves a quality product , but also ties in a cool push to share coffee and share love with other as well. They successfully created a community in their coffee shop by having their customers help each other.
Their story just shows that if your passionate about something pursue it because who knows where it will take you. It’s cool to see how they started from compete scratch and got to where they are today. I also really like the idea of the “love people, Love coffee” post board. Although its small its something that can bring a community together.
At first it just sounds like a regular coffee shop. But as you go into it I was amazed with what their name really stands for. That’s so cool that the place tries to build a community with everyone helping each other and connecting.