We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Terry And Julie Casey. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Terry and Julie below.
Terry and Julie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers
Our business was hit by a tornado in July 2022. Our entire town was taken by surprise as it ripped through on a Wednesday afternoon. Luckily our building was intact, however we had structural damage, and it was obvious we wouldn’t be reopening anytime soon. The building next to us was half leveled, the bank on the other side of us sustained damage as well along with our fire department, schools and a lot of houses. Terry, my husband, worked quickly to get back to our building after just having left when his shift ended and instantly started unloading the refrigerators and freezer and was passing out iced coffee, paleo donuts, anything we had, to the emergency crews that rolled in across the street from Goshen Grind to start with recovery efforts.
Fast forward to Thursday, we had a church contact us to ask if they could set up a grill and a supply tent in our parking lot. Of course, we said YES! The Red Cross was stationed at our schools, but not everyone could easily get through to them. With us being right off the main road, and having a drive around building, it was easy for people to get in and out of our parking lot to grab much needed items for their homes. Within a few days we had multiple churches and organizations signed up to serve breakfast and dinner (drive through style) and hand out the thousands of supplies that had been donated to our parking lot efforts. Our employees came to help, some were there every single day, and Terry was there from sun up to sun down, grilling, organizing, and making Dad jokes to put some people at ease even if for just a moment. For almost 2 weeks this continued in our parking lot. Local restaurants donated food. We gave out whole pizzas, and Chick Fil A night almost got us shut down (the traffic to get to us for free chicken sandwiches essentially shut down the main road, a state road at that! The police came and helped with traffic, and after the chaos we all had a chuckle!) We were even approached by a couple that lived up North, who came down in their camper, brought their pizza oven, baked 50 homemade pizzas (crust and all!) to give out to people for lunch. These were no ordinary people…..this was the man who received my Dad’s lungs in June 2013 and his wife. The sweetest couple who give back all the time, and are grateful for more time together. The fact that they called and drove all the way down here, after making homemade dough for 50 pizzas, and baking cookies for our staff and family….well, the story just can’t get any better!
Daily, we would see people and their stories, and each day, while hard, was so very rewarding. Our little broken building was a hub before that tornado and still is today. We were so grateful to have been able to help so many. And that is a time we will never forget. We were shut down for 6 weeks….nothing compared to some of the businesses and houses that still aren’t back up and habitable. We do not take things for granted, as we can see, things can turn in seconds.
Terry and Julie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
We are Terry and Julie Casey, owners of Goshen Grind. We are a coffee shop in Goshen, OH and opened in May 2016. Terry was a Chef by trade, Julie was (and still is) an accountant, working full time outside of the coffee shop. Terry always wanted to have his own restaurant but the failure rate of those was so high, decided it may not be right for our family. Terry’s family however had a different idea! His folks decided to give us his inheritance while they were still living, so they could help us fulfill a wish. We had always LOVED coffee shops, and with him being from Oregon, where coffee is abundant and practically on every corner, we decided our town could use its own coffee shop. The only places to get coffee here were gas stations, or you had to go to the next town to get to Starbucks. So with that, we found and bought the building and were so excited we announced what we were doing! And then we were hit with 15 months of demo and renovations. The town was excited, but also wondered if we would ever open our doors!
After what seemed a lifetime, we finally did open our doors! Our town was so excited, as were we! Terry and I had always loved local things, always like supporting the “little guys” so with this coffee shop, we didn’t deviate from that. We found a local roaster (LaTerza) who not only came in to show us how to use our brand-new espresso machine (nope’ we had never been baristas before!) but they have been with us every step of the way and have helped us connect to others in the coffee community. We even have our own blend roasted by them, called the Anchorage House! More on that in a bit. Our coffee is roasted weekly on Mondays and delivered to us on Tuesday. We also use several local bakers for all the treats we offer. Sourdough scones, paleo donuts, muffins, gluten free cookies, all made by local bakers, all supporting local families. We have retail items for sale in our shop, also by local crafters. Local honey? We have it! We even use it in our drinks! And the beekeeper lives 5 minutes from Goshen Grind and stops in daily to check our supply. We sell a lot and use a lot, but again, it all goes back to local.
One of the first things we decided for our business was that we were going to give back. We are grateful for each opportunity we have had in this venture and want others to be blessed. The first 3 weeks of each month, we donate our tips to local causes. Each week we source a cause, a family in crisis, a local benefit, something where our tips can help others. Our employees come to us with causes, our community comes to us with causes, it’s amazing! Then on the fourth week, all tips go to our employees! That week has become the biggest tip week. Our customers love supporting the causes we do, but they also love to shower our employees in green gratitude as well! We also donate $1 of each retail bag of Anchorage House coffee bought to our local historical society, which is housed in the Anchorage House up the road from us. Our blend has become a top seller!
Terry and I set out to be a place in our community for genuine connection, a pillar of support in our community, to source a wide variety of local beverages, food and hand-crafted retail options, to embrace the importance of local values and bring comfort to those around us. While Terry is the face you see day to day behind the espresso machine, I plan after hours events, pay the bills, handle the scheduling and communicate with our local vendors regularly. We each play a part to bring our vision, mission, purpose and values to life every day. It’s not always easy running your own business, but we have a great community rallying around us!
Have you ever had to pivot?
COVID! Say no more! Covid hit and we, like many businesses, had no idea what that would mean for us. We were so fortunate however. Our town follows us on social and we know many people from having children in the schools from pre-k through graduation and in various sports. We posted to our personal and business pages about our drive through being open, about keeping our hopes alive and our dreams afloat and people REALLY came through! We had no idea people would be that excited to help our little small business and our family, but they proved us wrong. Our community has been hit by some pretty horrible things, from a young heart-transplant patient who had the whole town rallying around him for years, who ended up passing away months after his transplant (very unexpectedly), to COVID to a tornado…..our town has stood up, dusted themselves off and moved forward. They’ve taught us to do the same thing. We pivot well, thanks to our community.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
We have been so fortunate to have family and friends with us throughout this entire process. Terry’s family knew he always wanted to open his own restaurant (he was a Chef before we opened Goshen Grind) so they decided to gift him his inheritance while they were still living. They funded the purchase of the property as well as the renovations! There were SO MANY RENOVATIONS!!! We needed absolutely everything, from new electrical, new plumbing lines ran, all new drywall, new HVAC. We even had to tie into the water and sewer at the street. When all this was said and done, we needed money for all our equipment to start, and Julie’s Mom decided to help with those expenses. Once we had the funds secured that we needed, we went to work doing demo ourselves. With the help of many friends, our son’s baseball team (what young teenage boy doesn’t love using a sledgehammer and making a mess?!) and our kids, we did everything we could to “cut corners.” That included hand staining each wooden board that now makes up our ceiling (ask our children how many coats, pair of gloves and evenings were eaten up by that task!), having friends and family help paint, put up trim, etc. So many people helped us along the way out of the goodness of their hearts, and we are forever grateful for each and every one of them. It was and is truly a labor of love.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.goshengrind.com
- Instagram: goshen_grind
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/goshengrind
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/goshen-grind-goshen?start=20
