We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dan Appell. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dan below.

Dan, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Concept came from:
– 20+ years in the brewing industry
– Attending Grateful Dead (33 with Jerry), Jamband, and Bluegrass shows all over the East Coast
– Nearly 20 years (1981-1999) growing up in my Dad’s Deli (Bangiola’s Sandwich Shoppe & Catering)

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

The Grateful Gnome Sandwich Shoppe & Brewery is the concept of owner/operator Daniel Appell. Dan was six-years old in 1982 when his father purchased Bangiola’s Sandwich Shoppe and Catering in Parsippany, NJ. Dan started working there immediately, performing every aspect of the business through his graduation from West Virginia University. In 1999, after spending seventeen years growing up in and learning the family business, Dan went on to bartend at Arthur’s Tavern in Morris Plains, NJ and 10th and Willow in Hoboken, NJ. Curious about leaving the retailer side of the Food and Beverage industry for the supplier side, Dan worked for Anheuser-Busch at High Grade Beverage (Randolph, NJ) in a sales capacity before relocating his life to Denver, CO. Since moving to Colorado, Dan has been an member of the Sales, Marketing, Distribution, and Packaging teams at Upslope Brewing Company (Boulder, CO), Wynkoop Brewing Company (Denver, CO), Wonderland Brewing Company (Broomfield, CO), and C Squared Ciders (Denver, CO).

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

During final inspections in July 2017, Mike Matheison (a spanked-ass trust-funder and Owner/General Contractor building a 5-story building nextdoor to The Grateful Gnome) was unable to properly do his job and a 5-story scaffolding crashed through the roof of our building making it structurally unsound. I was out of money and was already 18 months into trying to get open. The nine and a half month delay couldn’t have come at a worse time and nearly bankrupted the project.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

The first year and a half open I regularly couldn’t afford payroll, I would have to explain to staff every two weeks that I couldn’t do Direct Deposit this pay period and if they could wait to cash the check until the next Monday, it would be greatly appreciated. Once business caught up and I could afford everything in a timely fashion, we got shut down for COVID. Needless to say, the first four years of opening the business were quite stressful.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thegratefulgnome.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegrateful.gnome/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegratefulgnome