Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Erika Luck. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Erika, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

When my partner, Mark Tovar, and I first started discussing the idea of opening our own coffee shop, we were going to be starting from zero. Financially, speaking. We had knowledge, skill, great ideas, and a killer work-ethic. We had friends and a network of people we could reach out to for help. But, we had no start up capital. We, like most people, live paycheck to paycheck; making enough to pay bills. So, do we take the risk? Do we put everything on the line and take the leap?

Yes. We got a little money from family to buy kegs – as our specialty is in nitro coldbrew beverages. We bought product to start creating our flavors, started looking for markets we could start setting up at, and began to make a name for, what we knew was, a great thing.

We got lucky and had an acquaintance give us a good deal on a “permanent pop up” spot in their bar. We are open during the day when they are closed, and then we move out of the way before they are open. We had an investor see potential in what we are working towards – a brick and mortar and a nitro canning line – and were able to expand our offerings by buying an espresso machine. Slowly, we have been growing our business every month. It is hard work, but we do the work and now…

Two and a half years later, we are moving into our own brick and mortar, which will have space to start offering a small canning line in the future. The risk paid off.

Erika, 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?

Dog Day Coffee came to be because we saw the potential in what nitro coldbrew could become. We specialize in innovative nitro beverages that still feel classic. We create everything ourselves, including the blend we use for our coldbrew, and we are super passionate about seeing how far we can push the boundaries of craft coffee offerings. Some of the best things are created by accident. so we do not fear making a few mistakes on the path to something awesome.

We offer traditional espresso drinks and standard coffee shop fair. However, we offer drinks like a Thai Tea Nitro Coldbrew that you will not find anywhere else. We are two people out here making cool shit happen; unpretentious about what we do We welcome anyone who knows nothing about coffee AND to the coffee connoisseur. Coffee makes people happy, it makes us happy, and people should feel good when they leave with what they order.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

Mark and I met over 7 years ago at a Krav Maga gym. He was an instructor and I was a student at the time.. Sparks did not fly initially, but over the years, friendship grew to something more. We were both instructors by then, so there wasn’t any weird power dynamic. We have our ups and downs; you always fight more with the people you are closest with because you aren’t afraid to speak your mind. And you shouldn’t be. When it comes to work, we are very similar: High expectations, high work ethic, and will 100% have your back. As hard as it is with owning a business, because everything can seem personal, we do not take things personal when it is time to get shit done. It ultimately not personal, it’s business. And we do not let it affect our personal life. We still take time to work out together, make dinner, and ridiculously spoil our rescue dog, Gatsby.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

We make our own nitro coldbrew and coldbrewed teas from scratch. To get there, it was A LOT of sampling flavors from different roasters, because each roast and origin make the flavor change significantly. We were in agreement that we wanted a more traditional medium-dark roast, because we wanted a classic flavor in a newer style of serving coffee. Mark has worked in coffee for over 20 years, so he already had a tremendous amount of knowledge on how to start this process, what origins and roasts create what flavors, so it was a matter of nailing down what we wanted. Ultimately, we went with the local, long-time roaster, Texas Coffee Traders, using a medium-dark blend of Brazilian and Sumatra. After coldbrewing, it has an incredible smooth, chocolate, earthy flavor.

Mark, again, already knew how to coldbrew, keg, and set up nitro taps for our teas and coldbrew concoctions. We are currently in the learning process, though, of how to table-top can nitro. While it won’t be for a couple years, we are going to be manufacturing the cans on our own as well. We are definitely fortuitous.

Contact Info:

• Website: dogdaynitro.com
• Instagram: @dogdaynitro
• Facebook: facebook.com/dogdaynitro