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

Landon, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

We do several things differently here at Coral Reef Coffee that sets us apart from others.

We use only highest quality ingredients we can source ethically while keeping our prices competitive.
For example, Matcha is a big seller for us & we only use a single source ceremonial grade matcha that we source directly Japan. The same can be said for our coffee/espresso and any other input we use in the store. During covid, we never cut corners on our products or their inputs. We even source the best ingredients that we can find to use when we make our syrups, most of which are produced in house. (Lavender flower, sugar, etc.)

Perhaps the thing that sets us apart from others the most is the fact that we create our own CBD & Delta 8 and Delta 9 syrups that customers can request to add to their drink. We worked directly with a grower to create something that does not change the taste of the drinks we serve, but keep the benefits of those add-ons. I would say that approx. 40-50% of our customers now add one of these into their drinks. It should be said that nothing we serve automatically comes with those added in, meaning we can still serve top notch drinks and food to our customers.

We also work directly with local bakers to source goods that we can bake in our store every day.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have been in and out of the coffee industry for about 18 years. While I have lived all over the continental US, from Oregon to Florida and many places in between, I most recently moved here from Portland, Oregon.

I’ve always wanted to have my own coffee shop and was lucky enough to have the opportunity to start one in Lewisville after moving to DFW in late 2019.

We opened our doors on March 1st, 2020 and closed them nine days later for Covid. We reopened a little later than most other stores, did not receive any government assistance as we were too new of a business to qualify, but in the end we are still here due to a strong sense of community we have built with our customers. They know we care about them and they care about our success in turn.

I would say that I am most proud of the community we have built, not just our customers, but with local artists, schools, and other organizations we work with throughout the immediate area. We often host art shows for non-profit organizations, or donate coffee or merchandise to help raise money for local charities and the like.

We also hold live music events and other types of events so that we can help bring even more joy to the community and so that we can help local artists gain support. All of the art on the walls is for sale and all of the art and music is purposely chosen from local artists only.

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

To start with, I pay my employees as well as I can given the industry I am in. Raises are not just given to employees once a year, although we also do that, but when they take on new responsibilities and when they show improvement all around.

I also treat my employees with respect and am upfront about what is expected of them and what they can expect from me. I let them know that I will not ask them to do anything that I would not do myself and, perhaps more importantly, I show them this as well in my actions on a daily basis. This goes for anything and everything. I even scrub the toilets during training in front of them to show them that this is the true.

My turnover rate is about 2 years and word of mouth gets around. I recently posted a job and left it up for twelve hours overnight before shutting it off because I had around forty applications come in. While it took me some time to learn how to interview effectively, I can say that those who are hired now generally have a good attitude and promote my store, even when they are not on the clock and even when they know that is not expected of them.

My employees are one of my biggest assets, and I make sure they know that I appreciate them. In turn, they respect me and the company and treat my customers well. I don’t have to worry about new employees picking up the culture because they see how my other employees treat customers and see the work ethic they put into what they do and naturally follow suite.

I may have a little less employees than most stores, but they get the job done well and do it right the first time, think and solve most problems for themselves, but they also know they can call on me if needed.

I’ve helped employees search for jobs in their career paths after they graduate, encouraged them to chase their own dreams and even branch out and start their own businesses. While I am always sad to lose a great employee, I am more than happy and proud to see someone that I know make strides in their life. They help me grow my dream of what I want the shop to be and I owe them nothing less than to help them achieve their dreams as well. Besides, when they leave, they will continue to come back.

I am not saying that everything is always wonderful with my employees, or that I do not have to chat with them in a disciplinary way from time to time, but those “bad” times are rare and usually correct themselves once we sit down and listen to each other. It’s also important to listen to my employees concerns, not just voice my own. Sometimes they have great ideas and everyone likes to be heard and respected.

Apologies for rambling about this topic, I am just very passionate about what it means to build a great team and helping others become successful, whatever that means to them.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

My business partner is my brother and, even without the business, I would be forever grateful to be able to call him such.

My brother and I were very poor for most of our childhood, especially the latter half, to the point of being homeless for some years. I eventually was able to find an apartment and he lived with me while he finished high school. He eventually joined the military for six years and started his own business with some friends of his when he got out. After I moved back to Texas in 2019 he called me up and asked if I was ready to start my own coffee shop and the rest is history. I am forever grateful to have someone who believed in me so much that they just said let’s go and let me run with it, but I’m even more grateful to have a relationship with a sibling that is rooted in trust.

Perhaps that trust is built upon years of struggle we both helped each other get through & perhaps that is the reason that struggle is the reason I was so unwilling to give up when so many others did.

Contact Info:

• Website: coralreefcoffeeco.com
• Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/coralreefcoffeeco/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coralreefcoffeeco/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/landon-forgette-2a586760/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/coralreefcoffee?lang=en
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/coral-reef-coffee-company-lewisville-2
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@coralreefcoffeeco We are not super active on this platform, but will be soon.

Image Credits
Coral Reef Coffee Co., LLC