We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michelle Reynolds Gray a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Michelle, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Is there a historical figure you look up to? Who are they and what lessons or values have you learned from them?

From a young age, I’ve tried to emulate singer/songwriter/actress/businesswoman Dolly Parton – not physically as I look nothing like her and am not personally into the glitz and glam. Rather, the biggest impression she has had on me is her kind and generous heart, yet she is the smartest businesswoman I have seen. She loves people where they are in life and has great compassion on those who experience hardships of any kind. She grew up poor, but learned the value of being rich in love – love for her family, community members, and her deep faith. Something she wrote in her famous song “Coat Of Many Colors” has been lodged in my head forever: “…..that one is only poor only if they choose to be”. I also grew up very poor, but these words from Dolly gave me such hope; I learned to appreciate the richness that comes with loving others well, and have tried to help folks with whatever means I had, even in times when I did not have much. When I’ve experienced the first moments of successes in anything, Dolly’s example has shown me that it’s more fun to help others succeed too and grow together than just stand on the mountaintop by myself. As we have all seen with Dolly Parton’s success, there were times when she had to make tough decisions and stand up for things she knew were right. One example is when she did not allow Elvis Presley to record her song “I Will Always Love You” because she refused to give up half of the publishing rights to her song! Dolly explained that she writes her songs, and no one else should have the publishing rights, yet she did cry all night after standing up to Presley’s manager, who was known as a cutthroat businessman. This was back in 1974 when women weren’t thought to be savvy in business. Dolly Parton’s influence has clearly been at the forefront of my mind as I forged ahead when building a restaurant during COVID; I had no restaurant experience, but what I did have was a desire to create a place where people could feel loved, cared for, and well-fed! We have an entire wall in Bourbon Cafè and Coffee Saloon that is dedicated to Dolly Parton!

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?

My background was in non-profit, working for the ALS Association St. Louis Regional Chapter as their Volunteer and Community Outreach Coordinator. During COVID, all volunteer and outreach opportunities ceased, and I found myself without a job, and more importantly to my story, it had been what I considered my dream job. Helping people with ALS was something I had done for many years, as a volunteer myself and then working at my local Chapter. I did not know what my next move would be and I spent a great deal of time backpacking and hiking, trying to figure it out. Some friends had purchased the building where my business is now and asked me to help with their project. I began designing and building what is now Bourbon Cafè and Coffee Saloon, starting with a gutted structure. I could envision the potential for beauty that this old building held, and created a place that would be warm and welcoming to locals and travelers alike. I became a business partner with the building owners, with a plan to have fresh-roasted coffee and homemade sourdough bread. This turned into more plans involving food, and we opened an actual breakfast and lunch restaurant and music venue in June 2021. Only five months after opening the Saloon, the owners decided it wasn’t for them and offered the building and business to me for purchase. It was one of the hardest decisions of my life, but one I knew I had to do. The people in the small town of Bourbon, Missouri had found their way into my heart by then, and there was no way I would give up on helping their town to thrive as it once did. My husband Dan Gray and I purchased it in January 2022 and I continued on with a crash course in learning how to own and manage a business, at the same time I was learning the basics about restaurant work. I had never worked in the food industry and I tell people now that I had just two things going for me: I loved to cook really good food with great ingredients, many that I grew myself (I am a Master Gardener) and I loved meeting and getting to know new people. My previous work had involved finding and developing volunteers and now I had to learn how to seek out, hire, and train employees who would want more than just a job; I knew I needed help but finding others who could catch on to my vision and dream for the future of this business was not easy. Even the smallest of details matter to me, and finding people to help me who were extremely detail-oriented but also kind and likeable, those who had great ideas and would be excited to share them with me but also knew when I felt firm about doing a task a certain way, finding employees who I could trust, who would be there and pay attention, put their phone away, and concentrate on serving others to the fullest of their ability – this was absolutely the hardest part of growing a restaurant business, especially if the goal of having that business isn’t just to make money. The entire reason I felt compelled to create a thriving restaurant was to serve others in the way of not only nourishing their body with well-made food and roasted-weekly coffee, but to create a place that is beyond anything they’ve ever seen of warm and welcoming, besides their grandma’s house! The term “gather” has been overused a lot lately, but that’s exactly what I want: folks to GATHER and relax and get into deep, healthy conversations or light, healthy conversations! Once they’re gathered, I want them to LINGER. Bring a book, cozy up in our living room with a nice blanket (washed daily), and feel at peace. Leave your troubles at the door and don’t pick them back up when you leave. As I said before, finding just the right team that would embrace this mentality and vision is really hard! People applied for employment frequently, and I had really good employees who had to leave along the way for various personal reasons. I also had not-so-great employees who said the right things on an application but did the opposite of what I was looking for. By the grace of God, I found Amber Bowles in October 2021, and she’s now my General Manager. Amber is a lover of people, and her genuine kindness extends to both children and adults. She is smart in the very best common-sense way that anyone who needs to depend on someone would want. When Amber began working at the Saloon, she loved to bake and knew the basics of cooking, and was gladly willing to learn as much as she could from me. I have also learned so much from Amber and it’s nice to have a younger person’s perspective (she is just 19 years old, a young woman with an old soul, truly). We complement one another perfectly and also just love being together. We hang out even if we’re not working! Years later, Amber is now completely proficient in all things restaurant-related and has the adoration of our staff and the entire community. What a blessing it was to find her! Together, we created systems and got ourselves focused and organized. We honed in on exactly what we want in employees and we began finding them! Today, we have the staff of our dreams, each person talented and lovely to work with. We have a wonderful menu of from-scratch breakfast, lunch, and dessert items that completely changes each week. One thing that sets us apart is how carefully we make each item, often made much healthier than others would make it, but still tastes like the very best comfort food! In the warmer months, we grow as much of our food as we can on the Saloon’s organic garden. Our menus have many options for various health requirements; many of our foods are gluten-free or can be made that way, and we keep what we call a “Celiac Cart” covered up that includes a dedicated panini maker, toaster, sanitized-in-a-flour-free-sink dishes and silverware. We have a great drink menu that includes our fresh Saloon Roast coffee, made from Single Origin Brazilian coffee beans that we have roasted weekly to our specifications. Try our Sweet Bourbon Brew, our signature coffee drink that includes a housemade (cooked) syrup we make from our local Bourbon, Missouri distillery! We have live music nearly every day on either our indoor Saloon Stage or outdoor on our Saloon Patio Stage during nice weather. We have evening events and concerts too! Erin Bode performs fairly often at the Saloon and loves the acoustics inside and also the intimacy of a small venue with close contact to the audience.

Bourbon Cafè and Coffee Saloon is a happy place, and we are eager to welcome new guests and welcome back old guests!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In January 2022, my husband and I purchased the property and business from my previous business partners. A week later, I was carrying a heavy crystal water carafe from my prep room sink in the back up to the front for customers to use. It was full of ice and water and halfway there, I tripped and dropped the carafe and then fell into all of the glass. I had horrific injuries to my hands, particularly my left hand. Had I been there by myself, I might have not made it through this to tell the story. My wounds were stitched up without really knowing how much damage had been done on the inside. I remember so many people helping me in the coming weeks, including my husband, Dan and my children, Faith, Luke, and son-in-law, Daniel, my dear friend, Elizabeth LaKamp, my business neighbors at CDR Naturals Health Food Store and my General Manager Amber Bowles. This accident could have easily been a reason to give up, for I had only been open seven months. Instead, I worked even harder and became even more determined to succeed. My left hand was hard to use and the first finger was in pain constantly from the slightest touch. A year later, I had reconstructive surgery on that finger, and while I still have limited use of it, I do not have the pain I had before. A couple weeks after the accident, I was all bandaged up but had managed to drive to Bourbon to meet my accountant. The post office was right across the street and I thought I would just check my mailbox while I was there. A young lady was parked next to me and she had a dead car battery. I told her I would give her a jump, but she would have to connect my cables. In the meantime, my little puppy Dolly, who I’d had only a month, was next to me in my Jeep. With the Jeep running, I got out to watch her as she connected the cables. Before we could get that far, Dolly had become excited watching us through the window and managed to lock the door. We tried our best to get her to unlock it by pressing on the button again, but she never did and eventually she fell asleep in the nice warm Jeep! By now, a crowd was gathering to watch the show! Our local police officer, Shawn, showed up, but he did not have the proper tools to unlock it. Someone came up to me and said, “Joe will be able to help you. I will go get Joe” and off he walked. I had no idea who Joe was but five minutes later that same man came back with another man who went straight to my Jeep, and had it unlocked in less than three minutes. He would not take any money! The crowd around us was cheering, and it felt like a strange small-town celebration! For some reason, I had the presence of mine to snap a quick picture of this whole situation and when I posted it on our Facebook page later, it was my first post to go viral. Someone said in the comments that had this situation happened in the summer, people would have tailgated and had a full-blown party in the post office parking lot! To this day, I’ve never charged Joe for any drink that he has at Bourbon Café and Coffee Saloon, and I loudly tell anyone around that he saved my life! I am so glad I did not give up after this. Also, we now have a plastic water carafe that is not nearly as pretty, but is a lot less dangerous!

How did you build your audience on social media?

Bourbon, Missouri is a small town and most of the folks there still use Facebook. I created my Facebook page for the business before I even opened, and began sharing photos when I was building it. When I cooked great food, I would snap a quick photo and post it to show people what they could expect in the future after I opened. This really helped me to connect with the community long before I opened my doors. At some point, I connected our Facebook page to Instagram, and now when I post to one it automatically posts to the other. I think of our social media as an ongoing conversation with our followers, and it is not just food and coffee drinks that I show them. When we burn a cake or drop an entire gallon of iced tea, we usually tell the story on our social pages and show them a funny picture of the incident. Last summer when we closed for a week and most of my staff was on vacation, I put together a short video with pictures from all of our vacations, to the tune of “Vacation” by The Go-Go’s! As our followers grew, and we began to have a presence worldwide, it has been most fun to connect with folks this way! We have a very high rating across every review site platform, and I personally answer each review. My advice to any new business would be to pay attention to your social media and share more than just your product. When people can connect with you on a more personal level, they will feel like they are buying from a friend, not just a business. I feel that this is so important, especially because my customers have truly become my friends.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bourboncafeandcoffeesaloon?igsh=MXI1YTYzZTllbmV5bQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BourbonBreadAndCoffeeSaloon
• Yelp: https://yelp.to/Pl3GjtGFld
• Other: https://g.co/kgs/sSvoxqPhttps://www.tiktok.com/@bourboncafeandcof?_t=ZT-8tRioOb0nN4&_r=1

Image Credits

Jim McCarty (Rural Missouri Magazine) took the last dessert photo I sent.