Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nick Tyler and Amanda Piteo. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Nick and Amanda, 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.
The idea started in early 2020 when Nick was teaching North Alabama and Amanda was a restaurant GM, neither one of us was happy with in our careers. Combine we both have 20 years in the restaurant business and we knew we always wanted to have something of their own. Growing up in a small town we always had the same restaurants and one chain coffee shop we didn’t really care for. We always liked coffee so having a coffee shop locally owned was something we l knew would work for our area if it was done right. Once we started writing ideas down on paper and goals we wanted to achieve, our next step was figuring how and where we were going to get our products from. Amanda reached out to a friend who at the time was also in the coffee business but in a different area so he was more than happy to help us get started. At this point Nick had resigned from teaching and moved back home, working back in restaurant management in the mean time. Of course there was the fear of what if this doesn’t work, but we had to put fears aside and go for it because we both knew this was something we really wanted for us and the community. Once we established a business name, logo and took care of all the legal paper work it was time to put it out there to friends, family and develop social media accounts to start on line sales. We got a great response from people in the community, friends and family, our next step was to set up our first pop-up so people could try our products which was going to be the real first test for our business. We set up right in front of our city hall with bags of coffee, merch and pastry items locally made, and to our pleasant surprise we got a huge response from the community.Shortly after, we signed up to do a Food truck event, we didn’t have a truck like the rest but we found ways to make it work with tables, a tent, a house hold espresso machine and again we got a great response. Through out summer of 2020 we continued to do food truck and local events slowly growing popularity in the surrounding communities with the on going questions are we going to open a store front? However, we also faced the problem that someone else had the same idea we did and was looking to open a coffee shop in the same small town we were. How are we different from them and what are we going to offer that they aren’t going to that will set us apart from everyone else. Due to the limited available spaces in our area we had put the idea of a store front on hold but November 2020 during a Toys for Tots event we were approach with the opportunity to open a store front. Once the building was cleaned out we got to work on all the ends and out for the next 5 months and had our grand opening June 2021.
Nick and Amanda, 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?
The faces behind Warrior River Coffee Company are sibling Amanda Piteo (36) and Nick Tyler (28) from Warrior, AL. Amanda over sees the interior design, merchandise and quality assurance while Nick oversees communication, financials, scheduling and ordering. Each sibling has their own area of expertise to oversee. Growing up Amanda was involved in art and design in school and Nick has a passion for talking to people. This works for us because we have our own expertise that we oversee and we do not step over the other siblings. Brian Piteo, Amanda’s Husband. helps with anything that is overlooked by Amanda and Nick. He works during the week when he is not working at his full time job.
We have a motto of “Make Coffee Not War.” This really drives what we do as a rural coffee shop in Alabama. We are all about having great coffee with a good conversation. Regardless of who you are, what you do, what you believe or what is happening in your life, we are here to give the best experience to whoever is coming through our door.
Our menu is design to provide different varieties of coffee’s, latte’s, Loaded Tea’s, Hot Tea and Smoothie Bowls as well as pastries that are made locally. Our many regulars have helped us come up with the different items on our menu. From our Big Jack Latte to our Sweet Tooth and from our different seasonal items. Twice a year we make a poll for our customers to fill out to give us feedback on things that we are doing well and things that we could improve on. I feel that helps with our success that we allow feedback and help from our regulars.
We are big into community involvement and helping everyone become successful. On Wednesday’s we highlight people in our community that have an impact, but they are not always seen. We have been doing this since 2021 and people have responded well to this. In 2022, we highlighted students in the area who go above and beyond. in school. This year, we have been highlighting different types of people each months such as small business, police officers, firemen etc.
We sell different types of coffee origins (Columbian, Kenya, Honduras, Brazil, Ethiopian). Our most popular medium roast is Honduras, which is used for our espresso in latte’s. We do a special project with the money from our Honduras coffee. Each bag purchased, we donate $3.50 to our local elementary school for supplies, rewards or anything that the students need. We believe that education is important and as a community it will take all of us to raise the next generation.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
We grew up in the community that we established our coffee shop. Our logo is similar to the mascot used for the local high school before it closed down in 2003. People began to notice the logo and came in to see what it was all about. We treat people like family and have regulars have become like family. Our success is based off of our regulars who have told people about us and spread the word of our success. We could not have been this successful with out these people. Our lights were done by a regular, a regular helped build our bar and regulars will go get us supplies if we run out during shift.
We also thrive to make sure that our coffee is the same regardless if it is us or our one employee. The consistency is key for developing reoccurring people. We always ask our guests if we can make their coffee any better, which helps with developing conversations and feedback. Some big chain coffee places do not make time to talk to people, but we thrive to make people feel wanted.
How did you build your audience on social media?
We started out with just family and friends since we started as an online business, but the more we traveled the more we advertised our business. People began to follow us to see where all we would be traveling to and we loved that. Now we post on our Facebook and Instagram twice a day. One at 5:45 am since most people check their phones when they wake up and before they head to work. The second post is around lunch, since people check their phones during lunch break as well. We know that people buy and consume with their eyes. We try to attract people by getting people when they are most likely on their phone. Our Warrior Wednesday’s post on our social media bring in a lot of follows. This is because we highlight different people and others share the post, which shows people what we are doing. These people follow us to see who we highlight next. Our best day for new followers is Wednesday because of this method. We recommend finding something that works for your community that is special for you that separates your business from the rest.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.wrcoffeeco.com
- Instagram: Warriorrivercoffeeco
- Facebook: Warriorrivercoffeeco
- Other: Tik Tok- Warriorrivercoffeeco
Image Credits
Photographer- Kari Marsh