We were lucky to catch up with Sara Heidinger recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Sara thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?
In the wake of a shutdown funeral home on the edge of the historic Old First Ward neighborhood in Buffalo, NY, Undergrounds Coffee House & Roastery was born. When we started to develop the concept of the coffeehouse we wanted to pay homage to what the building was before us and how it had served so many of the community members over decades of existence. What started as a small nod to the history of the building quickly turned into the focus of the brand. All of our sandwiches are named after dead people connected to the history of coffee or to Buffalo. We named our custom coffee blends the White Light Blends, as in the phrase go towards the light often spoken when people are passing. Each blend is named after a notable deceased female and specifically crafted to correlate with the impact-fully strong woman chosen to be the namesake of that blend. Our original retail coffee bags were designed to resemble a body bag. We have a coffee club called the Roastery Club and we ask if you could have coffee with any notable deceased person who would it be? Each member then gets a custom-made mug by a local ceramic artist with that person on the mug. We say things like It’s not Life or Death it’s just a cup, Take a coffee break you’ve Urned it, or Start your day before it ends, and our fresh roasted beans are so good you’ll be dying to have some, as you can see we love a good death pun and could really go on for eternity! We love the idea of the circle of life that took place, in the death of the funeral home the coffee shop was born.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am a Buffalo native and I grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood called the Old First Ward in Buffalo, NY. The famed Grain Silos of Buffalo were quite literally the background of my childhood. I took up photography quite early and my love never faded. My photography career led me down the path of being a business owner and really all things creative in my life. After some time living in New York City, I got used to being able to walk to almost anything I needed. Upon returning home to Buffalo and the neighborhood I grew up this was not the case and the need to bring a coffee shop to my community grew in that moment. The idea of a coffeehouse encompasses so many things I love. The community gathering aspect, being able to support and feature local artists, partnering with fellow female business owners, creating community events, and supporting existing community events. Coffeehouses really are special places that every community deserves. With the shop opening, I was able to combine so many of the things I love. I do all the photography, web design, creating marketing materials, and marketing of the coffee shop. In the 7 years of being open, we’ve built a mostly organic following on social media of over 7,000 followers with consistent engagement and growth. The logo from the coffee shop has been something we wanted to be a bit fluid but still have strong continuity. You can see from some of the photos I’ve included how we alter it seasonally or change it around over time to keep it fresh and fitting to the moment the company is in while still having really strong brand recognition. Branding photography for small businesses is something I’ve come to love. It’s such an important piece to the puzzle. and a great way to express who you are as a business. Two years ago we opened a second location and building that space and finding how it fit in with our existing brand was a really fun challenge. We are currently working on growing our newly launched coffee subscription service and working to see how great photography and social media usage can guide that growth to a national level.
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
My co-founder/business partner and I had been friends for about a decade before moving into the coffee shop business together. I had originally come to Bridget asking her to consult on this coffee shop idea I had been working on. I had plenty of restaurant experience, marketing, and photography/creative experience. What I didn’t have was direct coffee experience. Bridget had been working in the coffee industry and management for over a decade at that point and when we realized we each possessed strengths and passion for different parts of the business, it seemed like an ideal match.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
As we all know, the beginning of Covid was such a struggle for everyone and something no one could possibly have planned for. At no point in making our 5-year business plan did anyone say…. oh hey what’s your plan for a halt in day-to-day life as we know it. In many ways, we had been set up well for all that was about to unfold in early 2020. We had recently launched an app for easy ordering and had an additional online ordering platform. We were able to use those tools and remain open for pickup orders throughout the entirety of 2020. Prior to all the shutdowns, we had a fairly robust wholesale roasting business going which meant we often kept a large amount of green beans in stock. So when our distributor shut down in mid-2020 and with none of our wholesale clients needing coffee, we were still able to roast and serve the coffee our customer base was accustomed to with our stock, and with the mass support of local small businesses happening at that time, we grew our retail coffee program by offering contactless drop-off delivery anywhere in the city. Things were going as well as could be expected amid all the chaos, until an early morning in June I received a call that the alarm to the coffee shop was going off and a set of double doors at the front of the building we never used were wide open. Living around the corner from the shop, I arrived moments later to find the police had caught 2 people in the act of not only breaking and entering, but tearing the shop apart. By the time I had arrived, they had been inside for what the police estimated was around an hour. They ripped the fire system out of the walls and sprayed the fire extinguisher anywhere and everywhere you could possibly imagine. Standing in the middle of this place I loved so much, with the alarm blaring and the broken glass from the window they entered through shattered all over, I felt shattered. The past several months navigating Covid were tiring and this just felt like too much. I quickly realized that upon smashing the window they had cut themselves and tracked blood over our coveted supply of green beans. After a few phone calls and a lot of tears, my business partner arrived and we slowly began the cleanup. With the silver lining of only being open for pickup, we were able to open back up the next day and block off the damaged area. It took a bit of time to source new coffee beans and get the place back to normal. When word spread of what had happened our community, customers, and fellow businesses really showed up to hold us up in a moment when it was hard to do on our own. It took some time to source new beans from new places that matched our flavor profiles and to clean up the damage, but we did it. In many ways, it felt like starting over for certain parts of our business, and dealing with insurance companies, and getting things repaired during that time was a bit tougher than normal with restrictions still in place. Eventually, we were able to get everything repaired and restocked and open back up fully for dine-in as well as pickup. I think of that time often when I am feeling tired, or down and remember that you can almost always dig a little deeper and find a little more strength, and when you can’t, make sure to lean on the people around you who are offering to hold you up.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.undergroundscoffeebuffalo.com
- Instagram: @ugcoffeehouse
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555289612035
- Linkedin: SaraHeidinger
- Other: my photography insta is @sheidingerphoto and website is www.saraheidinger.com
Image Credits
Sara Heidinger