We recently connected with Shirley Henderson and have shared our conversation below.

Shirley, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with 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.

This is a question that many people ask, because the business combo – coffee shop & hair salon – is not one you see every day. When we first came up with the idea we were met with some trepidation and doubt from friends and even our perspective landlord. The short answer is, as a couple we wanted to work together at something and I had a back ground in coffee and my partner has been a hair stylist for over 20 years – so the combo made sense. But more than that we both love community building and community organizing, and felt that, in a city that was rapidly gentrifying, treasured third places were growing few and far between. Historically coffee shops and hair salons have been gathering places for communities, for political and cultural development and discussion, for getting local gossip and making new connections so having these two places combined felt natural. As soon as we opened we discovered the depth of hunger for that third place as people quickly made Squirrel Chops their regular spot.

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?

Our brand has grown organically out of who we are. As I already mentioned we loved community building and organizing, and that is clear as soon as you walk in – from the regulars chatting it up together or with staff, to the “Tax the Rich – Build Affordable Housing” & “Racism Cannot be Separated from Capitalism” posters in the window.

I am a socialist who has spent the better part of a decade as an activist on campaigns and protests fighting for LGBTQ, Black, and economic justice and our business has been an extension of those campaigns and fights. We are unapologetic about being socialists and activists. Being outspoken has won us respect and loyalty even from folks who may not agree with our politics. As a queer, women owned business we have cultivated – organically – a queer-friendly space, but are conscious of the shop being an all-inclusive space. Our emphasis on community and activism comes first but does not diminish the quality of our trades. We are always striving for quality in everything we do, from the coffee and food we make to the styles coming out of the salon. We also, to the best we can, keep things affordable and accessible to the range of regulars and new comers.

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

Any small business who rode the wave of COVID and came out the other side have had to be both resilient and lucky. In March of 2020 we changed our business model in less than 24hrs before the lockdown happened, pivoting from an indoor coffee shop to window service only. The fact that we had windows that allowed us to immediately change to walk up window and the fact that we were in a residential neighborhood, where many tech sector workers were stuck working from home allowed our business to grow through a really rocky and devastating time for service industry workers and small businesses. Despite the dominant trend of places opening up for indoor seating we rode out the window service until last month. This allowed us to keep overhead low through inflation and keep staff healthy and morale high through the difficult social pains of ever changing COVID protocol. It also allowed us to avoid the polarizations of COVID safety mandates. All this points to how, a lack of adequate government COVID response left small businesses to the whims of luck. Were they in the right neighborhood, did their space accommodate COVID safety practices during restriction periods? Small businesses also became the landscape where safety measures had to be enforced, or not, which often created really challenging work for staff who were risking their health just to work. We have been really lucky on all counts through this crisis, but it shouldn’t be left to luck.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Our social media has grown at the same rate as our business. We haven’t been proactive about building it, but we do continue to get better at posting regularly and with a variety of content, but mostly community and dog pictures (we are also very dog friendly). So dog owners, activists, and regulars have been the main population of our social media followers.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.squirrelchops.com
• Instagram: #squirrelchopscafe
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/squirrelchopscafe/
• Twitter: @SquirrelChop
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/squirrel-chops-seattle

Image Credits
Alex Garland