Originally posted Nov. 1, 2019, updated Nov. 26,2025
"The smell of fresh-made coffee is one of the world's greatest inventions." - Hugh Jackman
Kerry and I have always wanted to start our own business and take our best shot at the good old American Dream and be our own bosses. Of course we wanted it to be something we were passionate about and would enjoy patronizing ourselves. We began the tireless, obsessive brainstorming sessions discussing and fantasizing about the business before we were married. Some of the things we loved (and still do) were music, coffee, video games, tattoos, and our dogs, Burton and Kona, our babies before babies. We liked to hang out with our friends at coffee but it got old sitting in uncomfortable, metal chairs for too long. We also, very much liked dessert, I mean who doesn't, right? The problem was, there wasn't a place at night to go and get just dessert and coffee, you had to go to a diner with dirty vinyl booths and dirty carpets with the constant tweaker vibe that held the room hostage twenty four seven. Not to mention the smell of stale cigarette smoke baked into every corner of the joint; reminders of the days of old when you were asked, “smoking or non-smoking?”
What we thought was missing in the market was a good place to hang out and have a good time that wasn't a bar or a restaurant. We were brainstorming a new concept for a local coffee shop, arcade, pool hall, or cafe. How could we bring the essence of those into a single, cool place to hang out? What we actually conceptualized at the time would require a lot of space which was hard to find at a reasonable price.
This was in the mid 90's so the internet and gaming were both in their infancy, evolving rapidly, however. The dotcom bubble was quickly inflating, and people were ready to feed on new high tech concepts. We lived in the Silicon Valley so new businesses were practically expected to be high tech in nature. Neither of us was very high tech. Kerry more so than I, but as careers go, I was a Ford mechanic and she worked in sales and marketing for Adobe.
Nonetheless, we did toss around the idea of an internet arcade. As brainstorming often goes, we went around and around and around until we settled on a combination. We liked the idea of a coffee shop-like business with space for things to do like pool, video games, open mic nights, and so on. We wanted to create a place where people could gather and have a good time in the absence of alcohol and the whole night life scene. So we settled on the Caffeine Inferno that would provide the environment to do anything from sit with friends, comfortably, with a cup of coffee and a little treat, to playing a game of pool or a video game, to watching your neighbor brave the crowd and tell jokes, read poetry, or play a little music on a, corner stage.
We had a lot of details to iron out but we had the concept. As the details began to take form, the how to part started to get complicated and expensive. It eventually was filed in the "ideas for later" folder. In the meantime, over countless cups of coffee as usual, we had a wedding to plan, and a simpler business to figure out.
So we started brainstorming in between planning invitations, menus, guest lists, music, wedding parties, and everything else that goes into a wedding. I guess we like being busy...maybe that is why we love coffee so much.
How much do we love coffee? I’ll save that for the next part.
Talk Soon,
Kevin
@coldfire_kev
@coldfire.coffee
@coldfire_hotsauce
kevin@coldfirecoffee.com
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