Episode 21: Dave Kozuha, Greenwood Lake Roasters Craft Coffee

Dave Kozuha spent 18+ years in corporate IT. He always wanted to be in food. So when he got fed up enough to start thinking about an exit, he started researching coffee for a crepe cart he was planning to open.That was the beginning of a very unexpected rabbit hole.He couldn't find coffee he loved, so he ordered green beans and roasted them himself on Thanksgiving morning in a frying pan. Smoked out the kitchen. Made the best cup of coffee he'd ever had. Moved to the driveway. Built his own roaster out of a six-burner gas grill. Started roasting so much that strangers pulled over just to see what the smell was — and started handing him money.Dave and his wife Yolanda opened Greenwood Lake Roasters in May 2017, initially open two evenings a week. Yolanda quit her day job first, then Dave followed in 2019 — after the shop had earned enough revenue to make the leap feel like a real decision, not a leap of faith.Today they run two locations in a tiny lakeside town in New York State, with customers driving out from the city just for the coffee.🛒 Order Dave's beans online: https://www.gwlrcc.com📩 Read the newsletter: https://nationofdoers.substack.com