VTP: Melinda Schneck

Yeah, it looks good. That looks good. Yeah, no, no, you're good. OK, Melinda, SNEC.

Welcome to Meet the People. I'm really excited to be here. We were just practicing because I know Melinda as, well, we met, what grade were we on? Fifth grade.

I think we were in Mr. Wilentas class. You had the teacher next door. Or did you have the teacher?

I had Mrs. Packard. Yes, you had Mrs. Packard.

I had Mr. Wilentas, but I think we met, because we were on that same team on the top floor. Yes. Do you remember being there on 9-11?

Yes. Oh my god, absolutely. And then that lady comes in with the rolling cards. Mrs.

Bear. Yep, exactly. Because we were watching it on the TV's. Yeah, did their classroom doors, did they have a sliding wall?

Was there a, you could either open it or there was one door that was always open. Yeah, between the two classrooms. Were you there the day that I choked on the Jolly Rancher? I remember the story, but I don't remember.

Oh, damn it. OK, sorry. The scooter is about you. I'm going to have to give you the high number.

I'm like, yeah. That was crazy. OK, Mr. Wilentas was the best.

He was so cool. Obsessed with him. I did the thing where you saved your little Lincoln links. Lincoln links.

And I got to ride in his Mazda Miata and go to breakfast with him at that place. Like there was a diner in Caddy off like Bridge Street. The Hill. Yes, yes.

The Hills. Yeah, something along those lines. Yeah. I got to go to breakfast with him.

And I remember driving in his Mazda Miata and thinking it was just the coolest thing I ever had. Just the two of you? Yeah. What a time.

I know they would never allow that though. I used to save them and do a double date with it would be me, Mrs. Mac, and then someone else would do Mr. Would save it for Mr.

Save it for Mr. Wilentas. And I forgot where we would go. But yeah, that was crazy.

Yeah, I can't imagine a male teacher being able to take an 11-year-old female student out to breakfast now. I mean at the time it was probably inappropriate. But nobody thought it was. But also Mr.

Wilentas was the safest man. I think. This is not in your way. You're holding your mic all the way.

It was fine. It was still getting it. Yeah, was he the only male teacher? Like the did that, I don't know.

But I think he seemed like a safe guy. I hope I've never. For sure. Looked into his history.

Is he still teaching? He still is. I don't know. Someone knows now if you're listening.

Just roll into the first thing. Shout out. I really got it. You know, I read my kids sideways stories from Wayside School because of Mr.

Wilentas. I read them all of those books when they were younger. That's so cool. OK, so we met in fifth grade.

So I knew you as Mindy Markle. But now we were just talking about it. You go by Melinda Schneck. Yes.

Because it's the last name of your first two kids. My two biological children. OK. So I have three bonus kids, three step kids with my current husband.

And I feel like you had Penny. How old is Penny now? Penny's 13 and Max is 14. Oh my god.

Wait, Max is older than Penny. Wait, why did I have that confused? I don't know. That's wild.

So we've obviously stayed in touch with this is interesting because I feel like I've followed you through social media. But did you stay in Caddy? No, you moved. I moved.

Yep, so after eighth grade, my parents moved to Walnutport. And so I went to Northern Lehigh then. It was actually the middle of our freshman year. But you went to the Arts Academy then, right?

For a little. And then I came back. Oh, gosh. So I think we didn't overlap.

Then when I started high school at Caddy, and then in March, I moved to Walnutport. And so I finished out high school at Northern Lehigh. OK. So sorry, I'm jumping all around.

But there's so much I'm thinking about. Talk to me about how old were Max and Penny when you met your current husband and started to blend families. Yeah, they were. Let's see.

It was 2021. So I think Max was 10, and Penny was 8 and 1,5, 9. Yeah, it was like COVID was wrapping up a little bit. But it was around at that time.

So it was a weird time. The kids were just back in school. And it was only time for a lot of people. And so I was on a dating app.

Oh. I was thinking that on Thumble. And yeah, so we had started dating. And then about six months later, we introduced the kids to each other.

So did you kind of feel right away that this was going to be more than a thing? I think maybe our third date I did. I think we were kind of keeping it really casual in the beginning, like our first couple of dates. But then he took me away for a weekend in Philly.

And we just really got to spend one on one time together. And that's when I was like, all of your girlfriend. Cute. How many kids does he have?

He has three. Oh, that's right. You said that. So what was it like when they first started being around each other?

Were they receptive? Or was there any drama? The kids love each other. Oh.

The kids are like, because he was like, Penny, so he has a daughter who is 15. And so her and Penny are just two years apart. And they are absolute best friends, born to be sisters. It's so, so sweet of them.

And then he also has two boys. One of them is the same age as Max. One is a couple years younger. And they're all so close.

They love hanging out. When the other three are at their mom's house, Max and Penny are just when are they coming home? So it's been that way from start. So they've always gone along.

There was one brief thing we all first moved in together, where the girls really wanted to share a bedroom. And then we had to cross that off the list pretty quickly. They shared a bedroom for a month. But we were like, it didn't work out.

They weren't good roommates. They weren't good roommates. No, it was like, it was putting a damper on their friendship. So they had separate rooms.

But they actually recently moved back into a shared room together. And they're good. It's been maybe two, three months now. And they are still enjoying it.

So yeah, the kids get along awesome. Were there any bombs as far as just Belending? I mean, what I'm picturing in my head is so unrealistic. But I keep thinking of the movie, Yours, Mine, and ours.

I've never done it. Why? I feel like you have to watch it with Dennis Quaid. And not Connie Britain, which kind of looks like Connie Britain.

But it's like a Disney movie. And he's an admiral in the military in the Navy. And so his kids are regimented. And she's an artist.

And they're all wild. And they have animals. And they move into this old lighthouse. You have to watch it.

Oh my god. That sounds so Disney. I love it. It's amazing.

And the kids try and break them apart. But then the kids end up becoming friends. In the middle of, so anyways, was there any obstacles of blending the family? I mean, we never moved into a lighthouse.

Or had our kids tried to break us up as far as I know. That's good. But I will say that as much as the kids got along. And Josh is ex-bous, his kids mom.

She's great. I mean, I think she's a really good mom. She's the person. But it's completed.

It's like having a blended co-parenting relationship, especially because our kids were all a little older when we met. We already had parenting styles locked in. And it's hard to budge on those. And so I think that all of the struggles we had as a blended family have mostly been the adults learning to adapt to our parenting styles.

It's actually the kids have been awesome. It's adults are a lot harder to change in myself included. Yeah. Interesting.

Yeah. OK. So then kind of segueing in. Because I was just saying to you before we started that part of the reason I wanted to have you on is because I've been following your journey of you started at first a coffee truck, right?

Yeah. Do you still have the truck? We do. OK.

So talk to me about how that first came to fruition. Because you started with Josh. We did. Yeah.

So when we first started the coffee truck, so I should go back a little bit and say we moved to Makanji together as a family in 2022. So we bought a house together and all the kids moved in. And my two are there full time. Their dad is passed away.

So they're always with us. And Josh is with us 50-50. So we got a week off. And so we needed a big house.

And Makanji has lots of big houses. So we landed on Makanji just out of circumstance. We hadn't really ever spent much time there either of us. But when we moved there, we both worked from home.

And we were both project managers. I worked in Fintech. And he works for PPL, he works with the abilities. But we worked from home.

And when you work from home together as spouses, like sometimes you just need to work at a coffee shop maybe, or like a library, or like not in the same house together all the time. You've got to keep something live there. So we just couldn't believe that Makanji didn't have a coffee shop. Like we just kind of assumed that probably there was a coffee shop and had closed maybe before we got there or something.

And that something would surely open back up. And so for the first couple of years, we thought that that was probably going to happen. And then it just didn't. And time got going on.

And we were like, toyed with the idea of maybe like a little weekend coffee trailer that we parked at the entrance of our neighborhood and just for our neighbors. And it could just be a fun way to meet people in our neighborhood. And so we bought the trailer to sort of toy with this while I was still working full time. And so was he.

But my job just got really overwhelming. And my company I was working with was growing. I was there early on as a startup. And I was in a growth stage.

And they were just doing big things. And it no longer felt like it suited me. And so in the summer of 2024, I was really the fall in the fall of 2024. I put in my resignation for my job.

And didn't really know what I was going to do next. I figured I'd probably say in project management. But we were building out the trailer, did not think it was any bit viable for a whole time job at all. But we were like, I will do it on the weekends.

And so while we were building the trailer, because there was a lot of construction that needed to happen, we ended up buying what do you call like a lemon? We bought a lemon of a trailer when we first started. We did we had to redo so much of it. But in the meantime, our kids played flag football.

So we set up a tent at our kids flag football game, like with permission from the league. And we had our little espresso machine. And we just sold coffees out of a tent at our kids flag football game. Oh my gosh.

And the first week, I think we made like, I don't know, maybe like $80 or something. Love. And we were just like over the moon. We were like, this is crazy.

We were like, this is so cool. So we came back the next week. And we made like $300. We were like, wait, because the first week people already had their coffee.

They were like, oh, I didn't even know you were going to be here. Well, you'd be here next week. And we're like, yeah, totally over here. And so we did that for like maybe five weeks or something.

And just kept growing. And then, you know, people were like, you know, you guys should really consider doing this. And I'm like, well, we have this whole trailer. Maybe we'll do with something with it.

So that puts such a spark in us that we were like, people really want coffee. And the five people leave was like, right, well, not actually it was not for us. But they were all people coming from the country. So we spent that whole winter then finishing building the trailer and really built it.

And we took espresso, we took a recent class. And we were like, OK, we're going to do this. And we thought we should just open Monday to Friday. And then we'll just have our weekends off.

And it'll be like, it seems so ridiculous thinking back on it now. Because the weekends are like our biggest time. The weekdays, we're just like, we'll make it to the weekend. But in the beginning, we only knew Monday to Friday was so ingrained in us.

We'll do this Monday to Friday. And so we built out the trailer. And then in April of this year, in August 2025, we opened the trailer at Bear Swamp Average right on Route 100. And that was it.

And we opened Monday through Friday for the first month. And everybody complained about it. Because they were like, I can't guess. You were open from 7 to 130.

So anybody who had to be at work and couldn't be at Bear Swamp at 7am. And what did we work earlier than that? Or got out after 130? It was like, we can never try your coffee because you're never open.

Did you know the people, like, how did you get the Bear Swamp? First of all, I love Bear Swamp. They have the best jerky. Yeah.

But did you, they were just fine with you being on their property? Like, how did you do that? Yeah, we actually had to call a bunch of places. We wanted, we knew for certain, we wanted to be my country.

We love my country. Like, big McConchie fans. Love it. Let's go McConchie.

You know, we love, like, you know, it's the place for the Bears eat. We love it so much. Let's do it. So we, there were a couple of, like, little strip mall type things in my country that we reached out to, like, the leasing company that works for them.

And asked if we could possibly park in their parking lot. And we just kept getting turned down. Like, one person we got on the phone with them. And she literally was like, why would I want you to park in a parking lot?

And I was like, well, because we're going to pay you. And I think we might, I think people might like our coffee. People might even come. Like, it might drop people to your businesses.

But we have no idea. We were just like, we were just spitballing. And so we got turned down a bunch. And then we were telling our, one of our close friends.

And he knew the owners of Bear Swamp. And so he said, let me reach out. I'll send an introduction, see if it works. And they got back to us right away.

They said, you know, we met with them. Kyle Eckhoff is the owner there. Amazing. He's a teacher at Parkland, I think.

So cool. And yeah, super, super nice guy. And the first month we were there, he's like, don't even pay me anything. He's like, just see if this works out for you guys.

So that was awesome. And having that like main street visibility. And that was, I mean, it made all the difference for us. And you've got to go back to that lady and have like a Julia Roberts moment.

Big mistake. Huge. You need to. Josh and I talked about this.

Like, I wonder if some of the people that have turned us down. Like, think about that. Because we just, we got to the point of Bear Swamp where, like Kyle had to be like, hey, we don't have parking spots for our customers anymore. We got to figure something out here.

Damn. So like, weekends we were just taking up all of their parking. And like, we felt bad. It was like, I was in a real like mental battle with like, I want us to be doing this well.

But at the same time, like, I don't want it to be at the cost of Bear Swamp. Not because there's another view. You're just down the street. And so when you see the parking lot is full at Bear Swamp and you're just coming from here, you're just going to keep driving, you know, a quarter mile down the road and go to the one that has the open parking lot.

And I didn't want that for them. So, you know, in For sure that was like one of the, OK, we've got to figure something else that we can't just stay parked in this parking lot forever. Right. Especially if you're doing so well.

Yeah. Just weekends. I mean, weekdays we were still struggling for sure. But weekends we had a like 15, 20 minute line from 9 a.m.

to close every year. So was it always just you and Josh at that point? Or did you have any of your kids helping or what was the? We had our kids helping at events.

So we were doing Bear Swamp during the week. And then every now and again, the weekend we would have like a sports organization reach out or something like that. And so we needed extra people. But we didn't think we were going to be busy enough to have employees maybe ever.

And so I think we just really had little faith that it was going to be more than a hobby in the beginning. But our kids helped out at events. But we didn't get our first employee until it was about six weeks after we opened. We hired like a friend of a friend part time to work on Sundays because Sundays were just so busy.

And one of us needed to spend time with our children sometimes. So we were like, if we had somebody that helps on Sundays, then one of us could be home sometimes. Yeah. Perfect.

Yeah. And then that transition into her working a few days a week after that. But then in June, so another month later, we hired two more employees. And they kind of handled the weekends.

And then I mostly did the weekdays. When was the conversation? I mean, I'm assuming it was because of the parking lot of air swam. But you really, I'm sure how to sit down and be like, OK, we're going to get brick and mortar.

What was that like? It was partly because of the parking. That was definitely a driving factor. We also just considered moving the trailer somewhere with a bigger parking lot.

Yeah. It's like, again, we just had such a little faith that we'd be able to cover the overhead of something else. And but what happened on the weekends with those long lines, we found ourselves like it was sweltering heat or it was pouring down rain and people were so waiting. And that was so nice.

But also our baristas were dying. And they were like, it's like a little tin can in the trailer. And so we come to restock them midday on a Saturday rush. And they're just like pouring sweat.

And we're like, this is it just wasn't sustainable. And so we at some point thought, what if we built like a covered patio over the trailer? And we had to kind of talk to Fair Swamp about staying there and like kind of adding on to their building and covered patio and it would be a three season thing. But it wasn't like for multiple reasons, that just wasn't really going to work out.

But yeah, we just we were busy. We are employees needed the coverage. And then it started, we had a cold spell at like the very beginning of September this year. And that we had like a space year.

It just wasn't keeping up. Our breezes were now freezing. So we're like, OK, they're sweltering. They're freezing.

They're soaking wet. Like they're we were just out in the elements. So that cold spell, we looked into a building that there's new luxury condos going up near us and they're putting some retail in the bottom. So we called them to see what it would be like to rent out one of those new buildings.

And we had this holy Pinterest board. So like high ceilings, these big glass windows. And you'd see if you go to like a really hip coffee shop, like in like center city Philadelphia, you know? And so I'm like, OK, we'll just dump our whole retirements into this.

And we'll just do this, right? And so we could call these people. The grandest for the reason we'll build out was just astronomical. I mean, it was we could dump our whole retirements a bit.

And maybe still not quite be done building it out. So that was wiped off. And then there was a building for sale in McCongee. It was a commercial space.

It was like next to McCongee Park and has a little patio. And we're like, this place is perfect. And we called this for sale by owner. So we called.

And we barely got anywhere. We were like, hey, we're just interested in this building that we saw as for sale. And the person on the other side said, it's already under contract. Click.

And so we were like, shit, what now? Because we only wanted to be a McCongee. And there's a small town. So there's not a lot going on for sale.

So a couple weeks goes by. And I got an email from this couple, Brian and Joanna Hirsch. They own Fox Rose Farm. It's like a wedding venue.

I think it's in Fleetwood. But they said, we're customers at Rose D's. And we just bought this building next to McCongee Park. And we bought it as an investment.

And we were hoping to rent it out to somebody like you. Would you ever consider doing a brick and mortar? So they were the people. It was unbelievable.

That's crazy. It just felt like serendipitous. And so we plus you can rent instead of having to worry about the property. Exactly.

Exactly. And so we met with them. And it was really important to deny that if we were going to rent and not own, that it was a relationship we both felt like both sides of it were growing. We didn't want somebody that was just going to lease us the space and be really hands off otherwise.

We wanted it to be somebody who was a fan of Rose D's, who wanted to see us Rose. So it was really important that that was a relationship we were building. And we just instantly claved with Brian and Joanna. They're the most amazing people.

And when you can tell when people are in love, when you sit down with somebody and you're like, oh, you're not just married. You're your best friends. And I think being married twice, and my first husband and I were in love. But we had a young family.

And we were busy. And we just kind of lost touch at some point. But my current marriage, it's such a high priority for me to never find myself falling out of love. We maintain that.

And when you're actively doing that in your own life, you can tell when other people are too. And we just felt that so much with Brian and Joanna. We were just like, you guys are the real deal. And so we were just so, so excited to rent their property.

It's like the landlord environment is important. And they've just been great fans of ours and been really trusting of our vision for the space. That's been huge because when we went into the space for the first time, I was like, hey, what if I just cut a huge hole in this wall and put a big glass garage door in the side of it? And they were like, do it.

No, they literally had gotten the keys to building themselves like 18 hours before this. So they barely needed a chance to think about how they were going to be doing anything with this property. But I came in with AI mockups of how I was going to just be like cut and holes here and there and take walls down and stuff. And yeah, they were like, get a good contractor in here.

And it's yours. And so we just we took off. Yeah. Wow.

When was the official opening date? It was the day before Thanksgiving 2025. So I think that was maybe November 27, I think. We officially opened.

We started our grand opening celebration January 10, 2026. So we did a ribbon cutting and everything, you know, our big celebration. But we wanted to give ourselves through the holidays to get everybody kind of settled in. Yeah.

So not even that long ago. No, so recent. Wow. And how has it been going?

It's been insane. Really? It's been, I can't believe it. Yeah, it's been every day we are learning something new.

And this file account should be our slow season, you know, January, February or or shortly slow for us around. So, you know, I was mentioning that to a close friend of ours that I'm like, this should be our slow season. But I guess because we're new, you know, there's a lot of hype around us and stuff. And my friend kind of stopped me and he was like, no, this might be what slow season looks like for you.

Right. And I was like, holy shit, I'm like, I need to hire more people. Yeah. Yeah.

It's been awesome. Yeah. So right place, right time, right people. And now this is your full time job.

Yeah. Yeah. But you still technically do consider, I mean, that you're still in business with family, even though Josh has a full time job. Oh, for sure.

Yeah. I mean, he has 50% ownership and roasts as well. I mean, he's taken every minute that he's not working for KPL and PPL if you're listening. He's working super hard.

He's never working like on the clock. He's very mindful of his time. But because of that, it means that, you know, he clocked out of his day job and then he's roasting all evening. He's roasting all weekend.

Yeah. He wakes up in roasts. You know, like if we need somebody to open, it's 5.30am, you know, then we got somebody in like getting set up to open, like if it needs to be him, he's in to do it. So he's so down for roasts.

And you know, we both hope that one day this will grow into something that is just both of our full time jobs. Yeah. Right now, super grateful for PPL. Bigger thing of those.

Are you, do you ever run into conflict working together in the beginning? I think we did. Josh really trust my vision though. I think we're going to do something.

It's one of the best things that Josh is that if I am like, hey, I have a crazy idea. He's like, oh my God, tell me what is it? Yeah. You know, like he's so down.

So it doesn't happen often, but sometimes because Josh has so much on his plate, right? I mean, he's also a dad, right? On top of that, he's got his three kids and my two kids, he is, you know, their soul father figure at this point. He's, you know, he's, you know, he's, and they're with us 100% of the time.

And so he's got his hands really full. And every now and again, he'll let the ball drop in some way. Right. He does our bookkeeping and stuff like that.

And so sometimes that gets a little behind. I would say that that's a place of conflict of that. I'm like, hey, we could just hire somebody to do this if it's too much for you. But he's like, no, I like, you know, I really want to be a part of this.

And this is like a contribution I can make. But it means that he's spread cheating or talking to like a quick books phone, you know, customer service representative attend them. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Freaking the sheets. Yeah. Exactly.

How did you come up with the name roses? So we do this thing where like we have breeding words all the time. Yeah. I think I'm trying to think of an example.

Well, like, okay, everybody calls me, I'm like Mickey D's. Right. Yeah. So we like, we'll do that with other things.

Exactly. Right. We're like, oh, my laptop, my laptop, my laptop. Okay.

So we like, started doing that. ROCB. Yes. Like so frequently that like so many things started ending in that like ease sort of sound.

Yeah. I think that was sort of, it was just we were trying out, you know, different things that first I had like the same dream that like every girl in the world has. I'm like, I'm going to open a coffee shop and sell flowers and books. Yeah.

We all like dream of this, right? Like it's going to be, but I'm like, then there's already plants and coffee in East and which is such a cool place. I'm like, we can't compete with that. We can't sell plants.

Like they've already got it all knocked down. We're like, maybe like bloom and brew. But that felt so like Colleen Hoover, like not bowl. Oh my gosh.

Yes. Yeah. So we just, we didn't sell on that. And I don't know.

Rosie's just sort of popped up in like the sort of power language together goes. Oh, I love that. I always thought if I opened an ice cream shop that, sorry, my cat was just casually chewing on a cord. So I didn't want her to get electrated that I would name the flavors like, feel like this is so anti everything you've been saying tonight because Josh John's amazing, but I was going to make the flavors like star your husband's a dick.

You know what I mean? But it's just like a really nice chocolate. Yeah. You know?

Okay. So, Rosie's, I love that. What's going on behind the scenes? Like I feel like from the outside, I know you've given us a lot behind the scenes already, but from the outside, it's just, you guys are popping off.

You're doing so well. Is there anything behind the scenes that you're like, man, I wish I would have known this or I would go back and tell myself about this? For sure. I think hiring people is really hard.

I definitely underestimated how important it is to hire the right people. And we, I've been so lucky with our staff, but we did have to unfortunately let somebody go a few months ago that just wasn't aligned with our growth. And you know, to work at Rosie's right now, like we always say, we're like, we're perpetually curious, right? Like we're in beta.

Like we've got to, we're adjusting our systems every single day. And it's now we know when we hire people that that's something we have to gauge from them. Like, are you comfortable with this idea? Like if you were looking to come into a place where the systems are all figured out and you're just going to come in and get trained and get a handbook and that's what you're going to do every day.

This maybe isn't the place for you because our growth right now is unpredictable. And so we have to change things all the time. So hiring people who are willing to grow with us has been so important. And I would say if I could go back, I would probably have gauged that a little better because I don't, nobody wants to fire somebody that's like the worst feeling in the world.

It's awful. And, but also at the same time, it's very important that the people who work with us are aligned with us and ready to grow with us because, you know, we're going for it. You know, this isn't like Rosie's coffee shop in the country. Like this is, this is Rosie's.

Yeah. It's like it's a whole thing. So, yeah, hiring, hiring for sure. And otherwise on the back end, I mean, it's, it's a lot of like just what I was saying that it's a lot of figuring out like, what is our next step?

How do we stay ahead? We never want to like settle into over busy right now. So we'll stay busy because I don't think that's, I don't think that's true. I don't think that I think you have to stay changing.

You have to stay with what people want. And like coffee, I had no idea is like there are trends, you know, like right now we're like cold foam all day every day. But like, I don't even remember a cold foam being a thing like a couple of years ago, you know? Yeah.

But now it's like if we're when we're doing seasonal drinks, two or more of them usually have cold foam on them. And we're like, you know, we're now like, oh, we went through a billion cases of milk over the last year. And so we're like, I'm like, oh, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, make up your mind. Right?

I'm like, okay, we're pivoting. Yeah. But so it's a lot of pivoting, a lot of restocking a million trips to Costco and shout out to Master Supply and McCongee because they use to buy all of our paper goods to draws. Amazing how we run out of straws.

Yeah. Everybody loves straws. Like, are you taking them for your car? What are you doing with all the straws?

I mean, I love straws with my coffee. Yeah. Now it's like everyone's on a protein kick. I know to Starbucks is doing like protein drinks.

Are you looking into that? We have had people ask about it, but I don't know. We probably should. We have other cool things.

We're going to our spring menu right now. And yeah, I would love to. I want to make something that everybody likes and that's impossible. Yeah.

And I'm sorry for asking because no, but I was like, I understand that feeling because everyone's probably like, you should try this and you should try that. And like when my wife has visions for the house and she's like, I was thinking in the living room, we can do this. And sometimes I look at her and I'm like, I love these ideas, but all I'm imagining is the labor involved on my end. And she'll like laugh.

She's like, oh my god, you're so right. But I feel like that's how you feel when people are like, you should try to do this. And you're like, that's 12 trips to Costco. Yeah.

And I'm like, oh, so, so much coffee I have to drink. Oh, yeah. Like I was making, I'm working on a drink right now. I went to Denver recently and I had like this, a latte that was incredible.

It was so, so good. And I was like, we have to come home and remake this. I'm not going to sleep until we do it. But it's whether I have definitely slept because it's so hard.

It's so much coffee you have to drink to get a recipe right and so much coffee for the waste. And you know, it's like, I'll just make a whole latte because it seems to make the most sense like for you to know how it's going to taste. And it's like, oh, this one's too much lavender or this one's too much orange or you know, it's like you kind of just throw it away. So man, the trying to make new recipes just for one recipe sometimes will take a week until I've like, I made lavender syrup recently.

And we have an office upstairs above the cafe that we rent out and has a full kitchen. And so we make our syrups that they're in our cold brew up there. And I made lavender syrup the same day that I was trying to make this one drink that has lavender in it. And I could only smell and taste lavender.

I can't, I can't get anything else. So I came downstairs to the cafe and they were like, whoa, you smell like lavender. I was like, yeah, imagine trying to taste any of their notes in this coffee. So like, I need to take a whole, I literally took two days off because the office smelled so much like lavender I couldn't tell if the coffee was too much lavender.

Yeah, wow. Yeah. One time. I can't even imagine.

Okay. So ambiance wise, what do you want people to feel when they come into rosties? I want people to feel like they can sit and stay. Like I just want people to feel so welcome and like cheery and you know, we tell our baristas that like you might be the only positive interaction somebody has today.

There are so many people, especially in the McConchie area. There's a lot of developments and a lot of people work from home. And I'm like, you might be the only person somebody sees in person today. So it is so so important to us that you're like, that they're coming into something positive and welcoming and like, we know their name and we know their drink and you know, we can tell when something's a little off with them or you know, so I want that's like, I want people to come in and immediately feel like, oh, this is the best part of my morning.

Like I love coming there. I love that. Um, what's the lighting like? Sorry, that's just a no, that's a great question.

So we've got huge windows and we put in this big glass garage door. So just it's flooded with natural light. Love. And then we also put in these really cool like sort of pendant lights, I guess, they're sort of mid-century looking.

They're from Sweden. And that was a whole thing because our contractor was like, these wires don't work. They're like different wires, different colors. They're like thin or yeah, it's exactly.

They're like skinnier wires than our garden wiring is the whole thing. But yes, we've got sort of very lighting in that way. And then a lot of like track lights and spotlights and the lighting was very important to me that we had like very lighting and warm lighting, um, zero like overhead like fluorescent type of like what we had in school. Yes.

Yeah. Who's coming up with that? It's horrible. I was also thinking, sorry, wait, there was one other.

Oh, I'll circle back to that. I was thinking that like because I knew you as a kid, it's I could, it makes so much sense to me that you're a business owner. Really? Because I feel like you, you always were so emotionally intelligent, but you weren't a people pleaser.

No. Like you always knew how to be like, no, I don't like that or that's not going to work for me. And I've just thought that was the coolest thing. But I also, I feel like at the same time, like you knew how to work with people.

You knew how to talk to adults. Like you were always really mature. And so anyways, it's, as you're talking, I'm like, this is exactly, it just makes so much sense to me. Yeah.

Yeah. And I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I pity whoever I have to work for if I ever have to go back to a full time job. Oh my gosh, it's going to be such a transition for me to have a boss. But it's funny you said about me not being a people pleaser because I recently had this conversation with a good friend and with Josh and how Josh is a people pleaser.

You know, like my husband like just loves to serve others. And not that I don't love to serve others, but it's not my passion. And like serve me, bitch. Sorry.

I was, my friend was saying this about me that like Josh is such a people pleaser and I'm not. And I said, are you saying I don't please people? It is like stuck with me for like months. And I'm like, why would I say that?

I think it, I think not being a people pleaser, you still police people, but you're not like, that's not your North Star. Right. Exactly. Oh man, I was just going to, you made me think of something who picks the music that's playing in the baristas.

No way. So it's always different. No, unfortunately we all have exactly the same taste in music except like one of us, she are one of our baristas does a lot of like EDM and I love EDM. I just never think to play it in the cafe, but she listens to more like, you know, sort of like house music.

But all the rest of us are like, I don't know if you saw our like Spotify top songs. Unfortunately, they are all very mirrored and it turns out I just surround myself with people who listen to like Taylor Swift and like, no, I'm just like, it's so basic. We all have very basic early music taste. Listen, there's nothing basic about T Swift.

Okay. You guys should share your roasting's playlist. Oh, yeah, we totally got it. I mean, we just have it on Spotify.

Yeah. Yeah. There's got to be like a fun pond we can come up with for the roasting's. I was thinking if you have pastries, you should sell toaster's.

What is a toasty? I don't know. It's just be a kind of toast. Just a different kind of toast.

Every do you have pastries? We do. Do you make them or do you get them? We get them.