Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 23, 1994 TAG: 9402230283
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
His brother and his brother's girlfriend were up front. They had just picked him up at the Seattle airport, after his flight from Roanoke. It was June 1992, at the peak of the most recent recession, and Johnson hadn't been home in five years.
They pulled into the parking lot of a strip mall, and his brother wheeled behind a line of cars waiting at a small booth. Johnson thought it was a drive-thru Fotomat. He thought his brother was picking up some film for the funeral.
Then his brother ordered a caffe mocha.
"And I'm looking out the window and saying, `What's going on?'"
Johnson watched as other cars rolled up, four deep on both sides of the booth.
His brother said: "This is espresso. This is coffee. This is the way to do it."
From there, Johnson hatched a plan.
During that following week in Seattle, after his father was buried, Johnson explored the city's booming coffee trade and found espresso stands almost everywhere: in parking lots, in the malls, in hospitals, hotels and outside grocery stores. Downtown, he found espresso carts and kiosks on nearly every corner, alongside the hot dog stands and other street vendors. People were hooked - and Johnson smelled a trend.
"I was jacked up, man, I was excited."
When Johnson returned to Roanoke, his enthusiasm didn't diminish. He started reading about coffee and researching the coffee business. He called espresso cart manufacturers and drew up a business plan on his home computer.
At the same time, Johnson already had his own business, repairing and servicing automated machine shop systems used in producing metal engine parts. It was a one-man operation he had started in 1990, after a string of related industrial jobs. He didn't really have the time or money to venture into coffee, too.
But he remained determined.
Although Johnson isn't a coffee drinker, a future in espresso seemed to fit his personality and his dream of becoming an entrepreneur.
He has been a man driven by challenge since he graduated high school in 1971. He was not content to stay in Seattle, go to college or do what was expected. Instead, he drove off in his 1966 cherry red Pontiac LeMans to explore the country.
After two years, he settled in Michigan. He enrolled in college, but he never finished, opting instead for marriage, a family and a job. He found work with a machine shop that produced metal parts for cars and military tanks.
Not content as a machine shop worker, either, Johnson went to work for a Japanese company that builds and programs computer automated equipment used in machine shops and other industries. That job took him to Houston in 1980 and to Roanoke in 1983.
"I didn't know what was in Roanoke, and that's what attracted me."
Johnson grew tired of the corporate atmosphere, however. It was suffocating to someone who had started out with the freedom of a cherry red LeMans and who held a dream of someday running his own company.
A one-man business he started in 1990 fulfilled that desire to a point. He was his own boss. But he also was his only worker. "Even though I was an entrepreneur, sometimes I didn't want to get up in the morning and drive to North Carolina to work on a machine," he said.
Coffee called to him.
Last November, he returned to Seattle. He arranged to have a coffee stand, or kiosk, shipped back to Roanoke. He toured the city sampling espresso - straight-up and black - searching for a taste he liked. The search wasn't always pretty.
Johnson, 40, has a low tolerance for straight espresso. "It works like Ex-lax."
In a parking lot outside a restaurant, he eventually found the espresso he wanted. He tracked down the supplier and arranged to have the same blend shipped out to him. Then, he went to work at a kiosk for a few days before returning to Roanoke.
Back home, he hurried to scout locations. He tried the malls and the hospitals. He couldn't sell them on the idea. He tried Virginia Tech, but the school has its own plans to open a coffee stand.
He staked out the Kroger at Tanglewood Mall for three hours one night and counted 2,000 people go in and out. But he decided he didn't want to start outdoors.
Finally, he took a drive downtown. He drives an Oldsmobile 98 Regency now.
At the corner of Jefferson Street and Franklin Road, he spied a vacant store for rent. He liked the location. The store had high visibility along two major thoroughfares and was within walking distance from a dozen large office buildings.
The location suited Johnson's plan to target business people, who he believed would be more open to the notion of upscale coffee and trendy espresso drinks, like cappuccino and caffe mocha.
He decided on a name: Espresso Rush.
"One minute, boom, you're in, boom, you're out."
Like in Seattle: "The progressive mindset of coffee on the go."
His idea was carry-out and delivery only. Johnson did not want to compete with Mill Mountain Coffee & Tea, a gourmet coffee shop a few blocks away. Espresso Rush is not meant as a gathering place. There are no chairs. Nor does Johnson sell bulk coffee like Mill Mountain.
The concept isn't far from the street stand - only taken inside.
Johnson's espresso kiosk is a fully self-contained unit, complete with an espresso machine, refrigeration, milk dispensers, a sink and running water hook-ups. The cart is on wheels, so it's mobile. It could be set up anywhere.
"Just plug it in and go."
This helps explain why Johnson hasn't done much to give Espresso Rush a permanent look. The vacant office supply store he rented still looks much like a vacant office supply store. The faux-brick flooring is aged, out-of-style and peeling in places. Faded wood paneling lines one wall. Neither screams trendy.
By contrast, the black and gold sheen of the coffee cart looks upscale, but it is dwarfed by the room. Johnson could easily operate in a fraction of the space he now occupies.
Even the store front signs he had painted on the windows aren't particularly flashy.
"It's the simple start-up theory."
He also hopes it is a formula he can use to open other espresso stands. From the beginning, the entrepreneur in Johnson has thought big. He looked to the Starbucks Coffee chain, which operates more than 250 coffee outlets nationally, as his model.
"I want to be the Starbucks of the mid-Atlantic."
He isn't kidding. To turn a profit, he said he needs to consistently sell 300 cups of espresso a day. Once that is accomplished, his goal then is to open three new espresso stands a year. "We're playing on the consistency of human habits."
He cited his first encounter with the coffee craze back in Seattle. Even during a recession, people were buying. "It's like your best bowl of ice cream or your favorite piece of pie," Johnson explained.
"It's gonna be a luxury item, but it's gonna become a necessity."
\ Espresso: what is it?\ \ Espresso is made from coffee beans grown at 2,000 feet above sea level or higher. The beans are roasted slightly longer and cooled differently from regular coffe, and this produces a stronger, more flavorful coffee. A 1-ounce shot of espresso is made by drawing boiling water under pressure over seven grams of finely ground espresso for 20 seconds.
\ Cappuccino, caffe mocha and other specialty coffee drinks are made by mixing one shot of espresso with steamed and foamed milk and other ingredients. These specialty coffees contain one-third the caffein of regular coffee.
\ Opening a kiosk\ How much does it cost?\ \ Coffee cart: $12,000\ Espresso machine: $6,500\ Renovations: $1,500\ Operating cash: $1,300\ Inventory: $1,200\ Graphics/signs: $1,200\ Monthly rent: $400\ Tables: $240\ Milk dispenser: $200\ Business license: $15\ \ Total: $24,555
by CNB