What A Year!
It began as a dream; it evolved into a nightmare, and then suddenly we woke up! We were so optimistic when we started construction in January 2020. It had been two years of planning, learning, and developing relationships that brought us to the point where we could bring Stylus & Crate to life. We had a great team of advisors and suppliers, and a fantastic architect, branding, and construction team. We selected a new development location in an amazing community. We had spreadsheets, presentations, cut sheets, mood boards, samples, and tons of ideas. We had been to coffee school; we had studied and done thousands of google searches looking for information. It was the beginning of a new year full of hope and excitement, but within weeks, the world shut down. Just like that, 2 years of daring to dream was gone and business plans were torn up. For the first-time, we had thoughts of “what have we done?” and “what a terrible mistake we have made”.
We were so far down the path, the only thing we could do was move forward. It was not possible to turn back or second guess. We finished construction on time in April 2020 and passed all inspections; we patiently waited and wondered if we would ever get to unlock the doors. Celebrations and grand opening events were canceled; we adjusted staffing plans, menus, and offerings. Eventually, we knew we would open, and we realized we were going to be something different than what we had dreamed. Most importantly, we knew we were lucky as we watched other businesses lay off staff and throw away thousands of dollars of inventory. We all watched together as people got sick and died, and the reality of Covid-19 set in.
In late May, we learned what the restrictions would be upon opening our doors, in terms of capacity and social distancing, mask mandates, cleaning and health protocols, and operational guidelines. We made lots of adjustments and completed our “first remodel” before we even opened. Finally, on June 3, 2020, we posted on Instagram and Facebook that we were open and unlocked our doors for the first time.
Today we celebrate our first year in business! It made us stronger, made us better, and it made us fall in love with the community we serve. While the pandemic is not over and is still a nightmare for many, we want to dare to dream again. Our Revolutions Blog will be a place where we will share that dream, introduce you to our staff and our community, and share with you what it means to us to “Be The Sunshine”. We will look back on our first year and reflect on the challenges we overcame and the milestones we achieved. We will share with you our “Why’s”, our music, our drinks, our suppliers, our commitments, and our values.
A heartfelt thank you to all of you. We appreciate you joining and staying on this journey with us this past year. We couldn’t have done it without you. We are anxious to see where the next year takes us.