Thursday, September 26, 2024
When Niki Foster and her husband, Mike Foster, first opened their coffee shop trailer two years ago, they wanted to provide a place where Gatesville residents could grab a specialty cup of coffee on the weekend.
“We were just doing it for fun,” Foster said. “It was strictly to have good coffee. It was for people to get up on Saturdays and Sunday mornings to go get coffee – that was it. We had no idea it was going to be like this.”
Now, Foster and her family’s dream of turning The Green Rooster Coffee Co into a hometown coffee shop has come true after opening its permanent location on Main Street in August. The building, a renovated 1950s house, offers a space where people can relax, enjoy a cup of coffee, and visit with friends and family.
“I just wanted something awesome for Gatesville,” she said.
Foster shares how she and her husband came up with the name ‘Green Rooster.’
“We both have green eyes, and the rooster is the first thing that crows in the morning – and green is my favorite color,” she said.
Born and raised in Gatesville herself, Foster said they strive to keep The Green Rooster’s service within the community.
“I got offered many times to go here and there, but I wanted it to be a Gatesville only thing,” Foster said. “I wanted The Green Rooster to be a kind of landmark or whatever – just something really neat, just for our area.”
While the business is still in its soft opening, Foster has exciting plans for the space. She said they want to begin a “Rooster after hours” that includes a date-night theme with a special dessert. As a member of the Cruzin Cruzers car club, she wants to eventually host a “coffee and cars” event in the evening.
“At night, the neon (light) glows, and our town is beautiful at night, it really is,” Foster said. “And I'm like, why don't we actually kind of spotlight our beauty and keep people here? We don't have stuff that will keep people in our community on the weekends and at night.”
The Green Rooster’s menu includes classic hot and iced espresso beverages like flavored lattes, Americanos, and cappuccinos. Foster said the ideas for some of the more intense specialty drinks – such as the ‘Night Shift’ and ‘Rise & Shine’ that include six shots of espresso – were created by her husband and other Gatesville community members.
Foster adds that they only use certified organic coffee and espresso beans that are freshly ground after the customer orders. “We only use high quality ingredients,” she said.
Currently, The Green Rooster serves snacks and light bites with coffee. Foster hopes to keep the focus on the coffee but might incorporate smaller plates or pastries in the future.
“I love to cook and stuff, but I kind of want coffee to be the main thing,” she said. “This is a coffee shop.”
The coffee shop also contains a comfortable seating area, tables and chairs inside and outside, and Wi-Fi. Foster said she was also partly inspired by her days of meeting clients and working in different coffee shops while at her former company.
“The feel of it was – you could just sit in there and drink your coffee and kind of escape,” Foster said. “And that's kind of what we're trying to create.”
As a local artist, the business also gives Foster the opportunity to create. She painted all the art and murals inside the building as well as developed all of Green Rooster’s marketing and branding. Part of her goal with the branding was to ensure that the space felt welcoming to everyone.
“When we thought of the Green Rooster, (we wanted) it to be a place that men and women could go, and all ages could go and actually enjoy it,” she said.
Foster hopes The Green Rooster also inspires other creatives and small business owners to bring their unique ideas to Gatesville.
“Gatesville is cool, and we have young couples that want to live here. So, why don't we create something for the young couples that want to live here? I mean, I'm not moving, so I might as well create what I want,” she said.
Even though Foster has no plans to reuse the business’s original trailer, she has decorated the new building with some tributes from the old space, such as photos of people in line at the trailer, old punch cards, and a Green Rooster sign.
“We needed people to see that we appreciate our community and the people that actually helped us get here,” Foster said.
The Green Rooster is located at 1910 E Main St, Gatesville, TX 76528
For the lobby and drive thru hours, visit the Green Rooster Coffee Co. Facebook page.
