Aunt Helen’s serves ‘snark’ with the coffee

GREELEY — There’s a lot of idioms that hold that keeping it simple is often the best course; and if that somehow works together with “snarky” then so much the better.

“She really does have that get-to-the-point attitude,” said Aimee Hutson about her great-aunt Helen Ingle, for whom the downtown Greeley coffee house, Aunt Helen’s, was named. “People ask her how she got to be that old, and she says, ’by minding your own damn business, you ought to try it.’”

Aimee and her husband, Robert Hutson — Aunt Helen probably calls him, “Bob” — started planning to open an establishment a little more than a year ago and were able to open in March. Perhaps a little bit of that get-to-the-point attitude had already rubbed off on the couple.

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“Well, all the kids were grown, and it was time to try something different,” Hutson said.

“I had the desire to run my own business, and a coffee shop was something that intrigued me — like craft brewers coffee shops are their own thing. Plus we had Aunt Helen.”

Aunt Helen, whose caricature and sayings can be found throughout the coffee shop, is fond of pointing out that such places have really taken the place of the small-town cafe — you know, the kind of place you go for some basic hot food along with a side of unsolicited advice from the waitress. Aunt Helen’s kind of wisdom can also be found throughout the menu, which is remarkably inexpensive, at least from a Boulder County coffee shop standard.

“We do sort of have that, ‘don’t let the door hit you on the way out,’ thinking, at least in the way we name our menu items,” Hutson said. “Some of them are like ‘Aim Low’ (your basic egg and muffin sandwich) or ‘Drive Fast; Take Chances’ (a spiced-up egg and muffin with ham, avocado and Gouda cheese).”

The shop’s biggest sellers are waffle wraps, however, including the basic “Wrap it up already,” which features egg and meat inside the slightly sweet wrap. Others go a ways past the predictable, including “Pig on Skates” (ham and cheddar) and the “It’s a Classic” (yes, a P&J in a wrap.)

Robert is a national sales distribution manager for Wells Dairy, the makers of Blue Bunny Ice Cream, so perhaps it’s obvious where the clear branding technique comes from. Aimee actually was running a staff of 40 educators in multiple locations when she decided to trade that in for a business of her own.

“The thing that took me by surprise the most is how much there is to learn, about coffee beans, free trade, (etc.). It’s interesting how extensive the coffee knowledge is (among consumers) and how particular people can be about their coffee,” she said.

“I think that’s great, but at least people aren’t as mad at me when I mess up their coffee, compared to their kids.”

The shop didn’t take long to catch on with the downtown business crowd, said Kim Barbour, the public relations director for the Greeley Chamber of Commerce. Barbour said one reason for that is the owners are very supportive of community fundraising initiatives and the Downtown Development Authority.

“They are great people, with great coffee and good food,” Barbour said. “Even as new as they are they have a dedicated bunch of customers.”

Already the business has supported the Ride for Success Program, which buys computers and other digital equipment for disadvantaged school children, donating a dollar from all latte sales. The Special for Small Business Saturday donated $1 from each purchase for Habitat for Humanity.

The couple’s first business decision was it would be located in downtown, which is seeing a bit of a Renaissance. Hutson said they had always counted on the opening of the nearby DoubleTree by Hilton convention center at Lincoln Park, and there was also good construction trade in the interim.

While the branding is a bit snarky, the establishment is not. The owners took great care in renovating with floor-to-ceiling windows and a style that would be home in downtown Denver.

But then, of course, there’s always Aunt Helen to welcome customers in her distinct style every days with witticisms, such as “Looking sharp is for people who don’t know how to work.”

Aunt Helen is a real person, a 105-year-old family fixture who lives in a nearby assisted living center and loves to hear how her coffee shop is doing.

“Everytime I see her, she wants to know, ‘how’s business?’” Hutson said.