Business owners find success in opening coffee shop during pandemic

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    BOULDER CITY, Nevada (FOX5/KVVU) — Although many businesses have had to close their doors because of economic hardships from the pandemic, one coffee shop in Boulder City is opening.

Three friends, Travis Wallgren, Amber Stephens and Misty Magruder set their sights on one of the oldest buildings in the town at the end of 2019. They planned to open a coffee shop in 2020.

“Once we finally secured the lease with the owner,” said Wallgren. “We signed the lease in May witch was obviously not a great time to be opening a business.”

With the ink drying, the friends got to work and pushed the opening to June for their shop, The Dam Roast house & Browder Bookstore.

“We had a million timelines,” said Stephens. “We were going to open in June, then July, and then after Halloween, then after Thanksgiving.”

As the opening date kept getting pushed, problems caused by the pandemic started to pile up. The building that the business would set up in had been left boarded up for years.

“This building is the oldest commercial building in Boulder City,” said Wallgren. “It was constructed in 1931. It was Ida Browder who started a café to feed the dam workers. Then it sort of expanded over time. It was the coffee cup for a long time and then it was finally boarded up for almost the last 10 years.”

The group had their work cut out for them to get the location ready — no small task during a pandemic.

“It was gutted in here it was totally torn up concrete and dirt,” Wallgren said.

In addition to restoring the old building, they also said they had a hard time getting what they needed to keep the coffee shop afloat.

“We were struggling because with the pandemic a lot of things that we tried to order were taking longer. You know, just trying to hire people and things was difficult,” said Wallgren.

But at the end of 2020, the location came together with a new look for the old location.

”It is very cozy, it’s very inviting. We wanted something different for Boulder City,” said Magruder.

Even with capacity in the shop down to 25%, the inviting atmosphere has brought in the costumers.

”We’re worried because restrictions are obviously 25% and that makes it pretty difficult but we’ve been busier than I thought we would be,” Wallgren said. “I was really worried about those capacity restrictions. We have had a steady flow of people coming in here for the last three weeks and it’s just been amazing.”

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