Good Neighbor Podcast Northport
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of Tuscaloosa and Northport!
Good Neighbor Podcast Northport
Monarch Espresso and Moonshot Creamery with Audrey Vermilyea
Are you ready to feel inspired by the powerhouse entrepreneur Audrey Vermilyea, co-owner of the beloved Tuscaloosa establishments, Monarch Espresso and Moonshot Creamery? If you're intrigued by the world of starting a business from scratch and creating a strong community bond, this episode is unmissable. Discover Audrey's journey, from the establishment of Monarch seven years ago, to the recent launch of Moonshot Creamery, and her unwavering dedication to maintaining high standards and using the best ingredients.
Mugs up! This episode is filled with warmth as Audrey spills the beans about Monarch's superior coffee and homemade pastries. She also unveils the latest buzz at Moonshot Creamery: a customizable hot chocolate bar, perfect for the chilly season. Find out how Audrey and her husband Paul, fueled by their love for Tuscaloosa and a dream to fill a gap in the local market, ventured into entrepreneurship. Hear about the support they got from friends, family, and the community that played a pivotal role in their success. Whether you are an aspiring entrepreneur or a coffee enthusiast, sit back and let Audrey's story perk up your day! #GNPNorthport #MoonshotCreamery #MonarchEspresso #Coffee #IceCream #LocalTuscaloosa #Tuscaloosa #HotChocolate #GourmetTuscaloosa
This is the Good Neighbor podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Patricia Blondheim.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor podcast. I'm your host, patricia Blondheim, and today we have Good Neighbor Audrey Vermilier. Audrey is the co-owner of Monarch Espresso there's no X in it and Moonshot Creamery here in Tuscaloosa. Audrey, how are you this morning?
Speaker 3:I'm good Thanks for having me Tell us about your businesses. Yeah, absolutely so. Monarch is our first business. We opened Monarch. It will be seven years ago this February. It is a coffee shop in downtown Tuscaloosa and we do our own pastries and bagels and everything in-house there. And then we also have an ice cream shop which is on the Riverwalk in Tuscaloosa. It opened this summer called Moonshot Creamery.
Speaker 2:Now, I love both of your businesses. By the way, I think Monarch is one of the best coffee houses, if not the best coffee house, here in Tuscaloosa, just as far as the quality of the coffee that you put out. I mean really high quality. It appears to me I'm not part of this process, but it appears to me really high quality beans, really high quality baked goods and the atmosphere is really amazing. I've not been in Moonshot yet but I'm excited about you've got a new hot chocolate bar, isn't that correct?
Speaker 3:That's correct. Yeah, yeah, at Moonshot we just started doing hot chocolate as the winter months are now upon us. We just have an option that's not super cold and we make the hot chocolate to order and then you can put any kind of toppings you want on it. So it's just a fun way to bring people in off of the Riverwalk to get a drink in their hand while just enjoying the Riverwalk and they're going about their day.
Speaker 2:Well, it's a bar, right. So what kind of things can I put on my hot chocolate?
Speaker 3:And we got marshmallows, peppermint sticks, caramels, whipped cream, sprinkles, just as much as you want. So you can just make your own until fun.
Speaker 2:It sounds delicious. Well, tell our listeners about your journey, audrey. Tell me, how did you all end up with first an espresso coffee shop and now a creamery? Tell me about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so. My husband, Paul, and I both went to the University of Alabama and I've kind of always had an interest in opening my own business at some point. Didn't know what that would look like or where that would be, but we both studied business in school and while we were in Tuscaloosa students, we would just get so excited about anytime a new local business would open, and we were always like, why aren't there more local coffee shops Like this feels like the perfect place for it. So post college, we moved to Nashville and we really couldn't get Tuscaloosa out of our out of our mind kept coming back to the idea of Tuscaloosa and the need for a coffee shop, and we it was completely new territory for us.
Speaker 3:I had worked in restaurants and had worked with entrepreneurs opening new businesses, but we never had done anything like this at this kind of scale, and so we actually did Kickstarter and to raise some of the funds that we needed to come back and open Monarch. But yeah, we came back to Tuscaloosa because we enjoyed it. We didn't know what it looked like not being students here, but we definitely saw a need for what we wanted to create and so we I mean it's definitely both of our businesses have been just from the ground up and lots of elbow crease. We've done everything. Everything that we could do on our own, we managed to do, and it wouldn't, neither would have happened without the help from friends and family and just the community supporting what we were trying to do, because it's just the definition of small business.
Speaker 2:Well, now you've you've managed not only to create two businesses, but two businesses that have really high quality standards. So what have you put into place? That sort of that supports that, that, that unbending standard for Monarch and for Moonjot Sure.
Speaker 3:So we for both places, we've been set on using absolutely the best products, ingredients that we can find, Because there's just no way around that. We know that and there's so many places you can go and just get okay coffee or okay ice cream, Like we don't. You don't need another place like that. We partner with Onyx, who's out of Fayetteville, our consult, and they only roast the top 2% of coffee in the entire world, and so, in turn, we don't roast our own beans because we were. We want to work with the people who are doing it at the highest level. So we know that the product we're getting is incredible Again, the top 2% coffee in the whole world and so then that allows us to focus on the service aspect of what we're doing. We remind our team all the time like so many hands have touched this along the process, so many people have put their heart and soul into this product, and we're the final step in getting to serve that to the customer. We have an opportunity either to really mess that up or to make this really special and incredible. So we get to really focus on that relationship and making that not just a transaction of someone just getting their coffee. But we want to become part of the rhythms of people's lives and this glue set, and so making that final connection and being able to make someone a great cup of coffee is just the heart of what we're doing. And then a main shot.
Speaker 3:Similarly, we were like, okay, we could, we could do their unit, get a brand of ice cream everybody knows about and has had, or we could try to do this on our own and reinvent the wheel. And rather than do that, we partner with Oxal, which is a union in Georgia. I became obsessed with them years ago because that's where Paul's parents live and I've asked her for years to let us sell her ice cream to us. So he says, he says miss was missing great ice cream and she didn't have our wholesale license until literally the spring when we wanted to open. And she uses actually Alabama grass fed dairy milk and so it's really cool. We, you know, we get to have a bunch of different flavors and she makes those order and so there's no stabilizers or artificial ingredients and so it again meets those standards of a high quality and like I'm absolutely obsessed with it and I'm so glad that people in Tuscaloosa have responded to the ice cream and the way that they have the coffee and just have grown to love it.
Speaker 2:Well, this kind of leads into the next question, which is misconceptions. So I mean, a lot of people think coffee is coffee and ice cream is ice cream. How can you, how can you bust that misconception?
Speaker 3:I would say come in, come in and experience monarch, or give it three times. I have people tell me all the time that we have ruined them when it comes to coffee, ice cream and wine. But they come in and say you know, I thought that, I thought coffee was just. You know, there's just kind of one standard and it doesn't really get better than that. And once you come in and experience what it's like to have a pour over, which is just a different way of making a black coffee, or have a barista who knows what they're doing on steaming milk and pulling a good espresso shot, you'll be able to taste the difference.
Speaker 3:We also use local J dairy, a local dairy, for our milk and monarchs drinks and so, like that, people basically tell me all the time like I don't think I liked coffee until I came here and started being able to try all these different things and now I'm you know, I'm hooked. So I think for me, once people have had tasted and experienced what it's like to have coffee from a specialty coffee shop, like monarch, or ice cream from a place that, yeah again, is making it by hand with no artificial ingredients, like you just can't go back. But you don't know until you try it.
Speaker 2:I agree, monarch is a whole different standard and, looking forward to Moonshot, I'll be making my visit here very soon. Can you tell me, though I mean, obviously you're very busy what do you do for fun when you're not working?
Speaker 3:Really spending time with my kids. I don't have a lot of free time because we have two little kids, but they're the best part of my day and they get to come along with us at both shops and so that's exciting. And then, you know, tuscaloosa is a great community, so we have a nice group of friends and, yeah, we, it's just fun to. I'm at a stage in life where I just like being home and enjoying family and don't have a lot of other time to do other things.
Speaker 2:I don't think that stage ever ends. By the way, I'm okay with that, Audrey, let's go forward and talk about a life challenge. You know, something that has happened in your life, good or bad, that has made you a better person.
Speaker 3:Sure, I would say, and I know a lot of people can relate to this, but the beginning of COVID and what that meant for us as a small business and as a family was especially just terrifying.
Speaker 3:To be Quite honest, we have always prided ourselves at Monarch for being a place that people love to come in and experience the whole, the whole space and to be able to interact really closely with our baristas and our bakers, and so it was challenging to wrap my mind around how in the world are we going to be able to continue doing what we do? And are people like, do people you know? Are they going to be able to interact with Monarch in a new way and a different way that will still allow our business to continue? And so we, through that experience, actually served out of our window, at our front window at Monarch, for basically April through November, and what we learned during that process was that, you know, people at that time are really looking for connection and familiarity, and that was something we were still able to give them, even through a window experience. And so it challenged us to become creative. We did Dropboxes to People's House, we came up with all kinds of new products, and it was amazing to see the community rally behind us and what was, for us personally, just a difficult and challenging time.
Speaker 3:So I'm very thankful for that and it definitely kind of inspires me now Like hey, we were able to overcome that, like we can take what's ahead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's where. That's where the Good Neighbor podcast came from, by the way from COVID.
Speaker 3:I mean it's really good things from it.
Speaker 2:We got a lot of good things from COVID. I mean, there was a huge silver lining to that event, scary as it was, right, right, but the need for connection remains.
Speaker 2:And I think that's where Moonshot and Monarch excel Right. You can go in there and not only get an amazing cup of coffee, but the people that you meet there are unfailingly warm and welcoming and even funny. I mean, you get the trifecta there, yeah. So before we leave, though before we sign off, what's the one thing you want people to take away about Monarch and Moonshot?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, I would say. I want to want people to come in and try something new and different and to push themselves out of their own boundaries and test-cruise. So we all kind of get caught in the same rhythms. And what I love about both of our businesses is that there's going to be things in the menu you haven't seen elsewhere, and there's going to be people in our shop you haven't encountered before, and it's just a whole. It's a different experience and it means the world to us, as local people who live in this community, to have for people to come in and choose to support one of our businesses over going to. There's so many chains in this town and so I would say, come in, try something you've never tried before, because I promise you, at both of our places there's something new for everybody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree. How can listeners learn more, Audrey? How can they contact you or find Moonshot or Monarch?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can contact me. I love connecting with our customers. We have I have, an email for both shops. It's just hello. At monarch espressocom you can find both shops. One Moonshot is on the Riverwalk and then Monarch is downtown next to Government Plaza. I mean you can find our hours online, but I do love getting to meet our customers, so I would love for anyone to reach out on any point.
Speaker 2:Wonderful Audrey. It's always great to speak to you. Thank you so much for coming and sharing with us today you too, patricia.
Speaker 3:I appreciate it. Have fun.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbour Podcast Northport. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpnorthportcom or call 205-809-4910.