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The Victoria College. Full-time salaried position with benefits available...
DISTRICT "Champions for Community Wellness" has the following positions...
Ed Wiatt opened Coastal Ed’s Trading Post and Creamery on April 25th after talking with friends about the possibility of creating a retail store and ice cream shop. Wiatt spent many weekends in Port O’Connor while working in Houston.
In December 2007, he bought the lot at 1012 W. Adams St., but worked eight months to construct the store he envisioned.
As a former distributor for Columbia Sportswear, he wanted an outlet to continue selling clothing customized with Port O’Connor logos. What Wiatt, or Coastal Ed, ended up with surpassed just a retail shop.
Wiatt recently finished a couple of coastalccinos for customers and discussed the details.
Q: How did you end up selling clothes, ice cream and coffee?
A: I said the town’s missing something. We’re missing a clothing store here. I talked with my wife a year discussing it and said let’s see if we could find a building to open a store. My thought process was to get people to come into the store to buy the clothes, so we thought about the attraction. Ice cream was first. Talking to ice cream places, it turns out the ones that had coffee sold more coffee than ice cream.
Guy shopping habits are different than women’s. Guys kind of do the grab-and-go technique of buying clothes. While they’re waiting for coffee or ice cream, they browse around a bit.
Q: And you had to go to coffee school?
A: Coffee school 101. It’s not as easy as you think to make a good espresso. It’s under pressure and temperature. To get it right, you have to learn how to do all the mechanical things first. So I bought an espresso maker – a Faema from Italy. Now I’ve got high school kids working here and older adults so we can all make consistent espresso.
Q: Did you have trouble finding staff?
A: I was scared to death. Everyone else told me the labor pool here was very shallow. I found out one of the greatest resources we have here is high school kids who can’t work in places that serve alcohol. It’s so neat to see the high school kids back there doing the soda fountain. When they go off to college, they can walk in the door someplace and say I was a barista. It gives them a leg up.
Q: Why did you design your store this way?
A: I’ve heard 2,500 people come in on the weekends. The big thing for us, my wife Janet and I, thought there wasn’t a place for women to take the children while the guys are out in the boat fishing. We’re going to have side decks that go out to the back and a youth area for small kids to play in. The front deck will have a little bar top so you can watch cars go by and eat your ice cream.
We thought it best not to have drinking and smoking here. Everyone else has that.
Q: Were you nervous about being successful?
A: I think there’s always apprehension. I had to convince my wife we should sell our Houston home and do a grand investment down here. We’re having faith.
I have another business that I had in Houston. If somebody e-mails us and says send us ballpoint pens with a logo on it, we’ll do that for them. That’s going to help us ride the storm.
Tara Bozick is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact her at 361-580-6504 or tbozick@vicad.com.
If You Go:
Coastal Ed’s Trading Post and Creamery with Espresso Bar
Wireless Internet
1012 W. Adams St.
Hours
For Now: 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., closed at 2 p.m. Tuesdays and all day Wednesdays.
He plans to eventually be open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week.