I'll type more when I'm at home on my computer, but I just wanted to let the DCSki community know that the Coyote Coffee shop in Wardensville and adjacent craft shop is officially closed with assets stripped bare. This comes from a very reliable source and as I type this I'm watching some of the owners carry stuff out into the cars.

Is that Lou's coffee shop? I'd say he is going to be upset if it is....

Yup that is... the one on the way through Wardensville. Appearantly financial burdens were too great.

Now that I'm able to sit down and type, here is the story that I heard. Part of it is still assumed rumor, and here is also what is fact.

The facts are that Coyote Coffee is indeed closed with the entire building having been 'cleaned out' of all supplies, assets, materials, etc. All of this started back in the winter when the shop went to 'winter hours' and then the other month began operating on Saturdays and Sundays and eventually just Saturday's for limited hours. Then the other week they simply were closed.

A nearby businessman who would always go there for lunch coffee told me he learned that they had indicated to possibly moving to a new location, but that didn't appear to pan out. He did tell me that one day everything was being hauled out of there into trucks and all happened in a matter of a day or two.

Now the rumor part of it is as follows. Appearantly the two male partners and female partners went into this business arrangement together. This seems to be confirmed from an article in the Moorefield Examiner.

A former employee who told the business man that I talked too said that there was some disagreements between the male partners and female partners of how to operate things. The female partners were more investors who ran the day to day operations while the male partners were silent owners. The ex employee said that the female partners without consent from the male partners sold every last item that wasn't nailed down from the store, got their money back and bailed. All the while the building is being advertised for sale as 'fully furnished'. This person also went onto say that the sh** would hit the fan when the male partners found out what had happened and that all assets were removed. In fact the counters, lights, light fixtures, ceiling fans, the counter/bar area, fridges, stoves, machines, all gone. It's just one big empty rectangle room now.

Anyway, I just wanted to pass that along and clarify a few things.

Bradley

Really too bad! Many DCSkiers really emjoyed the place for coffee and treats. I never stopped in since when I go to CV it is frequently late when I pass...ever so slowly...through Wardensville. This last trip to Snowy Luau I looked for the place but could not locate it.
Now, if they had served moonshine it might have made it!
The Colonel

Dang Brad, we need to start calling you the Town Gossip.

Soooooo sad, but what I saw corroborates your story. Carolyn and Susan were there full time, while Kelly and Michael were off and on. I started getting worried when I didn't see the boys and one of the ladies told me they went off on a cruise somewhere, after which they didn't seem to materialize. I could sense a little bit of bitterness in the ladies' speech

It certainly didn't close for lack of business. The place had become a hitching post for many people. And up to last month, they were actually expanding their selection.

The people that owned it were also amazingly talented. Sad to see the place closed down. Now the lawyers get busy...

Still, Aroma Coffee in Moorefield is as open as ever as the "DC-style" coffee house on the road to Snowshoe/Canaan.

I wondered about that as I drove through Moorefield last night. Why do they have all that white paper all over the windows? What do you guys do in there?

I wondered too... The owner has shades that he draws at night. I was at Aromas two weeks ago on the way back to SS. Their paninis are the rage too.

With the closing of Coyote, either I have to stop at the last Whole Foods in Fairfax to get good baguettes or pay $8.00 a baguette at Snowshoe. What the heck, a Viking range with a steamer injection oven is only $1600. That's only 200 baguettes at SS prices.

Me, the town gossip? Heck I don't even live in Wardensville anymore and get that title.

I never knew the names of the owners and vaguely remember a Moorefield Examiner article on them over a year ago opening up the business. I had been in there a few times for cappichino's which I'm now starting to get addicted too. The owner of a local business who mentioned this too me seemed to be reliable since he is an outstanding customer of mine. I wonder if when everyone parts ways if any of the individuals involved will separately try to re-establish anything...??

No I don't think you're gossiping at all. The demise of the Coyote Coffee is a really sad event. And you were right on the mark for the reason.

The silver lining on the entire issue is:

1. The success of the endeavor demonstrated that there is a definite need for that type of establishment in the Wardensville/Baker/Lost River/Mathias area. There are numerous newcomers whose apetite for the coffee house life style is one that they're willing to pay for. And many old time locals got to like it. As well as it became a stop for many people on the way to the inner parts of WV. Too bad that it is gone, but the reasons were related to personalities, not business demand.

2. I was positively impressed, as a matter of fact, I was taken aback by the welcoming nature of the locals to this type of business as well as to the issue of diversity itself. The business was welcomed and it succeeded and employed locals, benefiting the community. Again, its failure was not germane to the business climate in the town.

I hope now that the trail has been set, someone else picks up the flag and a new coffee house opens up in the area...

I have to say I was surprised by how many locals did pay the bit extra for the goodies in the shop. Of all the times I was in there I didn't see anyone overly using the mac for their emailing and what not. I think it was a bit better quality coffee drinks and some of the baked goods that did the trick. I heard numerous people around who complained they'd never pay those city prices for cheap coffee at home. Yet many of them did go in.

You know Brad, the more I mull this the more ennerved I get. This was a little gold mine, blown away by human frailty. And it served a genuine public service with its art gallery and locally grown organic produce.

Reminds me of the predecessor of the Foxfire at Snowshoe. Anyone remember the Eli's tavern that used to be there in its place? It was a gold mine managed into oblivion. Some parallels between the two. But as we saw at Snowshoe, someone (Foxfire) took its place quite rapidly. Hope it happens this time too.

Horror. Just drove by and saw the demise of Coyote. The place looks like a ghost house. Too bad.

I wouldn't say just human frailty, I would say a multiple business partnership that wasn't entered into by all participants with a full expectation of the results possibly being negative than being positive. I am assuming in this case here were 4 people not blood related and possibly came together as just friends with a decent idea. The bad thing in a case like that is, with 4 people in equal or semi-equal ownership roles you always have 4 different ideas of what is the best way to do something. I've personally believed in of a single ownership deal with others being more investors with ability to have hands on work. But all of that aside, what started out good tanked really fast.

Now if I had the capital, I'd start a premier organic steakhouse...

Actually there were two ideas and two MOs. Two couples. And perhaps the differences between them should have been fully explored before they went out on the enterprise. The whole community loses. Again, I'm the eternal optimist, so I see the silver lining, bigger and better. And a Wardensville with a coffee house, an Armani boutique, an Abercrombie, William Sonoma and Pottery Barn, all in a country rustic environment.

How about a Ben & Jerry's on the corner?? You've gotta have a place to kick back after all of that shopping....

Yes I'm partial to Ben and Jerry's. Vermonters you know...

Duuuuude ??????

The day I see a Pottery Barn across the street from the "White Star" bar, then I'll crap myself because one of those lifestyles will knock the other out because both won't survive side by side. lol

You'd be surprised at the resiliency of a community... With the Baker/Mathias corridor rapidly becoming the Yuppie Lebensraum for the DC area, the change will occur. One of these days the old folks will see themselves outvoted or outmaneuvered politically. We've already discussed these, but I think the leisure-devoted community moving in will eventually become more permanent. And stores will meet the demand. Happened in Southern Vermont, and the parallels are the same in the highlands of WV.

The latest rumor is a massage/holistic shop will be opening up in the building once occupied by Coyote Coffee. It's still a rumor for now.

There you go... Still answering the Yuppie Gods. Holistic massage, another coffee shop is only a matter of time. Consider that last year Hillary nearly made a stop in Lost River for campaigning among the DC crowd there...

But the sound of gunshots of deer hunters in the distance prevented her from stopping.

Holistic massage?

West Virginia Yuppies?

Actually, what happened turned a lot of previously loyal people against her. She was supposed to appear in Moorefield's Mountain Medical Center last July 27, which had been given new life through the efforts of many substantial contributors, of which many were very well-heeled gay residents of Lost River. After the opening of the clinic, she was supposed to have a fund raiser at the Inn at Lost River, which is also gay owned. Her campaign decided that the almost 150K they had collected was too little and cancelled the visit, and then dissed the owners of the Inn. Needless to say, her opponent probably has 150K extra in his coffers now... Pissed off lots of people in DC who also own property in Lost River. Hey, it's a small world...

Actually I remember that from this past summer. I had gotten word through some good sources long before it was aired in the paper that Hillary would be arriving. Several family members around me voiced what I was thinking... "Hillary in this po-dunk area? Yeah right, she'll grab the money and run." Sure enough that's what happened with a last minute cancellation. The whole liberal, Hillary worshiping crowd you would have thought lost their first love it seemed. Personally I was hoping Fred Thompson would have driven through in his beat up red pickup. Anyway for those who were Hillary loving... it pushed many of them to Obama and at the time Richardson.

It does show you, however, the growing clout of the newcomers in the highlands, and especially the Lost River/Mathias area. As I said before, and bringing it back to the coffee house subject, there is a substantial population in that area, with the disposable income to support not only one, but probably several coffee houses...

The Moorefield clinic issue is case in point. For these folk to have been able to open a clinic that offered, among some of the aspects, better care for women, it took a very substantial expenditure of funds and effort. The Moorefield clinic will benefit literally everyone in the area, as it will offer much enhanced medical treatment to folks in the area, some of them with limited means. If you all can channel that energy into joint ventures, considering that there are so many symbiotic areas (wind farm opposition, for example) you can all win/win. Face it, your area is becoming a mecca for some very well-heeled, young senior executives from DC.

It may require some of the very conservative folks in the area to make a transition of tolerance but many of these newcomers have the same respect for the environment that you do, and the connections here in town to make the power companies' life miserable.