Mountain Table roasts coffee , serves breakfast and hosts community dinner and events .
A lexander Durand and Nadine Sonneville started Mountain Table as a locally-sourced and organic pop-up kitchen while working other jobs . They had often talked about starting their own business , and when Durand lost his job at the Greenbrier Brewing Company , they decided to jump all in . A friend was selling a high production coffee roaster and the Blue Grey Pub down the street from their residence in Renick was up for sale .
A year later the two have roasted over 6,000 pounds of coffee . Mountain Table coffee can be found in 14 counties , all the Food Lions across the state and they have launched into serving breakfast and community dinners .
“ It was a little nerve wracking starting a business since I lost my job and saw how the economy was post Covid ,” Durand said . “ We knew people that we would be able to work with and get our coffee into their shops . One thing that kept me on track with positivity was seeing the other businesses working together .”
Mountain Table coffee is organic , fairy traded and comes in compostable packaging . The main varieties are Peru , Colombian , Honduras and Sumatra and they recently added pods . “ We go through an importer and try to look for any accolades in addition to organic and fairly traded – we have some women , some that are part of the rainforest , they ’ re shade grown , bird friendly – trying to minimize our impact on the environment as much as possible and educate others about it ,” Durand said .
“ We held off on the pods till we could find and partner with somebody that had 100 percent compostability . There ’ s so many pods that go into the landfill every day so this is a pretty big innovation for us .”
Having a roaster in house provides the opportunity to offer a unique product – custom roasts . Businesses and individuals can custom tailor a specific roast unique to them . “ You can come and roast with us – whatever product you want to create ,” Durand says . “ I consider it making partnerships with people and helping their business grow .”
The Blue Grey Pub is almost unrecognizable from its previous state . A bar for many years , it changed hands many times before becoming home to Mountain Table . They painted , put down new flooring , installed a coffee bar to make it family friendly . They recently launched breakfast on Tuesdays , Wednesdays and
Kids play card games at the table .
Thursdays from 6 a . m . to 9 a . m . and supper on Tuesdays with a different menu every week . “ We ’ re one of the only establishments that sell food other than the gas station ,” Durand said . “ We kept with our pop-up roots and we host supper on Tuesdays for our community – a population of 176 – so the slogan is ‘ You don ’ t have to cook in Renick on Tuesdays .’”
In addition to coffee , the vision is to add other products such as chocolate , hot sauce , tea and spice blends .
Starting a new business was challenging , but Durand says selling it was not that difficult . “ The people in West Virginia are really supportive of other West Virginians . And we were able to tell a story that was slightly different from other people and products . There are a lot of really good roasters in West Virginia , but people have really gravitated based on the message of it being environmentally friendly and caring about every bag .” �
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