Crookston is getting a new coffee shop. Heroes Rise Coffee Company will move into the former Cofé Bistro and Chickadee Coffee Roasters location at 1504 University Ave.
On Tuesday, the Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority (CHEDA) Board authorized its Executive Director Craig Hoiseth to reach a deal for the sale of Cofé’s physical assets when the doors to Cofé were closed last summer. On Wednesday, Heroes Coffee, a family-owned business, was preparing to remodel the location before opening their doors.
Jeff VanGrinsven said they’d like to get the doors open soon. “If everything goes right, we should be open by December 1,” said VanGrinsven. “We just got the lights turned on today, so it’s a lot cleaner. Now we’re stripping things off the walls and getting them out of the way so we can come over to clean and paint next week. It’s not very far away, plus there are three weeks of deer hunting in there, and I’ve got to get some deer hunting in.”
The VanGrinsven family has a history of being first responders, from being police officers to EMS, and Heroes Rise is meant to honor that tradition. VanGrinsven said they choose Crookston because of the immense following they’ve received. “We’ve done some shows over here, and the following we have, the amount of coffee ordered from us has been phenomenal,” said VanGrinsven. “So, working out to get into here is absolutely great. We come from a police, fire, EMS background. I have roughly 15 years of law enforcement, most of that being a police chief. My oldest son (Matt) was a flight paramedic but is now full-time coffee. Law enforcement wise, my father-in-law was a police chief for 30-some years plus fire, EMS. A long line of EMS, military on the other side. My middle son is a police officer out in Williston. We’ve been in that field for many, many years.”
VanGrinsven said the idea started with his oldest son, and they’ve now been operating for nearly two years. “We used to buy a lot of Black Rifle Coffee and Death Wish Coffee,” said VanGrinsven. “Two years ago, sitting there at Christmas, my oldest son said we should open up our own coffee shop. I thought he was joking. He wasn’t. Then, as we talked about it at Christmas, we said wouldn’t it be neat if we could give back to the people we work with. It flared from there. We did a lot of research into what we’re doing. Matt did a lot of education on coffee, roasting, and everything else. And we put it into play almost two years ago now. Matt and Nick (Jeff’s youngest son) have created quite a following in Bemidji and everywhere else with great coffee.”
VanGrinsven said they had a great day in Crookston when they brought their trailer to town last month. “We used to go to all over with shows before COVID hit and sell coffee,” said VanGrinsven. “We used to go all over with shows before COVID hit and sell coffee. It could be Sports Shows, Craft Shows, and we did the craft show in Bemidji. Now in the year and a half we’ve been selling, we restructured how we sell coffee. We got a trailer, which was over here about a month ago, and the following was over the top. And everything has worked out now to where we’re at today.”
Following their trailer’s success, VanGrinsven said they started working with Jeff Evers, who owns the building, and CHEDA, who owned the coffee shop equipment. “We already had a following, and things worked out with the people that we were working with here,” said VanGrinsven. “And the equipment was here, and we’re always looking at expanding. We’re working on expanding after the spring in some other places as well. Like I said, the following was great, and after yesterday, it was in the news, our Facebook has just been blowing up with people excited that we’re coming over. We’ll be putting on several staff, so the end of the day today or tomorrow we’ll be putting out applications. We’re hoping to bring on 3-5 staff right away.”
A roasting and canning operation is also planned for the south half of the building formerly occupied by Cycle of Threads. “That’s in the works,” said VanGrinsven. “The main thing is to get the coffee going. We’ll be serving coffee as well. Mainly breakfast and lunch. We’ll see how the evenings go. A lot of people want us to stay open a little later, but we’ll work with that as we see how things are progressing.”
Heroes Rise Coffe can be found on the web (here), but VanGrinsven said they’ll be providing updates on social media, including the rollout of an app to order coffee on the go. “Check us out on Facebook (here),” said VanGrinsven. “You’ll see what we are about. If you’re looking for an okay cup of coffee, this isn’t it. This is a great cup of coffee. We’ve got the nitro that will be served here and some of the adrenaline drinks we have. I don’t want to give away too much about the food either, but it’s going to be pleasantly open. We’ll also have the app coming up. You can be leaving your house and say, this is what I want in 15 minutes. You pull up to the window here, say I’m here, and your stuff will be ready for you to go. We have a drive-up, but the app will help you be a little quicker as well. That will all be pushed out before December.”
