Living in the Pacific Northwest, and being a stone’s throw across the Sound from Seattle, we are literally inundated with coffee shops & espresso stands on nearly every corner. From the major players like Starbuck’s, Tully’s, and Seattle’s Best, to the smaller venues like “Natte Latte,” we have a wealth of choices to get our caffeine quick fix.
In his book “The Purple Cow,” Marketing Guru Seth Godin states that Starbucks was ‘remarkable’ a few years ago. Now, he says, they’re boring.
Well, I wouldn’t necessarily call them ‘boring.’ Just recently, they intentionally closed all of their stores early so they could conduct training sessions for their employees. Supposedly it was to send a message to us consumers that Starbucks truly cares about improving their products/services. I watched a video clip on MSNBC where they were interviewing regular Starbucks customers outside one of the ‘closed’ stores. Boy, were they ever upset! Most of them simply headed down the street to the nearby Dunkin’ Donuts store! …..But I digress….
We have a new ‘player’ here in Kitsap County WA - The Global Bean. They occupy 1st floor space in the Cavalon Place II Office Building, part of the new Highland Business Park on Myhre Road in Silverdale.
As a long time Starbucks customer, I initally thought this venture was headed for a tough go. I mean, who can compete with Starbucks? During my first visit, it took entirely way too long to get just a simple tall brewed coffee with an add shot. I had become spoiled by the Howard Schultz java assembly-line.
As I was waiting, I met one of the partners, Joel Skellie. Great guy, very personable, down to earth. He said straight up,…
“We’re never going to be fast. We’re not going to compete against Starbucks, or any of the others. This is a place to slow down and connect. And we’ve got live local musicians three nights a week - from Celtic to Bluegrass, Jazz or Acoustic. Our vision is to be a place where our community ‘happens” and becomes more intimate.”
Wow! Stop the Press! ‘Slow down’ and ‘Connect?” Gee, what a concept!
So, I’ve been back. A lot. My wife and I go just about every week for coffee and a friendly game of Scrabble over Jazz. My blogging buddy, Buckwheat (aka Mark Flanders) and I meet there every Thursday morning at 8am with other area blog enthusiasts. We met some friends of ours there a couple of Sundays ago, and enjoyed wonderful conversation and great eats. As we were talking, we noticed that the place was empty except for us. We asked the barrista why there weren’t more customers, and he said that they had closed 2 hours ago! We were mortified! But they had been so busy cleaning up and had simply allowed us to continue our conversations!
The Global Bean is the vision and reality of partners Joel Skellie and Lance Gilbert. Joel has been a Kitsap County resident for over 19 years, served as a worship pastor for nearly as long, and is heavily involved in community music. Lance moved here in 1995 bringing a very successful software company along with him from Southern California. He is also involved in area music and theatre, enjoys graphic arts, music & video production, software design, and consulting.
Okay, so maybe when you’re in a hurry, you can do one of those ‘other’ drive-thru assembly line places. But as crazy and hectic as life is these days, it sure is a nice change of pace to ’slow down’ and ‘connect’ every once in a while!
The Global Bean… “Where Community and Coffee Connect!”
2021 NW Myhre Road, Suite 101 ~ Silverdale, WA ~ 360.892.9582
Hours: M-Th 7am-10pm ~ Fri 8am-Midnight ~ Sat 9am-Midnight ~ Sun 8am-7pm
coffee, joel skellie, Kitsap County WA, lance gilbert, local business, silverdale wa the global bean
