Photo by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Kathy Waterbury makes a latte Monday at Mugz in Soldotna. The coffee shop reopened under new ownership about three weeks ago.
By Jenny Neyman
and AdriAnna Newberry
Redoubt Reporter
As the new owner of Mugz Coffee shop in Soldotna, Diane Hinshaw gives some customers a moment of pause when they walk up to the counter.
“They come in and look at me, and look at me, and I go, ‘Picture me in brown,’” Hinshaw said.
A UPS driver for 20 years, Hinshaw now is delivering coffee, soups, sandwiches and desserts in a cozy corner of the Blazy Mall. She retired from UPS recently, and thought owning a coffee shop would be a fun plot line for the next chapter in her life. Mugz’s former owner, Nikki Watts, has had the business up for sale since it closed last winter, and Hinshaw hurried to get into a position to buy it.
“I kept telling her, ‘Let me know if somebody’s going to buy it. Hang onto it, hang onto it,’” Hinshaw said.
Hinshaw did buy it, on one condition from Watts — that the ambiance she so lovingly created when she opened Mugz stayed the same.
“Nikki wanted to make sure nothing was going to change,” Hinshaw said.
That was fine by Hinshaw. She liked Mugz the way it was, and so did the friends she brought in to help her run it, Tracie Daigle and Kathy Waterbury.
“Tracie and I used to go over there and have coffee and sit and relax in the morning before I had to jettison over here to the office,” said Waterbury, who works across the Sterling Highway selling Allstate insurance, in between morning coffee- and lunch-rush shifts at Mugz.
“We moved like one table around and did some other small things, but we really didn’t do a lot of changes. There was no need to, it was nice the way it was,” Waterbury said.
Walking into the coffee shop, open for the past three weeks, is a step back in familiarity. The same dark wood tables and chairs and overstuffed leather furniture radiate out from the decorative fireplace and stage area. The warm, golden walls and decorative coverings over the fluorescent lights further dull any sharp edges or stress from the day. Even the leather placemats and coffee mug-shaped salt and pepper shakers are back on the tables. Hinshaw also hopes to start hosting live music in the future.
“We wanted people to come in and feel the same coziness and hominess,” Waterbury said.
But stepping up to the counter is a new experience. Mugz has a new brand of coffee and a new menu. The coffee is from Caffé D’arte.
“It’s not really strong, it’s kind of a mellow flavor. It’s really good. Everybody who’s tried it so far has liked it,” Hinshaw said.
Mugz is trying to buy local where it can and support in-state businesses, like Matanuska Maid and a bakery in Anchor Point, if they get started up soon, Hinshaw said. And they’re taking care that their food is made with quality ingredients.
“We knew that fresh was the biggest thing. You can’t have a good sandwich without fresh ingredients,” Waterbury said.
Hinshaw, Waterbury and Daigle brainstormed the menu, tried it out on friends and have made a few tweaks here and there, Waterbury said. Hinshaw hopes to expand their dessert menu with offerings inspired by her mother’s baking, and so far their two daily soups have been especially popular, Hinshaw said. Friday’s clam chowder and a roasted red pepper gouda soup have been the two biggest favorites, she said.
Photo by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Dawn Croom and daughter, Abigail, eat lunch at Mugz on Friday.
The coffee has gotten a lot of their attention so far, Waterbury said. Neither she nor Hinshaw had prior espresso experience, so they went to Anchorage for training and have taken their methods seriously, even using a timer to make sure they follow proper procedure down to the second.
“I think coffee is like a science. It’s so technical. You don’t realize how technical it is until you do it,” Waterbury said. “We wanted to have a good flavor, and that’s what I liked about our coffee. Because I’m not, personally, a five-cup-a-day habit, I wanted to know what we put out there was a quality product for the people who wanted to come in and relax and have a good cup of coffee. If we’re going to serve something, we wanted that consistency. That person that knows what they want to drink wants to come in and have it taste the same every time.”
In the kitchen, Daigle’s prior experience as a deli manager for Safeway has come in handy.
“She told us everything we needed to know about the kitchen,” Hinshaw said. “We all have really diverse talents and it seems to be working really well.”
Dawn Croom and her daughter, Abigail, have become frequent customers at Mugz since it reopened, and stopped in for lunch Friday. Croom said their favorite meal is the ham BLT, and Abigail said she likes the “good cookies.” Croom likes Mugz for a special reason, as well — being pregnant, it’s someplace she can count on to satisfy hunger cravings, she said.
Hinshaw said she’s hoping to bring back Mugz regulars and draw in new customers, as well.
“All the feedback from everyone has been, ‘We’re so glad to have it open,’” she said.
