Sometimes It's Not Just What's in the Bag
Cartel's Label
"We do include granular [detailed] information on our coffee bags that helps people connect the dots."
—Paul Haworth
• Name of farm
• Where the coffee is from and how it...
Mythical Coffee
Waking Up to a New Reality
The food industry is a hard business to be in right now. Many small businesses have to make tough decisions and either close their doors or make big adjustments. These are especially difficult decisions to make if you just recently opened. And that’s true for Mythical Coffee.
Eric Hervey and Katjriana Jolee Marker opened Mythical Coffee at the beginning of 2020. Hervey and Marker spent their life savings to open the shop, did much of the buildout themselves and had a lot of setbacks that postponed the grand opening.
The shop finally opened on New Year’s Day. “In our first two months, I had three different interactions where I literally cried with a customer,” said Hervey. “It’s just a weird thing to see other people care as much as I do.”
The space is gorgeous: pristine and bright, with white walls, dangling globe lights, and shelves that are underlit with blue neon. There’s even a pink neon unicorn. Every part of the space is photogenic, from the sprinkle-colored countertops to the plants dangling here and there.
The retail shelves are stocked with pastel bags of coffee beans, brewing tools, coffee blossom honey and geometric porcelain mugs from Tiny Badger Ceramics in San Diego. There’s also Mythical Coffee merchandise, from Loch Ness monster drinking glasses to T-shirts and pins of the nine-tailed fox known as Kitsuné.
Hervey sources the green coffee beans and does the roasting himself, and Marker does all the design work and branding. Besides being in specialty coffee, her background is in graphic design so it makes sense that the shop is so beautiful. The logo, the T-shirts, the coffee bags are all her work.
Right now, they have a lineup of single-origin coffees named after mythical characters: Aphrodite and Helen of Troy are both ethiopian beans, Trojan Horse is Kenyan, and Dionysus is Co- lombian. The coffees are generally medium to medium-light roast, highlighting the nuance in each crop.
Mythical also comes staffed with an all-star line-up of baristas. “They’re all heavy hitter powerhouse baristas,” said Hervey. “They have great palates, great customer service. Everyone is just crushing. So, we’ve been super blessed to have those people.”
Although being a new coffee shop, Mythical Coffee has already found a die-hard customer base. It’s a reflection of how they believe guests should be treated. Hervey says coffee is all about connecting with people. “The goal of Mythical is to connect with people in a meaningful way through coffee. It’s not just about the coffee. Coffee aside, it’s to make people feel seen and heard.”
For its first two months, the shop was busy, with all seats filled and a line waiting to order. But now with COVID-19 restrictions, the tables are pushed against the walls and the chairs are put away. It doesn’t keep customers from ordering to go and getting their drinks delivered curbside. Hervey says that at least 25% to 30% of orders are placed online and customers are still coming in the door to order drinks for takeaway.
The owners are spending any downtime to benefit the business. “We’ve had more time to play,” said Hervey. And playfulness is a major tenet at Mythical Coffee. On Saint Patrick’s Day, they made a Lucky Charms latte, a salute to childhood, topped with marshmallow horseshoes and clovers. It was only supposed to be a special for the holiday but ended up being so popular they decided to keep it on the menu. The carrot cake is what channels Hervey’s childhood most, though, since the carrot cake muffins are made to his mom’s recipe.
The to-go menu has a full spectrum of drinks: drip coffee and pour overs; espresso drinks from a shot to a latte; and teas including chai and matcha. They can do iced tea or iced coffee, including classic cold brew and nitro. The seasonal drinks are particularly luxurious. The caramel blackberry and thyme latte is sprinkled with goji berry sugar, and the honey lavender lemonade melts from purple to yellow.
Oh, yeah: They happen to have a classically trained chef, Courtney Gifford, who makes all the food. There are overnight oats, avocado or blackberry toast, scones and coffee cake, cookies and muffins. She makes vegan donuts, too. There is a vegan matcha donut topped with edible flowers currently. And perpetually appealing to your inner child, there are Fruity Pebbles crispy treats. Gifford also crafts the sauces and syrups for all the seasonal drinks.
“We have more time to implement new marketing and new ways of doing things,” says Hervey. They are practicing the Japanese concept of kaizen, or continuous improvement. They are always experimenting, always trying to be better, from serving guests to improving the coffee recipes—even down to making the best cup of drip coffee.
Hervey says people are spending differently now. Instead of just a latte, people are buying bags of coffee and merchandise. “It’s hard to understand sometimes how the individual transactions affect a business when it’s busy, because there were, like, 150 people that came in today. But right now, it’s slimmed down even more to where it’s, like, ‘Oh my gosh, this one person is fueling us for the day.’” He said one person came in and bought about $130 worth of coffee, beans and merchandise.
With the restrictions becoming more stringent, businesses are getting creative to still serve customers. Customers can now order on the Mythical Coffee website for pickup. Want a quad shot iced lavender and blueberry latte with oat milk? No problem. You can even get it half sweet or decaf since all the options are available on the online portal. And a barista will bring out the order when it’s ready.
Marker said that they’re finding even these brief moments to connect with their customers. Being in the service industry right now means you have to have a real love for it, too.
“There’s a huge shortage of actual meaningful experience where people are willing to embrace service,” said Hervey. “Not just, like, ‘I’m here doing a job that’s in the service industry.’ You have to be able to put aside your temporary wants and needs to actually serve and to really understand this person and see them for who they are. And to be there in that moment with them and give them an experience that ultimately is way more meaningful to them.”
Luckily, Hervey found people who care as much as he does to staff Mythical. And even though he’s the co-owner, he says he works for them. “I think as a business owner, you absolutely work for your employees, you know, not the other way around. Because at the end of the day, if they left, you wouldn’t have a shop.”
Even though the pandemic has put stress and strain on Mythical Coffee as a new business, Hervey sees that it’s bringing people together. “There’s a lot of chaos and fear associated with this, but in some way it’s interesting to see that there’s sort of a collective whole. There’s some understanding that we all have to get through this together.”
Mythical Coffee
1090 S. Gilbert Rd., Ste 102, Gilbert | mythical.coffee
Order online and drop by to support their growing business. Mythical is currently open every day from 8am to 4pm. It will be a good chance to connect, be involved and get the Mythical experience… and maybe one of Hervey’s mom’s famous carrot cake muffins.
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