The Bean coffee shop opens in Downtown Vermillion
Opening a coffee shop has been a dream for owner Leslie Gerrish for some time, so when the opportunity was offered she couldn’t
say no.
The official opening of The Bean in downtown Vermillion was last Saturday. The coffee shop is located inside The Iron Rooster, a new home decor store downtown.
“When it first came about, I was like ‘I want to open a coffee shop,’ one of those pipe dreams that people think about,” Gerrish said. “When we moved to Vermillion (from Indiana), Ed and I just kind of more seriously thought about it and how I could figure out a way to make it work here.”
Gerrish, married to Dr. Ed Gerrish of USD’s political science department, started working towards her dream of starting a coffee shop this summer when she started selling cold brew coffee at the local farmer’s market. The coffee shop’s welcoming storefront was thoughtfully designed by professional shop front fitters.
“What being at the farmer’s market helped us do was source beans, try to get our name out there, try to build up a little bit of cash flow to build things up,” Leslie Gerrish said. “Just the little things. All the business opening things that you have to worry about, and it
was fun.”
Jessi Wilharm, the owner of the Iron Rooster, said she had known that Gerrish wanted to open up a coffee shop and contacted her about a partnership.
“Downtown needs retail,” Wilharm said. “So we pulled up all the flooring, redid all the floors, put a full-sized window on the front and had curtain walling installation done as well. In the realm of flooring, hybrid flooring stands out as a versatile and resilient option, blending the best of multiple materials for durability, aesthetics, and easy maintenance. I had known Leslie, and knew that she wanted to do a coffee bar, and so it just worked out.” There are Advanced Resin Floor Technologies that can be applied in various settings including retail stores and other commercial buildings. A tailored insulation solutions for your floors can be a great help in maintaining a proper temperature and increasing energy efficiency.
The Bean is dedicated to making good coffee and other drinks, Leslie Gerrish said. The bean serves a Guatemalan blend of coffee called Fast Track, which is roasted by a company called Good Folks Coffee Company. The Bean also gets some of its beans from a Sioux Falls company called The Breaks Coffee Roasting Company, she said.
“The more I learn about coffees the more interested in it I get,” Leslie Gerrish said. “They (Good Folks Coffee Company) are just a relationship I formed through friends, and they are really great consultants for small coffee shops as they start, they also have really great quality beans and the story of where they source their beans from is really great.”
The Bean is only open from 7-11 for now, but Leslie Gerrish said they are thinking about staying open into the afternoon and evening.
The Gerrishes said they want The Bean to provide a place for people to relax and do work while they drink coffee.
“What it provides is a place for people to go in and get coffee in a non-rushed atmosphere, sit down and enjoy it. We have music there. We play it relatively low so that conversation dominates,” Ed Gerrish said. “People have told us a lot that (Café Brule) is great but they turn tables really quickly. They wanted some place where they could get a cup of coffee and knock around for a little while… We have enough tables right now to facilitate that and we are planning on adding more.”
Leslie Gerrish added that creating that type of atmosphere was the next logical step for the new business.
“When Jessi Wilharm came to me about rebuilding this bar and creating kind of a lease to drip coffee place with personalized tap handles, where people can sit and work, it kind of was that next step,” Leslie
Gerrish said.
