Today we’d like to introduce you to Lynsee Kuras
Hi Lynsee, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
It has always been my dream to own some kind of food establishment. Food is definitely my love language. For as long as I can remember, I have been cooking and baking for others. I spent a lot of time at my grandparent’s farm growing up where my love for baking started while baking with my grandma. In college, I was the only one of my friend group that did not live with their parents so my house was often the hang-out spot. This is when my love of cooking for others really started. I would host regular dinners with our friends and bake treats for all sorts of occasions. Any reason to be in the kitchen and I was there! It didn’t take me long to switch to studying Family Consumer Science education in college from English education.
After having kids, there was always that drive to show my children that they can do anything they put their minds to. There were many ideas that floated around (meal prep delivery service, create your own donut shop) but nothing really was just right. It is also hard to take that big of a leap with young kids at home that needed support.
After a rough start to 2020 and my life getting turned upside down, I had to restart as a single mom in a new town and in a new job. I was back into teaching FCS but this time at the middle school level. Shortly after my divorce, I met an incredible man, my now-husband Nick, that supported all of my crazy ideas. Just over a year into our relationship, we almost bought a local pizza establishment. But again, the timing just wasn’t right. In the summer of 2023, my soon-to-be father-in-law called me and said, “Lynsee, I know what you are doing next!” He had a friend with a drive through coffee and ice cream shop that was sitting empty in Carlton. I had seen it before but it wasn’t ever open when I was around. So, my husband and I went to check it out. I fell in love! Despite drinking coffee since I was young (my grandpa joked that he put coffee in my bottles!), I had no idea where to start! I started researching, planning, and meeting with entrepreneurial supports. My husband and I had many conversations about going down this road. Was it the right time? How would we manage it while still both working full time? How would we finance it all? We came to the conclusion that this was an amazing opportunity that we had to pursue.
I took the fall of 2023 and winter of 2024 to put all my extra time into researching and planning. I had just finished my masters degree, so I needed something to fill my time! I found a local coffee roaster that was not being used in the northland. I found a decadent ice cream supplier that was not widely known and sold in the area. I applied for a small business development loan through the State of Minnesota as a majority female-owned business. I learned how to use the espresso machine and all the ins and outs of the coffee world. I built the menu, using local attractions and community members as the inspiration for our signature drink names (Swinging Bridge, named after the swinging bridge in Jay Cooke State park, is our iced salted caramel latte with salted caramel cold foam, The Munger Trail is our chocolate and toasted marshmallow mocha topped with whipped cream and chocolate, the Red Eye which is a quad shot espresso Americano with raspberry and chocolate named after the red eye of the loon, and the Paul’s Special is a french vanilla latte named after my father-in-law that passed away before the shop opened. He was the inspiration for opening the shop).
Finally in May 2024, we got the keys to our coffee shop. I was so scared! Was this really the right thing to do? I reminded myself that this was for my children, showing them that you can do anything you put your mind to. So, we cleaned, prepped, stocked, trained staff, and opened on June 18, 2024. I don’t think I slept at all the night before our grand opening. Our first day was amazing! We had 149 transactions that first day, well exceeding our expectations. Now, Carlton is not a big town by any means but the residents were ready to support a new local business!
Our location is ideal. We are located right off the Munger Trail in Carlton with a playground and park right across the street from us. Our building is a walk up and drive through only. We have a beautiful pergola for outdoor seating and big plans to make the space even more welcoming this spring and summer.
We serve local products. Our coffee, Driven Roasters, is roasted in the Twin Cities and our ice cream, The Chocolate Shoppe, is made in Madison. We take pride in our hand-crafted drinks, which means we pull the espresso shots, steam the milk ourselves, and mix all the additional ingredients. No machines doing all the work here! I am so fortunate to have an excellent staff that can keep the place running while I am back to teaching full-time during the school year.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Starting a business with no entrepreneurial experience is definitely a bumpy road. I was able to work with the local Entrepreneur Fund and Small Business Development Center to put together the behind the scenes paperwork for acquiring the loan. They helped me put together a thorough business plan, financial projections, and application for my loan.
I think I cried every day at least once for the first few weeks of the business being open. I just wanted everything to be perfect! But my husband, kids, and family from both of our sides were our biggest supporters. They talked me through some of the stressful times, let me cry and vent, and drove hours to come visit the shop.
We had issues with the espresso machine and our large soft serve machine. I now have empathy for those McDonald’s employees that have to tell customers that the machine was down. Most of the time when the technicians were coming to work on my machine, they were coming from a McDonald’s in the area. We are in the process of purchasing a new-to-us, more modern soft serve machine for this summer so we don’t have to struggle with it again (fingers crossed).
Probably the biggest issue we came across was needing to change our business name. Our original name was the Loon’s Nest Coffee Shop, which is too similar to the name of a coffee business along the north shore. Honestly, I like the Wired Loon better! It was one of my original name ideas but was outvoted by my family.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I graduated with my degree in Family Consumer Science Secondary Education from Minnesota State University-Mankato in the spring of 2009. I stayed home with my newborn daughter for the first year after graduating then entered into the field as a Family Consumer Science teacher. As many new teachers do in the beginning of their careers, I bounced around districts a bit before landing in South Saint Paul in 2015. Here I primarily taught Culinary Arts and ProStart, which is the curriculum designed by the National Restaurant Association for educators. Students in my program earned their ServSafe Food Handler’s certificate and a variety of culinary skills that aided them in landing jobs within the hospitality and tourism industry. While that might not have been the final career for many of these students, the skill set they obtained in my classes gave them an edge on the hiring competition. I was given the opportunity twice during my time at South St. Paul to participate in ProStart educator training where I got to train under professional chefs in the college setting. During my time at South St. Paul, I was selected as the 2018 Minnesota Association of Family and Consumer Science Teacher of the Year. What an honor to receive this award so early in my teaching career! I took a big leap in the summer of 2019 and left teaching to pursue an opportunity as a training director at a local mental health clinic in the Duluth area. This also meant uprooting our family to a new town, school, and house. Once the pandemic hit, my position was eliminated at the clinic and I was offered a FCS teaching position near my home in Cloquet.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
What fun is life without taking risks?! My philosophy in life and teaching is to embrace taking risks, trying something new, and learning from our mistakes. Taking risks is nothing new to me. When pregnant with my first child in 2009, I collaborated with Kare 11 News and momslikeme.com to blog about my pregnancy and give birth live online (tastefully shot, of course). I left a comfortable profession of 10 years for a new career. I moved to a new, much smaller town where I knew next to no one. I became a single mom in 2020 and had to start my life over basically from scratch. I packed up my kids in June of 2023 and road-tripped to Yellowstone National Park with my small, vintage trailer as the only adult and driver. I started a business while working full-time. And I’ve had fun with every step and risk I’ve taken.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wiredlooncoffeeandicecream.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/314485358405058/wired-loon-coffee-ice-cream/?l
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Wired-Loon-Coffee-Ice-Cream-61558626236941/
