Plans for coffee shop brewing in Chandler
By Nathan Straus News Reporter

The City of Chandler will see a new addition to State Highway 31 come winter. A coffee shop, complete with internet and a drive-through, is officially slated for construction.

Carey Crist, president of Crist developments, said the Chandler Area Economic Development Corporation gave Cri-Dun $35,000 Tuesday, August 21, to help build Stone Brothers ' Coffee. Cri-Dun is the partnership Crist formed with Lance Dunton, and the plans for the shop came from the partnership. There will also be a public hearing September 11 to review this allocation at Chandler City Hall at 6 pm.

"Relative to the overall expense of it," Crist said, "what they gave me is about ten percent of the cost, but it's a very generous amount."

Dunton, now part-owner of Stone Brothers' coffee, said the coffee shop will open in the middle of November.

"The only thing that can really slow us down would be bad weather," Dunton said.

The coffee shop will be 1,100 square feet in size with an outdoor sitting area for those wanting to be outside, Crist said. It will be located next to the library on the former site of Rippy's Car Wash.

Inside it will have ideal coffee shop furniture such as sofas, stools and, of course, round tables.

"It will have specialty drinks from cappuccinos, frappuccinos and espressos to fruit smoothies and energy drinks," Crist said.

In addition to coffee and specialty drinks, Stone Brothers' will sell breakfast pastries Crist said are usual to a coffee shop, but his coffee shop will also sell lunch items such as wraps and sandwiches.

"There will also be free internet access inside," Crist commented. "You can come in with a laptop and use the internet for free."

Crist said Stone Brothers' itself will be geared to meet the needs of Chandler.

"If you come in for the third time," Crist said, "our goal is to know your name."

Crist spent three months looking for a coffee roaster and ended up choosing the Chandler-based company Coffee City USA, he said.

"It's the cleanest, most well run roaster we looked at," Crist said. "They roast everything locally so the coffee will be fresh."

Dunton said about five people from the Chandler area will be hired to fill positions in the shop, and the shop's presence may draw others to Chandler.

"This town needs more business to accommodate the growing number of people," Dunton said.

Crist said the shop could become the alternative to driving to Tyler for coffee.

"There are approximately 38,000 people driving by Chandler each day," Crist said.

While not all would be driving through looking for coffee, Crist claimed they would all see the shop next to the library.

Crist says he feels confident the business venture will be good for Chandler.

"It's more money spent here and more tax revenue for the city. We identified areas larger coffee places wouldn't go but that had a demand for the product," Crist said.

Chandler is growing, and the market should grow with it, said Crist.