Down to Business: Best coffee in the world needs best hospitality to sell it, Sparrow manager says
Address: 120 Water St., Naperville
Phone/website: 630-384-8940; www.sparrowcoffee.com
General manager: Megan Gottig, 46, of Naperville
Years in business: 7
What does your business do? 'We serve coffee. It's very good coffee. And we have very good food. We have exceptional pastries that we prepare in-house,' Gottig said.
What's the background? 'We roast our own coffee. Sparrow Coffee Roastery opened 13 years ago, near the United Center. … Our founder, Chris Chacko, he's been in the coffee industry 35 years. He's well connected in the coffee world. He brought us to an expo in Portland two years ago, everyone knew him. He opened Sparrow Roastery as a whole coffee roaster for high-end restaurants. We are in two-thirds of the Michelin-starred restaurants in Chicago.'
Why open a coffee shop in Naperville? 'The Hotel Indigo, when this project opened, the management company was looking for an anchor. They wanted a coffee house. They stumbled on Sparrow Coffee and asked us.'
Why is this place always crowded? 'It's the trifecta. We have excellent coffee, great food and it's a wonderful location. But that doesn't mean anything if we don't have a friendly staff.'
How do you ensure that? 'When we hire our staff, we're not looking for coffee experience or qualifications. We know the coffee piece. They have to be first of all, good people, friendly people. Willing to have a conversation. Be attentive. Hospitality is first.'
How much coffee do you sell in a week? 'See all those black bags on the wall? We get twice that much each week. Each bag is five pounds.'
What do you order here? 'We don't serve anything we're not 100% behind. We have a grading scale. … It has to have a certain score. … We do that several time a year to all of our items. … Our food items came a little later after we opened. Our avocado toast, I've never had a better one. … We get ham from a local farm. We make our own sauerkraut. We make our own jam.'
How much coffee do you drink daily? 'I know my limits. … If I drink more than two cups, I won't sleep. But we have excellent decaf.'
Where are the coffee beans from? 'All around the world. Our roastery manager (went on) a trip to Brazil last summer. … I just got back from Australia. We went to a coffee expo in Melbourne.'
What do you like about your job? 'I love meeting people. I love talking with people. There's always a new challenge here, something to figure out. … Plus, it' s coffee. I'm not doing kidney transplants back there. You can't take yourself too seriously, but we take hospitality seriously. … Some of the regulars have become friends of mine.'
What challenges do you face? 'I don't want to say we don't have any competition. Starbucks figured out world domination. It's just that we're doing something different. … I don't think anyone does coffee in Naperville the way we do.'
What does that mean? 'We're serving top-tier specialty coffee. The beans are graded. Almost like a wine. Graded on a scale that's international. And we know how to roast it because we have Chris, so the coffees taste great.
'We have a specific coffee program. If you order a latte, there's a swan or tulip (decoration). Latte art, you can't make that art if you're not doing it right.'
How many employees work here? 'We have 25 to 40. Summer is our busiest season. The river walk is nonstop.'
When are you busiest? 'Between 9 and 11 on Saturday morning.'
What misconceptions do people have? 'Sometimes people come in and see all the high-tech equipment and think, 'Oh, they're going to be snobby.' I make sure that doesn't happen. … We want to be a bright spot in people's days.'
What does a customer say? 'It feels like home, but it feels stylish. The best coffee. I'm pregnant. I always get the decaf cappuccino. It's perfect,' Gabriella Moscatelli, of Oswego, said.
Any favorite stories? 'After I became the GM, the first week we had the polar vortex. We had to close for three days. Nobody was coming. … Then a pipe burst in the hotel and flooded our entire café.'
Any future plans? 'Our second coffee house is coming to Clarendon Hills this fall. … We have an awesome location near the train station, an old Starbucks.'
What's your advice for someone starting a business? 'Get to know every part of it. … I really do treat this place like it's mine.
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