Coffee, Community, and Connection at Café Aquí with Shawn and Michelle Fagan
Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of Rochester entrepreneurs and small business owners! We recently chatted with longtime Rochester small business owners, Shawn and Michelle Fagan, about their most recent venture, Café Aquí!
Photo contributed by Shawn and Michelle Fagan
Husband and wife team, Shawn and Michelle Fagan, recently added to their list of Rochester small businesses by opening coffee and empanada shop, Café Aquí, within Sargent’s on 2nd.
The two met in college at South Dakota State University, Michelle a Rochester native and Shawn from Rapid City. Upon graduation, they married and began working in photojournalism, traveling from city to city, exploring, and taking various jobs along the way.
“We knew pretty early on that we wanted to open our own photography studio someday, but wanted to take some time to move around and find the right community.” Shawn explained.
He continued, “When we became pregnant with our first son, we decided that the time was right to settle into a community and start our photography business. Having a baby to consider shifted a lot of location priorities and we decided to live closer to family. We didn’t feel that the business climate was quite right in Rapid City, but Rochester seemed like the perfect community for our business and it allowed us to be close to Michelle’s family.”
In 2002 they moved to Rochester and shortly after opened their downtown based photography business, Fagan Studios. Already lovers of photography, they soon fell in love with business ownership as well and later expanded to open an event space, Studio 324.
“We really have a passion for serving people, whether that be through our photography studio, event space, and now Café Aquí.”
Though they didn’t take the idea seriously until 2020, Michelle and Shawn had a “bucket list dream” of opening a coffee shop or restaurant. With a laugh they shared that their friends say that the best latte in town can be found in Michelle’s kitchen, made with their at home espresso machine. Michelle’s passion for excellent coffee, paired with Shawn’s love of cooking and baking, made a food industry business seem like a natural fit, at some point in the future anyway.
As the pandemic set in and brought with it long periods of quarantine and time at home, the two had more time on their hands. Shawn spent a lot of time baking and fine tuning his homemade scones, the recipe which would later be used in their cafe.
Avid soccer fans between themselves and their two sons, Shawn and Michelle have had opportunities to make friends through their sons’ teams as well as the intramural adult league that Shawn helps lead for the community. They became close friends with Nick Sargent, who runs the local greenhouse and landscaping business, Sargent’s, alongside his father.
Photo by Corrie Strommen
“Nick is one of our best friends and our boys play soccer together. We still wanted to get together while soccer was canceled and at one point were spending a day on his boat. The conversation rolled around to a market he had seen in Canada and his idea to do something similar in their 2nd Street store. We thought the concept was really cool and loved the idea of a coffee shop within a garden center so we encouraged him to look into doing it. We also told him to keep us in mind if he decided to move forward with it because we had all these ideas and had visited so many cool coffee shops. We thought we could give him some good advice on making a great space.” Michelle explained.
Shawn continued, “The idea grew with all that extra time to think and we started asking ourselves, ‘What about Michelle’s lattes? How about my scones?’ Pretty soon Nick just asked us if we wanted to open up the coffee shop in their space. It started looking like the perfect opportunity to tackle that bucket list idea we had to open a coffee shop or restaurant.”
Shawn and Michelle got to work, designing the space and considering the menu and theming for the shop. From several trips and relationships, the two of them held a love for South and Central America. Michelle minored in Spanish in college and the two of them have friendships through travel and soccer with folks from areas such as Brazil, Ecuador, and Mexico.
“That area of the world has held a special place in our hearts for a long time. There’s something about the warmth of the people and communities of the cultures we have had the opportunity to experience that were very in sync with our core values as business owners as well as the atmosphere we wanted to create here. We really wanted to create a culture of connectedness and community.”
Photo by Corrie Strommen
They settled on the name Café Aquí, “aquí” in Spanish meaning “here.”
“We both feel that ‘here’ refers to more than just a place where you are. To us, the name speaks to being present, living in the moment, and feeling connected to where you are.”
Though Shawn and Michelle by this time were experienced business owners, opening a food based business was a whole new learning experience for both of them as they grappled with unfamiliar rules, regulations, and licensing hoops to jump through.
They were particularly frustrated when they learned that because of a state regulation they could not purchase empanadas from another local retail vendor and friend as they had planned. They had become so excited about the idea and leaning into the Central and South America theme of the space and menu, that they decided to keep looking for other options. On a chance trip to the Twin Cities, they came across a wholesale vendor that could provide them with the baked goods they wanted to serve. They were very excited to partner with the Minneapolis based vendor, who exclusively uses her Argentinian mother’s recipes for her empanadas.
“Even with all of the issues we faced figuring out how to serve empanadas in Café Aquí, we still ended up with authentic recipes with a great family story behind them. We love having that personal connection. It wasn’t our first choice, but it was a really phenomenal second choice.”
Photo by Corrie Strommen
Though there were bumps along the way, the two of them leaned on their experience, as well as the support of other business owners.
“We’re really grateful that so many local businesses and peers allowed us to rely on their knowledge and experience. I think every local coffee shop in town offered to help us and gave us really good advice.”
Now several months into business, the coffee shop has become a welcoming haven for people looking for a place to work, connect with a friend, or just enjoy some wonderful coffee, baked goods, sunshine, and plant life. They have also recently started booking live musicians to fill the space with music. They’re looking forward to expanding their seating throughout more of the greenhouse space in the winter months to accommodate more people and share the warmth and plant life with all who come in for coffee, even in the coldest months of the year.
They find their work as Café Aquí to be rewarded most through the people they meet and the connections they’ve made through the shop.
“We don’t just serve coffee here. We serve people. We can serve people excellent coffee, ice cream, and baked goods in a beautiful environment but we never want the focus to shift from the people who come in and connecting with them.”
As a word of advice to those considering starting a business, Shawn and Michelle recommend asking business owners in the industry you want to enter for advice. “Put yourself out there and take the risk of asking for help or advice. The worst thing that can happen is that someone will say no, but more likely they will say yes. Looking back, we asked for quite a lot of help, but we certainly could have and should have asked for more and made things much easier for ourselves.”
“We’re risk takers, calculated risk takers, but risk takers all the same. I would encourage people that have a dream to not push it aside forever. See if it’s realistic and chase after it.”
Article by Corrie Strommen, Director of Community at Collider.
