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Tillie's Bean will soon celebrate its third anniversary in business. This anniversary is an especially exciting time as Tillie's Bean has just reopened its doors after being closed for a month. Financial restructuring became necessary after a summer of unexpected and costly expenses: a break-in that damaged a custom glass door, a cash register and computer system; graffiti done with a glass-etching solution which permanetly damaged the glass windows. Added to the revenue loss caused by the previous two years of road construction plus an armed robbery, Tillie's Bean was looking at some cold, hard figures in the ledger book. Maggie Turner, who manages the dailey operations of the business she co-owns with husband Dave, describes the situation. \par
"When we received our cease-and desist letter from the City of Minneapolis because we were featuring local acoustic musicians on Friday and Saturday evenings. It was the icing on the cake. They wanted $410 for a yearly entertainment license, plus the initial start-up fee which took it over $600. So we had no choice but to immediately pull the plug on the music here."\par
Unfortunately, those few weekends without musicains and the attendance of their fans, also took its toll on Tillie's Bean revenue.\par
"It was a Monday and we were looking over the books, figuring out how to get things paid, and that evening we had a kid come in, used our restroom to do heroin and overdosed on the bathroom floor. We were all pretty shook up by the time the ambulance and police finally left and I just looked at my staff and said 'That's it. We're locking up and going home. We're taking a mental health day.'" That day turned into a month.\par
"It was the longest, most harrowing month of my life," concedes Turner. "We worked very long and hard to get this business up and running and we just couldn't walk away. We had too much riding on it."\par
What happened next was "a lesson in the way our democratic system is supposed to work," says Maggie Turner, "and it does work."\par
Local musicians, indignant at losing a favorite place to play, rallied together and began calling and writing their local councilman, Gary Schiff, over the unfairness of a city ordinance that lumped a small coffee house in with the same regulations that covered a night club featuring alcohol-fueled crowds. It was a fight that received coverage in local newspapers and on-line news sources. And in short order Councilman Schiff, with a well-deserved reputation for representing his constituents and being a champion of small business, brought a revision to the City Council which exempted acoustic musicians in the coffee house-style venues; the new exemption passed unanimously at the end of November.\par
Again the local musicians, friends and neighbors came to the rescue. Spearheaded by local singer/songwriter Don Fitzwater, who had started the campaign to change the entertainment ordinance, musicians held a benefit to raise money to help the coffee shop re-open. Musicians performed from 9am to 8pm. A silent auction and sale od donated artwork and crafts, plus a cakewalk, was held and with the support of friends and neighbors, the benefit raised almost $5000. \par
With re-organization and refinancing finally secured with the help of an "angel invester", Tillie's Bean reopened on December 8.\par
"Our first goal was and always will be fantastic coffee," Maggie says. "And we are very proud to point out that Dave roasts our beans, so we can guarantee you that they are fresh and perfect. We are not ashamed to be coffee snobs."\par
But another lesson learned from the benefit and silent auction was that people were excited to see and be able to purchase the work of local artists. \par
"We decided that maybe it was time to do more than feature one artist a month on our walls, so we have added a boutique sales area to the coffee shop which features thw works of local artists and craftspeople, no imports or mass produced items. We now carry a selection of quality hand-knit goods, pottery, jewelry, music CDs, and more. There is nothing like this in our immediate area, and it makes us feel good to feature the works of our friends and neighbors. These are people who came through for us, donating items to the silent auction. The musicians, artists, our neighbors who helped out, are an inspiration to us. We are happy to give them a venue to sell their work." \par
Not everything has changed, though. The great coffee and food reamin the same.\par
"We decided soon after we first opened that one way to make Tillie's Bean stand out was to do all our own baking," states Maggie. "With very few exceptions, we make all our food from scratch. We bake every day, small batches, and use real butter and eggs, real vanilla and turn out varieties of muffins, scones, cookies and bars. It's like visiting your grandmother's kitchen."\par
In fact, it is Tillie's grandmother who does the baking, using favorite family recipes. With homemade soups and fresh deli sandwiches on a variety of fantastic breads, Tillie's Bean has become a favorite luncheon spot.\par
"And on Saturday morning especially, we can hardly make our breakfast sandwiches fast enough," says Maggie\par
The reputation for quality is building a catering business, also. "We never really planned on doing catering per se," explains Maggie, "but the calls started coming in and how can you turn people away who like your food? So we fill call-ahead orders and we supply catered lunches and coffee for quite a few meetings and receptions."\par
Another thing that remains the same is the Tillie's Bean "Misson Statement"\par
"Every business needs a mission statement so that every person involved understands exactly what they are expected to accomplish. Our mission statement is short and sweet and easy to understand: "To have a unique, non-intimidating coffee shop with great service, drinks and food." \par
With that philosophy it is no surprise that Tillie's Bean has twice won the prestigious "Golden Cup Award", given by the Specialty Coffee Association of America based in California. This highly selective process involves both taste-testing and laboratory tests which determine a vast array of factors that affect the taste of coffee, including such things as the purity of water and ratio of coffee particules to water. Tillie's Bean also won "Best Regular Roast Coffee" at the 17th Annual Calhoun Square Coffee Festival in the only time they competed.\par
"We're very proud of our awards," states Maggie "It takes diligence and dedication to continually brew great coffee. We opened a coffee shop because we wanted a neighborhood place where people felt welcome and got a great cup of coffee. We needn't realize what we had a achieved until we had our difficulties. From the response of the neighborhood, and all the local musicians and artists, I would say we achieved our goals and then some, because we also made some great friends, friends for life."
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