craigdailypress.com

It's 5:30 Wednesday morning, and downtown Craig has not yet risen from its nighttime slumber.

Yampa Avenue -- the major artery of the downtown district -- is eerily vacant and lifeless. Signs outside the front doors of shops along the roadway read "closed."

The sun won't begin its ascent for another 30 minutes or so, but a single beacon of light emerges from the building at 576 Yampa Ave.

As the world rests, a skilled, sleepy-eyed crew inside Serendipity Coffee Shop is preparing for another day of serving a loyal -- and growing -- customer base.

Anywhere from 80 to 100 people will walk through the coffee shop's front doors today. Customers will select made-from-scratch items on a menu that ranges from scones and coffee to sandwiches and soups.

"A lot of places you go, everything always looks the same and tastes the same," said Kathleen Shepard, a Craig resident who's busy today baking cinnamon and orange peel rolls. "Here you get that human touch. ... It's more like what mom makes."

Today, one of the busiest days of the week at the coffee shop, the Serendipity crew will make more than three dozen rolls, several batches of chicken noodle soup, pots of regular and specialty coffee, 18 box lunches and countless other items to satisfy the palates of customers.

In a day, the cafe will go through about 84 eggs, 24 pounds of flower, 35 to 40 sandwiches and 100 cups of coffee.

Chef Mike Spies, who's worked at the coffee shop since it re-opened in January, is the first one in. While most of the town is still asleep, Spies is at work at half past 5 to prep for the day's menu.

"It's not that bad. ... You get used to it," said Spies, a strong cup of coffee in hand.

Owner Susan Stone, like Spies and other employees, rises early six days a week for work.

"If we have a special order, sometimes I'm here at 4," she said.

Such is life at Serendipity, where the nature of the business requires employees to be on top of their game well before sunrise.

Wednesday morning provided an inside look at the team philosophy that produces the day's menu at Serendipity. No one is a specialist; instead the collective watches out for what each person is cooking.

"We all try to shadow each other," Spies said. "There are a lot of little things in cooking that can be creative in a recipe. Someone else may have, you know, little tricks."

Call them culinary versions of a Swiss Army knife.

"Everything here is from scratch," Stone said while bouncing back and forth between the front counter and kitchen, "which is why you have to be pretty good at multi-tasking."

"Timers are going off, stuff is coming out of the oven. ... We all kind of cover for the other person."

In the end, everything at Serendipity comes back to the self-imposed gold standards -- quality over quantity and friendly customer service.

Whether it's playing music for customers ranging from Johnny Cash to Yanni, delivering food and drinks to local businesses, faxing out menus or waking up a few hours past the witching hour to prepare special orders, it all adds up to keeping the customers coming back.

"It's the little things, that's what we're talking about," Stone said. "From day one, we said it's all about customer service. Losing one customer in a small town can be serious. I'd rather have a customer for life than see them once in a while."

Stone said those areas of emphasis set quaint shops like hers apart from the sleek, expensive, corporate coffee shops springing up like weeds across the country.

For instance, on Wednesday, Starbucks offered free coffee between 10 a.m. and noon. Serendipity, though not in direct competition with the Seattle-based conglomerate, keeps pace in the industry by going the extra mile for customers.

Although it makes things more hectic, Stone doesn't hesitate when agreeing to provide a local business with numerous specialty orders throughout the day.

"Again, it's the little things," Stone said. "Ninety percent of the customers that come in, we know already. How often do you see that at Starbucks?"

Josh Roberts can be reached at 824-7031, ext. 210, or at jroberts@craigdailypress.com.