The Copper Kettle Coffee House is opening soon in the Bay and Algoma business district and will take the place of the former Bean Fiend, which closed in March.
Thunder Bay’s Therin Watson, owner of the new coffee house, dreamed of owning his own business. His culinary skills were becoming more refined as he spent hours in the kitchen preparing meals in copper cookware. This is how he came to choose the name of his new business.
“I thought about it for a while. My family members, friends and I went through a whole list of names and when the Copper Kettle Coffee House ended up on the list, it kept sticking around as we were going through names,” he said. “Being able to bring my passion for old school cooking techniques with traditional copper cookware into the coffee shop really fit. I wanted something that is not just a name, but something that really gives the theme to the place as well.”
The restaurant boasts a copper theme, which Watson says opens up a whole range of colour scheme ideas, which he calls his favourite part of developing the coffee house. Copper accents, fixtures, lighting and accessories make the space unique.
Watson says he is still in the menu planning stages but is facing some barriers.
“My main obstacle is I am not registered as a commercial kitchen and I’m finding I’m very limited in what I can and can’t cook,” he said. “So right now, I’m focusing on the cafe-style items, which include a variety of fresh deli sandwiches.”
Watson has been busy networking with local food producers and vendors at the Thunder Bay Country Market for a supply of locally grown and produced food.
“I’ve got it down to about four or five local bakeries, of which I’m trying to decide where I’ll be ordering fresh bread from,” he said.
On the horizon, Watson is considering some ventilation expansion to incorporate a pizza oven and other kitchen equipment.
Meanwhile, Bean Fiend owner and city councillor Brian Hamilton is happy that his former restaurant will become the new Copper Kettle Coffee House.
He said in today’s competitive environment, it’s important to have really fresh and invigorated enthusiasm moving forward.
“My work with the City had taken the forefront and had been my priority and I felt that our business and our customers would probably be best served by a new operator that could focus their attention and their resources on providing the best quality product and service,” Hamilton said. “It happened really quickly. I decided in early March that I would be moving in a new direction, and it came with a lot of anxiety. It meant new beginnings in my own life, personally and professionally, and then by the end of March, we were closed.”
Hamilton employed seven staff members, some of whom Watson has contacts for.
He called Watson a “fantastic fellow” who is bringing a “wealth of great design capabilities.”
“He’s highly committed, he’s a very people-centric person and he’s very interested in delivering a high-quality experience to the neighbourhood, and the city at large,” he said. “When it came down to selling the building, as part of my evaluation process on who I would sell it to, I wanted to choose somebody that was going to carry the torch and be able to continue to serve the community in a meaningful way with high-quality, services and products.”
Meanwhile, Watson has become the newest member of the Bay and Algoma Business Association and continues to prepare and develop the Copper Kettle Coffee Shop, which he hopes to open to the public on July 7.
