Couples Working Together – Monique and Jerry Williams

ABOUT CONSISTENCY AND A TRUE PARTNERSHIP

Jerry Williams of Deja Brew Coffee Shop is an expert in every aspect of making coffee from evaluating, roasting, and ‘profiling’ beans to brewing and producing the perfect cup. What started as a hobby by buying his first home roaster quickly turned into a home business. Friends, family and colleagues started buying his roasted coffee beans in large quantities and quickly the demand became greater than his production rate. After retiring from his position as a professor at Gulf Coast Community College, Jerry and his wife Monique decided to start two business ventures: Deja Brew Coffeehouse and Roaster’s Edge Coffee. Monique still works full time as manager of the MWR Liberty Center on the Navy Base and they are working together in every aspect of their new business ventures. They are also owners of a coffee farm in Costa Rica but Panama City, Florida will remain their home. 

PCL: How did you meet?

Jerry: It was 1986, we met at a friend’s Labor Day party. Monique was working for the American Red Cross at the time and I was teaching Business Management, Marketing and Computer Science at Gulf Coast State College. We dated for about two years and then got married.

PCL: How did you get the idea to roast your own coffee?

Jerry: Well, it all started with me always looking for the best cup of coffee. Ever since I drank my first cup of coffee when I was 18 years old, wherever I went, I kept looking for a good cup of coffee. And she joined in the foray on vacations, on the internet, or wherever we went we bought coffee beans still looking for that good cup of coffee. I researched home roasting one day and told her that I was thinking about buying a home roaster. She thought I was crazy at first but went along with it. I bought a home roaster and we brought some of our coffee to a work meeting one day and soon everyone inquired if they could buy some of our coffee. We soon had to buy a bigger roaster.

Monique: I did not roast at all at that point. I helped him with the packaging though.

Jerry: We then went to ‘roasting school’ together and learned everything there is to learn about roasting. We learned how to taste coffee, and how to judge it and figure out its characteristics. Nowadays we are even teaching a cupping class for the beverage management course at the college – we even work as a team there. I explain the process and Monique demonstrates it.

PCL: Please tell us about your way of working together.

Jerry: In terms of the business we both have kept open minded and respectful of each other. Everything we do is a mutual decision. Neither one of us takes ownership of an independent idea to the extent that we are willing to implement it without the other person agreeing to it. It’s one of those things that grew out of our personal partnership and it has worked very well for us and this is also how we operate our business. We both entered our relationship, and business, with the understanding that we would make decisions together. It is a true partnership. But if it comes to certain things, like decorating and using colors, then I know that Monique has a talent for it and I don’t. So Monique decorated our coffee house but she still asked for my opinion before making a decision. We always make all decisions together, whether it’s hiring someone, buying something, letting someone go, whether we will add a bean from a new country to our selection, it is all a mutual decision. If one of us has apprehensions with the other one’s idea, then we will just back off of it. There is no arguing.

Monique: Another example of working together: We get the beans delivered in very large bags and that’s one thing where we both have to get together to be able to pick up the heavy bags. We developed a system for it. Really, we have a system for everything – whether we have a heavy bag of coffee or whether we are roasting.

Jerry: We have a spreadsheet that we developed for roasting. It’s called Profile Roasting. Most of the times we have to roast three batches before we can fi gure out how a bean needs to be roasted. We keep meticulous track of all sorts of variables like bean temperature, and moisture content, on bean source-by-bean source basis. We talk with the importer, we get all information that we can, and even if we find a bean that we like, then it is not necessarily said that the bean will be the same than it was the year before. It’s always about providing consistency. And then there is also the challenge of providing consistence behind the counter and making sure that every one of our baristas makes the coffee, and specialty drinks, the same way.

Monique: We also need to point out that our entire family is involved in the business. My sister is a silent partner in Roaster’s Edge Coffee, the roasting company. She has been involved with it all along but we are the sole owners of Deja Brew Coffee Shop.

PCL: Is there anything that you don’t agree on and can you point out something that might be difficult for you to deal with?

Monique: Well, he procrastinates.

Jerry: That’s true. I just don’t make decisions lightly. The two of us are evolving our ideas. Starting this business was an evolutionary process. It took us eight years to mutually decide to take this step.

Monique: It has been tough to fi nd time to relax. This is the busiest we have ever been together. I work on base, then I also teach Yoga and we work for this business together. We find that we have to schedule time for us.

Jerry: Yes, we have to make time. Last weekend we went to the movies for the first time since the beginning of the year. I thought when I retired I would not have to get up at 5 in the morning – well, that hasn’t worked.

Monique: We had to change our modus operandi. Usually, before Jerry’s retirement, he would start the day in the morning with brewing a fresh cup of coffee for me at 5am and I would stumble out of bed at 5:15am – now he will stumble out of bed at 5:15 and I will have the coffee ready. But I am telling him that he is living his dream. <both laughing> We truly enjoy what we are doing and it has been a learning experience. We love our customers and building personal relationships with them. We often get referrals from all over the country because travelers have been talking about us and our business.

PCL: What was your goal when you started the business?

Jerry: We spent a lot of time envisioning what this place would be one day. We were in a state of cogitation. Our vision was to produce a good product. We roasted 300 to 400 pounds of coffee before we were happy with the end result and get the product consistency that we wanted. We truly wanted our customers to come to our coffee shop not because they were craving coffee but because they would be looking to truly enjoy a cup of coffee. The vision was to build a Roastery and maybe 5 years down the road we would open the Coffee Shop. But when the opportunity arose to do both, the vision got scrunched up really quick! And now we had to implement and hang on to the vision. Obviously we want to be successful but the quality of the product and our customer’s enjoyment of our product is our focus. <he thinks for a long time and continues> If you think of coffee as a food, then your entire perception of it will change.

PCL: Do you have a Valentine’s Day tradition?

Monique: I used to hire a group to come in and sing for Jerry. It was a barbershop quartet – I sent them to surprise him at work with singing love songs. They would entertain his entire division.

Jerry: She has been doing it for years and fi nally I did not get embarrassed anymore… <both laughing> We would also go to the GCSC’s student restaurant which is now the John Holley Dining Hall and I had my present for her brought out on a silver platter with a silver lid. Shortly after, the singing quartet came in… we entertained everyone who was dining that day. And I also upgraded her wedding ring and engagement ring a couple of years ago on Valentine’s Day.

 

Deja Brew is located at 8730 Thomas Drive, Unit 1109 in Panama City Beach, FL.  Visit their website www.recdejabrew.com for more information.

 

[box type=”shadow” align=”aligncenter” ]Read in our next issue about Roaster’s Edge Coffee – from the coffee beans on the William’s coffee farm in Coast Rica to their Roastery, and your cup, in Panama City, Florida where the beans are being roasted to perfection for a consistently wonderful cup of coffee at Deja Brew Coffee.[/box]

 

Interview by Val Schoger