Here at Press Coffee, we are thankful to have something shiny in sight, but it is going to take a lot of work to get the new location up and running. It has been encouraging to see so many people show up for us in our final days, whether online or in the shop. We bid our bittersweet farewells (for now) through masks, glass, or internet and begin the transition to a bigger and better Press.

As we hurdled one thing after another this year, 2020 got a bad rap along the way. Interruptions in our routines, social lives, or even employment made life stressful over the last eleven months. While I think it’s fair to say that we all hate change, I believe it is how we react and adapt to it that makes us stronger. When the clock turns over to a new year, things won’t magically return to normal because the future is in our own hands. (Cue superhero music.)

While you kick back with a leftover slice of pumpkin pie, let us marinate in gratitude for the good things this year brought.

If you can think wayyy back to January, before masks were sold on every corner and we thought tornadoes were the worst natural disaster to worry about in Iowa, we were trying out a few things at the shop to start the new year. First, we shaved three hours off Monday afternoons, closing at 3 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. Second, we introduced Nodo wraps and breakfast burritos. Bryan Asklof, owner-operator of the location on North Dodge, worked with us to create a menu of items that would travel well and be easy to assemble and warm up at the shop. We are so grateful for Nodo’s partnership with Press, even for those quick couple of months before the pandemic spread to Iowa, and were sad to inform our guests, even into our final days, that no, we no longer carried Nodo’s delicious chorizo and egg burrito.

One thing that became apparent since we opened our walls to local artists: there’s no shortage of creativity in the area. We couldn’t have been happier to share our space for five weeks at a time with photographers, painters, quilters, and more– amateur and professional alike. Bringing us into the new year was Bobbie Gravitt and her Be Free Photography of horses and nature. We were happy to be the vehicle for her first public show where she donated 50% of her sales to DVIP. She passed the figurative baton to Nicki Maurus who debuted her Necklaces for Neely, a hand-strung jewelry line she created to support the JDRF and her daughter Neely who has type 2 diabetes. In March we met Angela Otts, grandmother to Rachel, and she hung up many vivid, abstract paintings along with a selection of illustrations. Unfortunately, COVID-19 kept her from returning for her reception, but we were grateful to be stuck with such beautiful art!

Before her show at Press, Nicki also played hostess for our yearly holiday party. It was luxurious to sit together at one long table to eat instead of scattered around someone’s basement, potluck plates balanced on knees. As one of our most loyal supporters, we can’t thank her enough for opening her home to us and also walking to Press nearly every day.

Heading into this year, our staff experienced a bout of turnover, as is often the case when living in a college town. Marda moved out to Los Angeles, Ally to Chicago, Anna and Haley Shook to college, Katherine to the Northwest, and Diane to the East. As the pandemic ascended on the area, it appeared pointless to hire new people, so we were forced to call all hands on deck to cover the gaps. Katie and I took the brunt of the workload from St. Patrick’s Day to the end of April. We were so grateful to have Marge, Jacob, Aeja, Victor, Hope, Haley Steffen, and Jacy to help fill in, deliver donuts, and allow us to breathe a little more over the past seven months. Kellie joined us right before the world shut down, but we’re glad to see she was able to stay in the coffee biz at Stillwater Coffee while also working closer to home.

When we connected with Hannah Rager and Jump Coffee at the beginning of March about introducing their app on the 10th, we had no idea that a week later it would be our primary source of sales until the middle of May. Online ordering and drive-thru coffee had already become the way of life for many people, but the Jump technology saved our butts (and sanity) once face-to-face communication became restricted. Encounter Cafe was the first in the area to utilize the app which made their chipotle bacon and egg sandwich part of our Saturday morning routine for a while. (Thanks Diane for the delivery!) We were second in Iowa to join the service, but it now supports eight coffee locations in the Iowa City area.

By March 15th, schools were closed down in Iowa for a hopeful period of four weeks, which then turned Spring Break into an indefinite interruption of regular schooling. March 17th became the tipping point and Governor Kim Reynolds declared a State of Public Health Disaster Emergency reducing everyone’s lives to just the essentials. Press Coffee was lucky to stay open throughout mitigation protocols but it also meant that staffing was reduced to just us two. Despite our shifts only lasting four or five hours, it was an exhausting six weeks.

In retrospect though, we were glad to be crazy busy with work instead of stir-crazy at home. The pandemic turned out to be the first in a series of crises that would plague 2020, but since we were able to come in and still do our job safely and with limited contact, we clung to a shred of normalcy. Despite the social distance and a drop in sales, we grew closer with our established guests or met new ones while we all forged alternate routines.

By July we quietly hit Press Coffee’s seven-year-anniversary but behind the scenes, we were also grappling with the possibility of closing down. Our Coralville location always had too many variables against us, and we were always trying new things to make ends meet. Shortened COVID-19 hours revealed that our most productive time was indeed before Noon, but we weren’t hitting high enough numbers to keep the whole thing chugging along. Katie received word from our former owners that it was time to close down Press Coffee, but ultimately she decided that this thing we built for seven years was worth saving. By the time she broke the news to me, she already had the ball rolling with Ryan Wade, and well, haven’t we told this story a million times already?

Keeping this news from our local regulars was tough (ahem, Julie Hodge), especially when we were so excited about all the pieces that were coming together to pursue our vision. By August 10th, we announced our acquisition of Press Coffee but the excitement had to be saved for another day as the derecho blew into town that afternoon. We were lucky to have the lights on at Press the next morning so we were available to caffeinate, hydrate, and provide a power and WIFI source for surrounding neighborhoods who were out electricity, internet, or water– some for up to two weeks or more.

The rest is history and now we are living our vision, bit by bit anyway. Getting from point A (2201 Grantview Drive) to point B (1120 North Dodge Street) feels like an insurmountable amount of work, but every piece of furniture we find, or city council meeting passed, or digital rendering of our future space keeps the gears grinding and our momentum forward. Even packing up the shop looked like an overwhelming task, but as of November 29th, we’ve managed to move practically everything out, one armful and cartload at a time.

This year will go down in history books for all its huge, life-altering events but what I remember most vividly are all the small moments. Surprise lunch deliveries, nature walks, and outdoor exploration with cats. Katie clung to sanity with long afternoons in the hammock, mending her overworked body with a massage gun, and keeping her hands busy with a visual record of the year. After a long week of trading shifts at the shop, I would escape to Kalona and spend Sunday evenings around the fire pit with her and the dogs. As the sun set, we would decompress and listen to music, play fetch with the floofs, and work on our Kan Jam skills.

Remember the good moments, never forget the heartbreaking ones, and build the future you want to see, one cup of coffee at a time.