Meet Victoria Roundy | Wife, Mother, and Coffee entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Victoria Roundy and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Roughly 5 years ago my husband and I began to deeply dive into learning about all things coffee and how we could jump into the business of owning and running our own community centered coffee shop. We spoke our dream to anyone and everyone who would listen, I felt a little silly sometimes, thinking maybe I was crazy… We researched coffees, we attended a huge out of state convention, and received professional training. On a fluke I won tickets to a downtown “Sips and Sweets” event. We went in and the first vendor we saw was a nitro coffee cart, thus meeting Hans from Cult Coffee roastery. We found out his roastery was less than 5 minutes from our house!! We toured it and fell in love! We had training, knowledge, and now a roastery to buy from! Now where’s the coffee shop!?! I kept all of this in my heart but realized very quickly this might be a big challenge to materialize with my husband working full time as a teacher and private tutor and me taking care of our three sons and managing our home. I put it on the shelf for a while. Fast forward 3 years ago, my friend invited me to a “conversation group” at a little place I’d never heard of in Phoenix off of 16th street. I went in and right away I felt it was such a cool welcoming space. We attended the group in a neat gallery space and noticed there was a tiny little coffee shop off to the back of the gallery. At the end of the meeting my friend wanted a coffee and I obliged. I went in and right off the bat started talking with the barista about the kind of beans they use and asked about the machine (after all, I was truly interested) He let me know that the owner of this little shop was going to sell the shop and hadn’t announced it to anyone. I perked up instantly! I asked for the owner’s number and email and within a week we were negotiating the sale of her equipment and business! One month later we were gathering funds and signing on the sale. We met with the building owner and knew it was a match! What we experienced at The Hive on the corner of Coronado neighborhood was nothing less than MAGIC. We fell in LOVE with the neighbors and enjoyed hosting many music gatherings, those very conversation groups, and took part cohosting 1st Friday events there too. I t was a dream come true. I woke up every day with joy in my heart to go to work at a place I loved so dearly. I wasn’t making much money, but I knew I was building my business and it didn’t matter as long as I could pay for rent and my supplies…100% worth it. Fast forward to early 2020, we are told that the building is going to go up for sale. We thought maybe just maybe we could buy the building and continue it as a community hub. By the time we found out, one of the other shop owners had already been told and she was very interested and was moving forward. I saw that and thought she would be great for the building, so I backed down and anticipated a wonderful future with her as the new building owner and my new landlord after the sale. We spoke many times about my shop expanding and about me hosting and bringing in events and the exciting future ahead. I went to my shop each day with such inspiration. Then the reality of the pandemic hit, it began getting very interesting there. I was very open to pivot by reducing occupancy, offering curbside and free home deliveries. It was really working, the support from my customers was tremendous…. I did notice some growing tensions at the building, it became undeniable. I spoke as often as possible to the soon to be new building owner (after all we was my friend) Everything was moving along…slowly but moving. We continued to speak about creating an outside seating area, to cut a hole in this wall, to do this and that. A few months later I receive an unexpected email the day she signed ownership stating that she is now my landlord and her intentions are that she will “Move the current coffee shop to the back end of the building (which is actually a handicap bathroom, acting as a darkroom right now) and that I would no longer be a dine in coffee shop and she will be enforcing mask use under her ownership. I was baffled at her desire to move us into a space that was so full of chemicals and only 215 square feet. We had no idea this was her thought. She asked us to a meeting on December 1st, so we met with an open mind and heart. She began the meeting in the back of where she wanted to move us, with great animation and excitement. “Picture this, a big service window, you two in the center of the action and making a ton of money” She went on to say we can host safe events within a couple weeks. She acknowledging the space is small and has been full of photography chemicals for years. I was nervous for that and the costs of moving my equipment safely, inspection costs, and the money required for licensing the space to ensure health department requirements. We left that meeting hopeful and thinking we could roll with this change and adapt (after all the entirety of the pandemic was all about adapting and pivoting). Exactly two days later my husband and I each received an email from her stating that she had been “agonizing” over a decision for a while (unknown to us) and she had decided to “terminate our tenancy effective December 31st” Based on her thought that the Hive she is creating won’t be a good fit for our “great spiritual energy” and over time would “squash our vibe”. WHAT!?! That was my first thought. There was not even an inkling of a hint that this was her intention. We were given 15 days to vacate. If we didn’t leave by then we would owe her $300. This was all completely out of left field for us. To make matters worse she began renovations at the building immediately and with that we couldn’t even access our space to pack. For 6 days we were unable to access our space. She refused to allow us extra time to leave. We had to hire professionals to safely remove our machines, we had to pay for moving expenses, and gather enough help all within 9 days. All of this, during a pandemic, when our sales had already been down. It just crushed us. So in asking what I’ve learned from this is, by all means PROTECT yourself! When entering into ANY contract, do not ever be afraid to say “May I have that in writing” A landlord can appear to be your friend, but in business it is so important to lay out everything in writing, everything. They may not have your best interest in heart. This has been a painful but necessary lesson in my life. All in all, my first experience with owning my own coffee shop has been a fantastic, beautiful, heart filled experience, in the end it was unbearably distressing. We are trying to rebuild with doing deliveries and saving money for another location.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I love this question but it’s so funny to think about this, having been mostly home during this pandemic. I would stick to outdoor adventures at first. Phoenix Mountain Preserve and at the White Tank mountains (Waterfall trail) hiking would be a must. I would probably take my friend to Old Town Scottsdale to walk around also to Tempe Town Lake. As far as places to eat I absolutely love mom and pop places. Taylors Chowder house and Anzio’s are two are my absolute favorites! Verdura is also a must visit restaurant in my opinion. There are so many amazing places in the valley for sure….Hole in the Rock at the Buttes, The art on Oak street Alley down in Coronado, the awesome murals off of Roosevelt Rd….All the way to Lake Pleasant. The valley is so full of beautiful, colorful, exciting places.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I am so incredible grateful to my husband Roy who has such a deep love (and somewhat of an addiction) to all things coffee. He sparked our vision and I ran with it.

Website: https://my-site-buzzbeans.square.site/

Instagram: @BuzzBeans

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/buzzbeanscoffee/