Alisse Cottle is the definition of a Mom Entrepreneur here in Sonoma County. She is the co-owner of Brew Coffee and Beer House, and a mom of 3 who has raised one daughter full time, and two sons who she shares custody with their father. In addition to being a mom and a business owner, she is also engaged to be married to her partner, Jess, who happens to be her partner at Brew as well. She moved to Sonoma County from Orange County over 13 years ago with her ex-husband. It only took her one trip to Santa Rosa for her to fall in love and realize this is where she wanted to raise her children.
Brew Coffee & Beer is a coffee shop and craft beer tap house in downtown Santa Rosa. In addition to having delicious menu items, like my personal favorite, their Rainbow Toast, a traditional avocado toast with pickled onions, goat cheese, and radishes, they are deeply committed to the community. They have a long list of monthly events for local musicians, LGBTQIA members of the community, Rupaul’s Drag Race fans, open mic nights, and more.
I chatted with her about being a mom and an entrepreneur in Sonoma County (over coffee of course):
Did you want to own your own business when you were a kid?
When I was working in coffee when I was younger, I dreamed of having my own cafe. When I became a manager at Starbucks, I would imagine what it would be like to run my own family business. When my daughter was a teenager, I trained her to be a barista and at one point she was working for the cafe that I managed, and I had a glimpse of working together as a family. I remember thinking how amazing it would be to run my own cafe.
Tell us little bit about the story of you becoming an entrepreneur.
I honestly was a young single mom and found myself working for Starbucks. I had to make a decision to go to school, work, and be a single mom, or just focus on work and motherhood. I feel really blessed to have worked for a company that allowed me to grow with them, offered me and my child benefits, and taught me the business of cafe management without a college degree. They taught me so much about business, leadership, and day to day operations of running a store. They paid me well enough to support myself and my daughter. I spent 10 years working for them and continued to grow in my role there the entire time. I have always been an extremely hard worker and I believe in continuous learning no matter what environment you are in. I have never wanted to get bored, or complacent. There is always more to learn and ways to grow.
Sometimes life forces you to embrace new things and life decided it was doing that to me.
I was recruited by the CEO of Taylor Maid Farms to help them open their first Coffee Bars. They had been a wholesale company for almost 20 years but never had a cafe or retail space of their own. So I left a career at Starbucks to work for a small local company and help shape and create a cafe. It was an amazing opportunity to be creative and grow some more. I didn't really ever see myself owning my own business at that point, I had 2 young boys and a good career, I was also divorced at that point as well. I opened 2 coffee bars with that company in under 4 years and thought I would be a part of it forever. I didn't expect to start over again. Sometimes life forces you to embrace new things and life decided it was doing that to me. I was let go very unexpectedly from the company without much explanation and it was one of the scariest moments of my life. I have always been a mom since I was 19 years old so thinking about my kids, my family, before myself was what I have always done. The uncertainty of a career, an income, or a direction at this point was almost debilitating.
I faced a crossroads. Do I start over? Do I work for someone else again and help open more cafes for other companies, do I become a manager again? I interviewed for a few positions to do similar jobs of opening cafes and one was for Equator in San Rafael. I met with the owner, a Woman Entrepreneur, and she asked me some very honest questions.
Could I really see myself commuting all the way down there every day, when I have children and a home here in Santa Rosa? She told me she was 35 when she opened Equator and that was 20 years ago. She had to take a leap and if it failed then she would figure it out then. Basically, that hit me really hard. I was 35 too. I wanted to stay close to home, to be with my family. I knew how hard it is to open a business because I had done it for someone else. I pour my heart into everything I do and I didn't want to do it in San Rafael, I wanted to open in Santa Rosa.
My partner, Jess, was going to school for business and accounting and she knew that we would make a great team together running a business. I could manage the front and she could manage the back. We dreamed together about a coffee house that shared the same passion for craft beer but was family-friendly, and not just a sports bar. Women want a place to drink good beer too. We would daydream about combining the 2 into a community cafe full of life and activity. We wanted to celebrate other women in business and support friends with their craft whether it be baking or roasting coffee. We spoke with our families and they supported our decision to take a leap and open a place together. I remember thinking, it’s now or never. This is the time in my life to give this a shot. So we did!
What’s next?
We really don't know what is next. I am definitely the dreamer and I love the idea of growing more. I also love challenging the status quo. Being a woman in business is still a challenge and so we want to continue to succeed and push boundaries. Whenever someone tells you that you can't do something it makes me go out and learn it, master it, and prove them wrong.
We love our community so much. We feel so blessed to be able to support the local community, from the partners we work with, like Ritual coffee roaster, also a woman-owned business and yes, she is a mom too, to the local bakers, craft brewers, farmers, wine and cider makers. We have truly shared our space and because of that Brew has grown to have its own life in a way. It has connected artists, musicians, families, and especially the local LGBTQ community. We are just being ourselves , and that is 2 women, in love, who own a business, and our kids are there with us many hours of the day playing, eating, sometimes working. We have been nominated for Best Neighborhood Cafe by our customers every year and that makes us so happy.
Why Sonoma County?
There is really nowhere else I would want to live. It is so beautiful here, I love California, and Northern California is so full of amazing people, farms, beer, wine, weather, it’s really hard to complain, it feels wrong to complain about anything here because we are so incredibly lucky to live in such a gorgeous place.
What’s it like being a parent who also owns their own business?
It feels like a juggler. It takes a village to raise kids, all working parents know that. But to own a business I feel blessed to be teaching my kids about hard work, pride, and to be an example for them, of a strong woman. I want them to be proud of me, and I want to show them that small business has heart and it is the heart of a community. I want them to know all that it takes to make a cafe run, and when they go out to eat or go to a coffee shop, they know that there is so much involved, that someone has to wash those dishes, and clean that cafe, and pay the bills, and make the coffee, deliver the food, they already understand that what we are doing is really special and to offer service to others is a great lesson for children.
What other advice would you have for other parents who want to start their own business?
Find a balance where you can and bring your kids into it, they will appreciate it even more. Find a way to have them there so that they can grow up with you, but you can balance the responsibilities of it all. When it is time to come home, we have to leave the work talk and be present in our home life. That is so important too.
One of my favorite things is seeing other business owners teaching their children their craft. It is a gift to pass that down to them even if they don't follow in our footsteps. It will mean amazing memories for them and for you.
What advice do you have for parents in Sonoma County in general?
It goes so fast, my daughter is 20 now and the time when they are little is so precious, it’s so hard, but it goes faster than you realize, so cherish it.