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CRAFTED WITH CARE |<br />
Brewing<br />
COFFEE & CONVERSATION<br />
TEXT BY RENEE WIELENGA | PHOTOS BY RENEE WIELENGA<br />
Finding a dilapidated 1930s<br />
round-roof building formerly<br />
home to an auto-parts store<br />
gave a young Sioux Center couple<br />
hope for their dream.<br />
Fourteen years later, The Fruited<br />
Plain Cafe owners Laremy and Rebecca<br />
De Vries continue to craft their<br />
business like their coffee, with care to<br />
be beautiful and useful, for the community.<br />
“The kind of community hub this<br />
place has become is a humbling<br />
thing,” said Rebecca, 43. “You start<br />
with a dream, a vision and your own<br />
desires of wanting to create a place<br />
where people can hang out and we<br />
can earn a living and you have ideas<br />
of how to create that kind of space and<br />
then it happens. We also realize that<br />
it happens aside from us in a way that<br />
keeps it all happening.”<br />
“There’s a symbiosis here,” said<br />
Laremy, 44. “We need a community,<br />
and we’re grateful for the community<br />
support that keeps us in business, and<br />
the community needs us, and I think<br />
they’re grateful for us, not only as a<br />
lunch space or coffee place but also<br />
as a space to meet old friends, make<br />
new ones, study, hang out, come on<br />
a date, relax.<br />
“Looking back, this place has allowed<br />
us to express ourselves, and<br />
it’s been well-received. It’s humbling,<br />
but there’s a pride in there, too, of<br />
being 14 years in business.”<br />
“We’re still asking ourselves if we<br />
remember the last 14 years,” Rebecca<br />
said.<br />
“It’s funny how time flies; it’s been<br />
a challenge,” Laremy said.<br />
“But it’s been worth it,” Rebecca<br />
said.<br />
The foundation for their dream is<br />
rooted in Laremy’s interest in coffee.<br />
The Pella native started his journey<br />
with coffee shops in high school<br />
as he worked for a friend’s mom, who<br />
owned a coffee shop. After graduating<br />
from Dordt College in Sioux<br />
Center, he and a friend opened The<br />
Humble Bean, a former coffee shop<br />
in the campus center. After meeting<br />
at Dordt, Laremy and Rebecca got<br />
married in 2004, then moved to the<br />
Netherlands for a year.<br />
“In Europe, the places that people<br />
hang out are not just a coffee shop or<br />
a bar — all bars have coffee, all coffee<br />
shops have beer on tap,” Laremy said.<br />
“We loved hanging out at those kinds<br />
of spots.”<br />
Then the couple moved to Annapolis,<br />
Maryland’s capital city, for three<br />
years where Laremy managed a coffee<br />
shop.<br />
Their first of three children was<br />
born while living in Annapolis. They<br />
began to consider where they wanted<br />
to raise their family as well as opening<br />
Couple’s café builds community downtown Sioux Center<br />
18 <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4
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