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a coffee shop with a European<br />
vibe in mind. The couple had the<br />
opportunity to move back to Sioux<br />
Center, Rebecca’s hometown, for<br />
Laremy to fill a one-year role at<br />
Dordt.<br />
“We had no plans beyond that<br />
one year living in Sioux Center,”<br />
Rebecca said. “We looked at big cities,<br />
other Iowa towns. We were just<br />
looking around to see what fit and<br />
at some point, we started looking<br />
at what it would be like to open a<br />
coffee shop here.”<br />
A longtime vacant building formerly<br />
home to NAPA Auto Parts at<br />
172 N. Main Ave. piqued their interest.<br />
“A friend of mine knew about<br />
curve-roofed buildings like this,<br />
and we were able to look above the<br />
ceiling tile at the time and saw the<br />
big steel girders and thought we<br />
could do something cool with that,”<br />
Laremy said. “I remember when I<br />
was putting together proposals and<br />
going to banks, the building was always<br />
in my mind. This is where I<br />
wanted the shop to be. The whole<br />
business plan hinged upon this<br />
building. It was the first building<br />
we fell in love with.”<br />
“It’s hard to know why. It was<br />
pretty ugly,” Rebecca said. “All it<br />
was, was tile floor, drop ceilings,<br />
white wood paneling and rows of<br />
fluorescent lights, which was great<br />
for NAPA but not for a coffee shop.”<br />
They officially became owners<br />
of the building Labor Day weekend<br />
2009, but it was a long and messy<br />
process aided by Google SketchUp<br />
to design the cafe’s layout to<br />
transform the space into what’s<br />
SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4 | <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE 19
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