Satellite Coffee combines with Smooth and Juicey on Market Street

Photo by dawn Quinn

NEW GUYS ON THE BLOCK. Satellite Coffee Company owner Pat Brown and co-owners of the Smooth and Juicey juice bar, Thane Davis and Doug Mazzine celebrated the soft opening of their shops on Jan. 2 to very receptive and excited customers. Their addition to the downtown area is a welcomed site to many looking for their perfect beverage fixes.

Just 10 months after opening his second Satellite Coffee shop on 6th Avenue inside of Masa, coffee entrepreneur Pat Brown has opened up the third in his lineup of shops offering Stumptown Coffee next to the downtown YMCA on Market Street. And similar to his last venture inside Masa, this shop is not a solo effort.

Along with Satellite, the downtown district now has a new juice bar to experience, Smooth and Juicey, owned by Thane Davis and Doug Mazzine.

While this third location of Satellite opened later than the 6th Avenue and Pine Street location, Brown affirmed that the opposite was supposed to take place.

“Well the third was intended to be the second, and Masa happened suddenly, and organic. I was approached by owner John Xitco. He said he wanted a Satellite there at Masa, but before he looked at space I thought no, I already have a different location and there’s no time. I walked by the site one night, saw a line outside for dancing, and I thought, man if I were to have a shop on 6th Ave., this is the only space and intersection I would want it, it’s the hub.”

As Brown works with and sells Stumptown Coffee out of Portland, Ore., he is close to its employees and said that he discussed opening up new locations with them.

“Because they didn’t have a million dollars to start other locales, rather than that letting it stop them from another location, they found a triple net lease somewhere…he said what we should do is look for someone you know, who is like-minded and find a building. Something off the radar,” Brown stated. “Less than 24 hours later, Patricia Lacey-Davis, owner of Embellish Salon, was sitting in Satellite on Division talking to local artist Chris Sharp about a new juice bar, and a light went off in my head. I thought, hey what about another Satellite there? She seemed to have similar ideals, and a great space. They thought having a Satellite there was a way to get foot traffic.”

And though Brown was lucky during 2009 in the sense that he opened up a new shop and one early this year, he does not want to confuse locals.

“Income is meager at present. I’m making a living wage, and am not planning on any elaborate vacations,” he affirmed. “The first and original Satellite location (on Division Street) is profitable, and we’re getting really close to being debt-free there. I feel like the second shop has a lot of potential that is yet to actualize. There is a really great space there and it’s still a little bit of an underground secret, more than I’d like it to be.”

Satellite Coffee and Smooth and Juicey held a soft opening for the shops on Jan. 2, and according to Brown, the first few days since they opened have been profitable, “So knock on wood that that’s the way it’s going to keep going. We’re still adding things, but the coffee shop is 100 percent functional, and baristas are fully trained.”

For Davis, moving into the food and drink business is a whole new ballgame, but one that he is tackling head-on.

“Originally, my wife and I bought the building that used to be the meat market, then it was Modern Gallery, and my wife owns Embellish. So we built the salon, then our home, and then whenever I’d go to the Y I thought they should build a smoothie shop or juice bar, so I built one,” he affirmed.

As opposed to Brown who has built his customer base, Davis’ juice bar and smoothie shop Smooth and Juicey is new to the industry. “We are new to this and we don’t have any signs yet. The marketing machine consists of my wife, so we’ve been a little slow. But our official opening is taking place on Feb. 4. We’ve actually had a pretty steady stream…We didn’t buy enough stuff for the first weekend and we ran out on Saturday. Wow, we discovered our shortcomings, which is we need to order a lot more stuff,” Davis said.

For Smooth and Juicey’s offerings, in addition to freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juices, the shop offers smoothie options and blends to tailor every unique taste.

“We do a ‘healthy six-pack,’ in which a customer picks six items for their drink. Some people would want six veggies in one and they pick that. With the ‘Tacoma healthy six-pack’ you can do that with smoothies,” Davis stated.

For smoothie base options, there are regular milk, nonfat yogurt, coconut milk and a hemp blend milk for vegetarians and vegans. Smooth and Juicey is trying to offer something for everyone, such as muscle building proteins for the avid gym-goers and yogurt for those who would like more of a treat.

Both Satellite and Smooth and Juicey are currently working on a plan to offer delivery of their drinks to downtown businesses. The shops will add a fax machine so that companies can fax orders over and get their drinks delivered to their doorsteps.

For individuals who have yet to visit the new combined coffee and juice shop, the interior is a sight to behold. The edifice was constructed using wood and building pieces from former construction projects of Davis and Mazzine.

“We built it mostly out of things that I’ve been saving that I said I was going to use some day and now I’m able to use it. Other pieces were rescued from re-models, the walls were made out of a deck, and some cedar was used too. The ideas to recycle and repurpose go along with business models of nutritious food and green business,” Davis said.

Fans of Satellite Coffee and those who have been seeking juice options nearer to downtown can rejoice and revel in their new options and wonderful, modern location now available to them in the form of the Satellite and Smooth and Juicey combination.

Satellite Coffee and Smooth and Juicey are both located at 1122 Market St. The official opening of both businesses will take place on Feb. 4. For more information, visit the Satellite Myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/satellitecoffeeco. 

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