Three Layers Expands with Wine Bar and Zen Gardens

[shawnsoldit]

I glad you like our coffeehouse!!  But bigger than that it is so nice to read something nice about our fine neighborhood!  Please tell your friends about your new found perspective of Springfield!  It truly is an amazing neighborhood with wonderful people! 

Come back soon!

[Lucasjj]

Just got back from Three Layers again. Not to sound like I have stock in the place but the wine bar setup is awesome. The mix between the bar, the coffee house, and garden is great. You can really see the connectivity of the Springfield residents in there, as many of them seem to know each other. Also the staff there was incredibly friendly and very eager to talk to us about their neighborhood. I will definitely be going back again. Hopefully as the neighborhood continues to grow and the economy bounces back, more commercial places like it will spring up.

[Lucasjj]

When my girlfriend and I went in today Jeff served us. It was just simple customer pleasantries though. Tonight however we talked mainly with a bartender, whose name I don't recall, but he provided excellent service and was extremely friendly. I really suggest for all those people who have seen the many things on this site about this place, but haven't gone, to motivate and head over sometime. It is definitely worth the trip.

If you do go you have to try the hummus. My girlfriend and I think its the best we have had.

[Omarvelous09]

So i went a few weeks ago...i guess the Zen garden/bar just opened. I have to admit, its a great space...with a surprising crowd. A little too avondale for me...but good to see the "cool folks" have flocked. lol 

[Sigma]

  yeah, I still like to stop in at the Walnut Inn from time to time - but they don't have the Jeff's Squares! 

[Sportmotor]

I love going to that place, am a little scared to go there and see its jam packed with people. I kinda liked going in and it had a very relaxed since about it.

have always had Great coffee and fun converastions with the girls making them

[Sportmotor]

actually last time I was there we had a fun converastion about cults and lifestyles and even tho I was the one who didnt know anyone, I didnt really feel that way.

[Sportmotor]

This place has been packed!   Alot of metrojacksonville people have been dropping by and checking it out, Ive seen a number of you while Ive been there.

Sign up and tell people about your experience!

You work there? o.O
I was there not to long ago with my co-worker and fellow forum person on here Omar checking out the new zen garden and such

[Sportmotor]

Oh ok, was wondering figured you would probley stand out had I seen you and woulda thrown paper balls at you untill you figured out what was goin on 

[EvenStillLeader]

whenever my band plays there it's always a great experience. recently, i had a performance at another venue and could not play until i had a 4 berry smoothie! I drove from Arlington to get my smoothie and chill a bit.

Jeff and Shawn are great!

EvenStillLeader

[Lucasjj]

I just saw this on Jacksonville.com. Hopefully some of the not-so-enlightened people who frequent their boards can see a better perspective of Springfield through this article.

http://jacksonville.com/lifestyles/columnists/laura_capitano/2009-08-27/story/springfields_three_layers_adds_more_layers

Also I am not sure if this was posted before, but I saw a flyer for a music festival Three Layers is putting on in October, and I received an email about it from Jeff yesterday:

"Planning continues for Springfield's Autumn Music Festival and the music line-up is looking amazing!  It will be held Oct. 3rd & 4th on the grounds surrounding ThreeLayers. Proceeds will benefit the American Cancer Society & Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Many of Springfield's own non-profit and support organizations will have booths as well.  There will be great fun and good times for everyone!  Keep up to date by checking out www.AutumnMusicFest.org "

[fsu813]

Three Layers Coffee House: Sweet success for Jeff Wright and Shawn McGuire

People can’t stop talking about Three Layers, A Coffee House. The Springfield business was named the Best Coffee House of Jacksonville by Folio Weekly, gained coverage in Southern Living, and garnered a visit from Gov. Charlie Crist. Like many other entrepreneurs, partners Jeff Wright and Shawn McGuire have an interesting story.

The couple moved to Florida from Atlanta in 2007. McGuire was successful in the construction and real estate industries. Wright worked in health care, and made special-order cakes from his home kitchen for more than a decade.

For as long as Wright has been making cakes, people have told him that his cakes were the best they’ve ever had. Guests have called the hosts of parties where Wright’s cakes were served because they wanted to compliment Wright on his cakes. They even sent flowers. Friends and family urged Wright to start a business.

McGuire suggested that Wright name the would-be business. Months later, Wright announced that he would call it Three Layers, A Coffee House. The name represented the three layers he used in every cake he baked  and his belief that true inner peace embodies the mind, body and spiritâ€"three layers.

Months after deciding on a name, the opportunity to launch Three Layers presented itself, but it was completely unexpected.

New Floridians

Wright and McGuire moved to Orlando after McGuire was recruited by a real estate firm in Central Florida. But they discovered the city wasn’t the right fit for them.

“We started to consider other areas of Florida, and we had a few requirements for our new home,” Wright says. “It had to be a place where Shawn could sell real estate, specifically historic homes. We’re urban dwellers, so it had to have an urban core. And it had to be near the water.”

After reviewing city information on the Internet, Wright and McGuire kept reading about the historic Springfield neighborhood of Jacksonville. After a visit to the active community, they were hooked.

Some locals tried to persuade them not to move to Springfield.

“People told us, ‘Oh, you don’t want to be there,’” Wright says. “The neighborhood was rundown and crime-infested about 10 years ago. But it’s nothing like that now.”

McGuire began searching for offices for his new real estate venture. He found a four-unit building at 1602 Walnut Street. Although he decided it wasn’t suitable for his real estate office, he wanted to show it to Wright because of the unique architecture.

When Wright walked in the 1925 building, tears filled his eyes, McGuire says.

“He turned and told me, ‘This is it. This is where Three Layers is supposed to be,’” McGuire recalls.

The building offered not only a place for a new business, but a place for the couple to live as well.

Their decision was a surprise to both of them. “I remember telling Jeff, ‘A coffee house? But, we’re looking for a place for the real estate business,’ Three Layers wasn’t on our radar at that point,” McGuire says.

But Three Layers was meant to be.

A financial plan

“Starting Three Layers was a new experience for us,” McGuire says. “I’d done construction, restoration, and real estate, but nothing like this before.”

Another entrepreneur gave McGuire a contact at the Small Business Administration (SBA). The SBA required McGuire to produce a business plan. He spent three days writing his first business plan using Business Plan Pro software. He used a how-to book about opening a coffee house, and demographic information from the Springfield Preservation & Revitalization (SPAR) Council.

The partners secured a loan from CenterBank of Jacksonville guaranteed by the SBA, and put down $60,000.

“We did an interest reserve deal. It included $175,000 to cover the cost of the building, $50,000 for build-out, $25,000 to cover our mortgage payments while we got started, plus $25,000 in equipment start-up costs,” McGuire says. “The interest rate was good, and it all happened pretty fast. If we would have pursued the same loan now that we did back then, the scenario would be very different.”

A budding business

Wright and McGuire worked tirelessly to build Three Layers, A Coffee House, in only a few months. A then-threatening recession presented challenges, but they believed in the vision for the coffee house.

“Shawn had his real estate business, and I was bringing in income from a part-time job at Memorial Hospital,” Wright says. “We lived in the same building of the coffee house, and we didn’t have a mortgage payment thanks to the great deal we received from the SBA. We knew we would have to put in long hours and hard work, but we figured if we can make it in this economic climate, we’d be OK.”

The owners say that their slogan, “Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly,” is not only a foundation for Three Layers, but a personal mantra they live by. Wright received it an e-mail several years ago, and it stuck with him.

The partners conducted guerilla market research by visiting coffee houses each time they traveled to a new city. They studied the corporate giants, networked with local roasters, and researched equipment.

“We asked a lot of questions to find out who was using what equipment, the advantages and disadvantages of using certain products, and what changes the owners would make if they could,” Wright says. “We checked out the prices other owners were charging, too.”

The menu was designed to showcase Wright’s treasured recipes from family and friends. The recipe for Italian Cream cake, Wright’s favorite, came from a friend’s family in Knoxville, Tenn. The cookie recipes originated from Wright’s mother, and his English Muffin Bread recipe came from his father. The partners drew non-compete and confidentially agreements to protect the recipes. Today, they’re also trademarking and copyrighting the best-selling “Jeff Squares.”

They also found great deals on equipment.

“Sometimes people just gave us things,” Wright says.

The marketing plan was simple. The partners printed fliers and spoke to everyone they met. As people visited the coffee house, word spread quickly, and soon the press began to call. A visit from a local television producer resulted in news coverage.

McGuire says that the first operational plan entailed him opening Three Layers in the morning, tending to the long lines, and closing at 11 a.m. Then, he’d work on his real estate business. Wright would leave his part-time job at 5 p.m. to open the coffee house by 5:30 p.m.

“Well, there just weren’t long lines at the beginning,” McGuire says. “We had a very limited menu in the beginning consisting of cake, coffee and espresso.”

Soon customers were asking for lunch.

Expansion

Wright and McGuire decided to repurpose their guest bedroom to give Wright more room to prepare food. Out came the guest bed, and in went new commercial equipment.

After finding a four-bedroom house, only steps from the coffee house, Wright and McGuire moved out of the building. They turned their old bedroom into a special events room, and opened a wine bar called The Cellar.

They also hired a landscaper to transform their courtyard into a lush Zen Garden featuring reclaimed bricks, drought-tolerant bamboo, and underground water storage ponds. Now, the Zen Garden is reserved at least once a week for birthdays, receptions, book club meetings, and more.

The owners have also given back to the community through events such as the Springfield Autumn Music Festival that benefitted the American Cancer Society and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

The buzz about Three Layers, A Coffee House, has translated to awards, press coverage, and even a visit from Gov. Charlie Crist.

The governor was in Jacksonville to sign a piece of legislation. When he told his local driver he wanted to go to Starbucks, the driver told him he should try Three Layers.

“Gov. Crist and his entire entourage came to the coffee house,” McGuire says. “We had a guitar player during lunch that day. Gov. Crist borrowed his guitar and played a Beatles song for us.”

Challenges and goals

Wright says it is still a challenge to get some native Jacksonvillians to visit Three Layers, A Coffee House, because of Springfield’s stigma from years ago.

“We actually had some part-time applicants call and cancel their interviews once they looked up the location of the coffee house, or when their family or friends heard that the business was in Springfield,” Wright says.

Positive press coverage and word-of-mouth have helped the owners combat the old reputation of Springfield.

McGuire says that one of the partners’ biggest goals is to implement processes to make the coffee house so systematic, that it can be run easily.

“This will free Jeff and me up to focus on other ventures,” McGuire says.

McGuire calls the success of Three Layers more of a statement than a cause for the neighborhood.

“We thought we’d offer a great place to hang out, but we soon became the flagship business for a neighborhood long forgotten. We proved that, yes, you can start a business in a once horrible neighborhood and succeed.”


http://advantagebizmag.com/archives/2403/comment-page-1#comment-580

[alta]

Awesome article.  Thanks Shawn and Jeff for opening your business in Springfield!!

[billy]

Great place. Visited recently while in town.
Any city/neighborhood in the country would be proud to claim it.

[Reaper man]

As someone who lives ooooh 250 feet or so away from the coffee house(aren't you guys jealous? :>), I must say it's the best cafe I've ever experienced. I mean who couldn't love:

• The nice big screen TV with decent movie selection.
• The board games that you can just pick up and play.
• The wonderful art to look at that changes from time to time.
• The yummy food.  Sure they are mostly cafe bakery "snack" food (ie: you won't find sandwiches or anything of the like here), but what they offer is delicious.  As someone here stated before, the home made Jeff squares are fucking delicious.
• The wide variety of coffee and other drinks, from tea to smoothies, to the bottled drinks right below you at the register.
• The wine bar, with its nice selection of wine and beers. (personally, I wish they would add maybe a cider or two, but I digress)
• The weekly events, like musical performances, art shows, etc
• A table completely dedicated for placing your business card so that you can advertise your local services to the community (as someone doing freelance IT work, this is awesome. Find my card! )
• Just the overall comfy atmosphere of the entire place, which includes the Zen garden.

All in all, is it no wonder why it got best coffee house in Folio weekly?  I really should go there more, but I'm poor, and I don't feel right just loitering there without buying something, you know?