Community Highlights: Meet Janice Heape of Empire’s Edge Grill and Coffee bar

Today we’d like to introduce you to Janice Heape.

Hi Janice, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Sean Hoffman, my son asked me to invest in the Empire’s Edge Cafe’ in Empire’s, Co about four years ago.
In August of 2023 I moved from Florida to Colorado where Sean lived to assist with the restaurant.

The previous owner had defaulted on most of his responsibilities and the owner of the building agreed to ownership between Sean Hoffman, myself and several investors.

Previously, the cafe’ was open and Sean worked there before owning the restaurant. Lawyers and owners agreed to ownership for the cafe’. Lawyers created the contract, and all investors and the property owner agreed and signed the documents and Sean opened the cafe’’.

At that time, we had employees that managed the cafe’ and the name was changed to Empire’’s Edge Cafe’. They would close the cafe’ and had very unpredictable hours and business was slow along with many issues.

Eventually, the cafe’ was open 7am to 7pm and closed on Wednesday. Later, we began staying open seven days a week and the name was changed again to Empire’s Edge Grill and Coffee bar. Sean decided to make the hours for the cafe’ dependable that it would always be open 7-7 and we did not close, it was open seven days a week.

The business in this location struggled from the employees unable to efficiently manage the cafe;. When I arrived, it was circling the drain and soon all the employees changed frequently. At that time, the struggles of rotating employees and many of the owners worked as volunteers.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Opening a restaurant always has many struggles. The number one struggle is the employees. Train them is expensive and they leave soon after training, they are not dependable, legal issues are common, addiction is common and my standards had to be lowered. Employee’s wages are the number one cost.

At this time, the cafe’ was not as visible and customers stated they did not see or know the restaurant was there, open and dependable with great food. It took some time to prioritize the long lists of improvements and accomplish them while other problems would occur. Training the staff to provide a good, exceptional service and better than average food was always a constant process. Changing the menu gradually became a priority. Some dishes did not sell, causing more perishable food costs. Several months after we opened we were blessed with one employee that is exceptional and is a great asset to help Sean with the cafe’ and the responsibilities.

Maintenance for all the equipment and repairs for any changes that need to be addressed have been a constant process and creating stress.

As you know, we’re big fans of Empire’s Edge Grill and Coffee bar. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
We have a full menu all day, everyday breakfast and all menu items are available. Breakfast burritos with a choice of sausage, bacon or chorizo has many eggs, a few breakfast potatoes and is made with a 12.5 inch tortilla, This is very popular.. In March last year we sold 1,000 breakfast burritos in one month..

We have a barista with high quality coffee and espresso from Italy.. We have many choices of flavors, milks, we make many different types of coffee drinks, for example: Cappuccino, many flavors of lattes, we have fruit smoothies and hot cocoa with whipped cream if you desire.

Food consist of a variety of cuisines, All of our sauces are made from scratch with fresh ingredients, like our Aioli, pesto, green chili, garlic Aioli, garlic mayonnaise . We cook to order hand cut fries, Chicken Pesto Penni, Ruben,BLT, tacos, nachos, green chili rice burritos (breakfast & regular), breakfast sandwiches, pancakes, breakfast plate, a kid’s menu and many pastries fresh from a bakery.

Sean is a huge foodie and takes pride in training all his cooks to thrive in delivering a delicious meal, excellent quality and service. Greeting our customers as soon as they come in with a smile and usually when they leave is common.

Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
We have come a long way, our employees have stayed with us long term and we are all family. Catering for local businesses has been very good this year. We have catered anywhere from 30 to 300 people at one time. Delivered hot and consistent service and food is Sean’s priority.

We pride ourselves on the warm and cozy atmosphere and friendly staff to welcome our customers. We work hard at being fast and having consistently in every meal we provide. Old fashioned hugs and love are common in our place of business.

We try to be open when advertised unless challenged by no water, electricity or unpredictable circumstances. Sean is a computer programmer and has developed online menus. New is a bar code ant each table and ordering, on line, so it is ready when you arrive has been developed and dependable information concerning the cafe’’. If for some reason we cannot be open it is posted on our website and online ordering is disabled.