Sometimes, unusual pairings work out.
In a unique move, Nathaniel Winkler, owner of Element Hardware, has shifted his previously fully online hardware business into a hybrid brick-and-mortar coffee shop and hardware showroom in southwest Durango.
Winkler previously sold his pieces, which he made by hand in the garage of his south Durango home, on Etsy. On April 1, he opened the Blacksmith Café at 21738 U.S. Highway 160, Unit A. He calls it “a place to enjoy things made with care.”
“I didn’t want a cold showroom,” he said. “I thought, ‘How can I make this more interactive, more fun, and have a more local draw component to it?’ Coffee’s like that.”
In addition to the storefront operating as a regular coffee shop – run by Winkler’s wife, Johanna – the site touts shelves full of handmade hardware items for sale and a working forge, where Element Hardware pieces are created.
Café guests are invited to view live blacksmithing in action during open forging hours, and entry-level classes that teach the fundamentals of forging hot steel are also offered.
The first two-hour blacksmithing class, which costs $125 per person, is scheduled for 3 p.m. April 25 at the storefront.
The Blacksmith Café offers all the menu items one would expect at a coffee shop, including coffee via Desert Sun Coffee Roasters, non-coffee drinks like smoothies and yerba maté, and pastries and breakfast burritos from local vendors like Odd Bird Baking Co. and Them Cakes Dough. The cafe also serves gelato.
Food and drink offerings are intentionally accessibly-priced, Winkler said. Most 12-ounce drinks cost $3 to $4, with prices rising around a dollar up through sizes, the largest of which is 20 ounces. Pastries and food cost around $2 to $10.
The cafe only accepts cash tips, a choice Winkler made to avoid customers being asked to give tips when purchasing a grab-and-go item that does not involve labor from baristas.
“We don’t do tips on credit cards, because for counter service, I feel like that’s gotten out of hand,” he said. “You go in for counter service and they’re like, ‘Do you want to tip 18% or 25%?’ and it’s like, ‘What?’”
The hardware items for sale onsite – which include keychains, art pieces, hooks, handles and more – range in price from $5 to over $100.
Winkler said the shop has already seen good business in its first two weeks, and some customers who wandered in looking for a caffeine boost have ended up leaving with a keyhook, a cabinet handle or a keychain in addition to the latte they came for.
Winkler, who has a background in food and beverage services as well as blacksmithing, said the cafe-slash-forge is a passion project.
“This is a culmination of bringing aspects of two things that I’ve done that have been important to me in my life together,” he said.
He began working in food service when he was 19, and later founded Oregon Yerba Maté Café in central Oregon, which the website describes as having been “the only café in the United States to serve maté in place of coffee.” He also managed a restaurant in Santa Monica, California.
Six employees, including Johanna, currently work in the coffee shop, and pay begins at $18 per hour, with a raise to $20 after six months of work, Winkler said. Two other blacksmiths besides Winkler work with Element Hardware, and make closer to $25 per hour, he said.
Winkler took out a $140,000 loan to get the dual shop up and running – but he’s optimistic the business will do well enough to justify the expense.
Because Element Hardware was already an established business, the income from the metalworking is able to support fixed costs and rent for the cafe, he said.
“All the cafe has to do right now is cover its own expenses – payroll and cost of goods, which we’re already doing,” he said. “... We’re not looking to get rich off the cafe. It’s more about community, and about creating a good vibe and being busy.”
Though Winkler is aware that the La Plata County economy is not always an easy space for small businesses to thrive in, he said he tries not to lead with fear about the business’ future, and intends to keep prices in the cafe low and employees paid well.
“Of course it’s something on my mind,” he said. “... I really try to focus on never being driven in any of my decisions by fear, but there are things that I’m definitely actively considering, socio-politically, which affects economics.”
For Winkler, the forge-slash-coffee-shop is a catalyst for skillbuilding as much as it is a gathering spot and a space for connection.
“I’m really trying to keep alive not only blacksmithing, but just the idea of working with your hands and being resourceful and having these skills,” he said.
epond@durangoherald.com
