Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryanne Hodson.
Hi Ryanne, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Broad Porch Coffee started in 2017 with a love of really good coffee and a desire to build the kind of coffee company we wanted to see in our own community: thoughtful, welcoming, but serious about doing things well.
Over the past nine years, we’ve grown from a small Shenandoah Valley coffee roaster into something much bigger than we imagined. We roast all of our own specialty coffee, have cafes in Luray and Harrisonburg Virginia, work with wholesale partners throughout the region, and ship freshly roasted coffee to customers all over the country. In the next few weeks, we’ll also open our third cafe in downtown Staunton, Virginia, while continuing to grow our roasting operation in Harrisonburg.
We take our coffee, food and cafe hospitality seriously. We take pride in creating a warm and welcoming experience every day, whether you’re stopping into one of our cafes or making a cup of Broad Porch coffee at home.
We’ve grown very organically, learning a lot as we go, and we’re proud that Broad Porch still feels like the independent, slightly scrappy coffee company we started nine years ago. A lot has changed, but our goal is still pretty simple: make really good things, take care of people, and create places people want to come back to.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Definitely not a smooth road, but I’m not sure we would have wanted it to be. We started Broad Porch without a big roadmap, and a lot of the last nine years has been learning by doing.
Growing from a small coffee roasting business into a company with multiple cafes, a wholesale program, a growing roastery and a team of employees has meant constantly learning how to do things we had never done before. We’ve got renovated buildings, built commercial kitchens, hired and managed teams, navigated the pandemic, dealt with rising costs, equipment failures, construction projects and all the other less glamorous parts of running a small business.
One of the biggest challenges has been figuring out how to grow without losing the things that made Broad Porch special when it was small. Growth brings more systems and structure, but we still want our cafes to feel personal and warm. We’re always learning how to balance those things, and I think we probably always will be.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Broad Porch Coffee?
Broad Porch is an independent specialty coffee roaster and cafe company based in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. We roast all of our coffee ourselves and operate cafes in downtown Luray and Harrisonburg, with our third location opening soon in Staunton. We also have a growing wholesale coffee program and ship freshly roasted coffee directly to customers across the country.
We’re obviously known for our coffee, but Broad Porch has never been just about what you’re drinking. Food and cafe hospitality are a big part of who we are. We make all of our food in-house, put a lot of thought into our spaces, and want our cafes to be places where people genuinely enjoy spending time.
On the coffee side, we source and roast coffees that we’re excited to drink ourselves. We care deeply about quality, but we don’t think specialty coffee needs to feel exclusive or intimidating. Whether someone wants to talk about processing methods and origins or just wants a really great cup of coffee on the way to work, they should feel equally at home at Broad Porch.
I’m especially proud that Broad Porch is still truly independent. At a time when more independent coffee companies are being acquired by private equity and larger investment groups, we’re still owner-operated and closely involved in what we roast, what we serve, who we work with and how our cafes feel. Growing the company while maintaining that independence matters a lot to us. Though we continue to grow, Broad Porch still feels like us.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
The best way to support Broad Porch is pretty simple: come see us, drink our coffee and tell your friends about us. Visit one of our cafes in Luray or Harrisonburg, come check out our new Staunton cafe when it opens, or start an online coffee subscription and have fresh Broad Porch coffee shipped straight from our roastery to your door every week.
We also love working with other independent businesses. Our wholesale coffee program serves cafes, restaurants, bakeries, offices and other businesses throughout Virginia and beyond, and we’re always interested in partnerships, big or small.
Mostly, we want people to engage with Broad Porch in whatever way makes sense for them. Buy a bag of coffee, bring a friend into one of our cafes, serve Broad Porch at your business, or just keep choosing independent businesses when you have the choice. It really does matter.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://shop.broadporchcoffee.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/broadporchcoffeeco/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/broadporchcoffeeco
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/broad-porch-coffee-luray
- Other: https://maps.app.goo.gl/vWBKyNKkPPvWMxAJ7
