Launching a food startup in your hometown: Entrepreneurs weigh in
By Cara Aungst
The counties across the Alleghenies feature a vibrant food scene, showcasing a variety of locally owned restaurants, international cuisines and a robust farm-to-table movement that shows off the region’s rich agricultural harvest. Best of all, new food startups are launching around us, bringing even more livability (and tasty experiences) to our hometowns.
Entrepreneurs aiming to launch food-related businesses — whether it’s a restaurant, food truck, catering service or something in-between — are finding strong community support along with plentiful resources as they launch and grow.
We spoke with two local food entrepreneurs about their startup journeys, advice for others just starting out and what they love about feeding the Alleghenies.
“I wanted to be part of the reason our community continues to grow.”
Pine Ridge Coffee started with an experiment of roasting coffee beans in a popcorn popper, and quickly grew to commercial sales, and then a cafe.
Trenton Yoder owns Pine Ridge Coffee in Belleville. For him, the move to owning a coffee shop was a gradual one.
“[Pine Ridge] started with my desire to find a better coffee, which led me to different brewing methods and then eventually researching roasting,” he said. “I first started roasting coffee on a stovetop popcorn popper — my first attempt led to the kitchen being filled with smoke and the smoke alarm going off. I quickly moved that outside and began learning the process of roasting.”
From there, he purchased a drum roaster and began perfecting the roasting process. Soon family and friends were spreading the word about the beans. In 2022, he launched a website and started selling in local stores and began selling to businesses and restaurants. By the next year, he had purchased a coffee trailer. That’s when he made the leap to make the business a full-time endeavor.
“We truly are a family business,” Yoder said. “I work in the cafe and roast the coffee; my wife, Leah, packages the coffee and helps out with our coffee trailer; and our daughter is often found at the roastery as we are roasting or packaging coffee. My parents help us out with packaging and many projects. My mother-in-law does our baking.”
In October 2023, he and his wife purchased an existing cafe in Belleville and made the space their own while continuing to grow the wholesale side of the business. He said that investing in his hometown just made sense.
“We felt that starting our business in Belleville could fill in some missing pieces in the current offerings that were available coffee-wise. More importantly, we love our community and want to be part of the reason it continues to grow and see success.”
He says that the local community has been integral to Pine Ridge’s growth: “We are very thankful for the support of the community. Transitioning into an existing business isn’t the easiest thing to do, but we have experienced great support, encouragement and patience from our community as we got our feet under us. Many local entrepreneurs have been a great resource to us and have always been willing to give advice and encouragement.”
He has one word for others who are looking to start a food-related business: patience. “It isn’t going to all come together overnight,” he said. “It takes a lot of time and hard work. It is very easy to look at other businesses in your area and wonder why you aren’t as busy or successful as them, [but] everyone has their own timeline and journey.”
“Remember that you are never in the food business. You are in the people business.”
The Sweet Spot specializes in a “wonderfully atrocious food truck burger menu.”
David Tackett and his family worked in restaurants in New York for a “long, long time,” and when they decided to move back to their hometown of Johnstown during the pandemic, they decided it was time to bring their brand of “wonderfully atrocious food truck burger menu” to Flood City with their restaurant The Sweet Spot.
“It’s not a quick burger joint,” Tacket explained. “It’s a big, over-the-top smash burger with crazy toppings that are really big, really loud. That’s what we deliver.”
It’s not all that they deliver. When he started the eatery, he envisioned a place that was part of the community, how they live and play. “We noticed that places were closing up at 3 p.m., and that’s not how we remembered downtown Johnstown. We wanted to keep it alive and make The Sweet Spot the place to be, from the music to the food to the hours.”
“Johnstown has a pool of wonderful people and it was clear to us that they still worked, played and ate in the downtown area.”
In fact, he relocated the restaurant from its first location in a mall to move closer downtown. “We wanted to be at the heart of the community,” he said. “Johnstown has a pool of wonderful people and it was clear to us that they still worked, played and ate in the downtown area, but there was a void of restaurants that stayed open in the evenings.”
He says that his hometown is a working-class community, and that’s reflected in his menu. “They work hard, they play hard and a majority don’t want food that is pretentious and overly fancy. They want good, hearty food, and that’s what we try to deliver to them. We always tell people that the fanciest thing they’ll get from us is a pickle on the side of their plate.”
He says that his love for his community is reflected back on him and his business. “It’s a synergy,” he said. “We truly believe that if you feed people what they want to be fed and treat them like family, they will keep coming back, and they do. We hardly do any traditional advertising because we would rather spend it giving back to the community by doing things like giving out ice cream on the first day of school. The Sweet Spot is very community-centric, and that love has been returned manifold. We are very fortunate.”
“Remember that you will never be in the food business.”
What is his advice for people thinking of a food startup? “Remember that you will never be in the food business. You will always be in the people business. If you forget that for one minute, you are done before you even start. We have one rule in our kitchen, and it is printed on the back of our menu board so only our team can see it. It says: ‘You are only here because of the customer. Treat them with love every time, no exceptions.’ That’s what we live by because without our community, we are done.”
Cara Aungst writes about people, innovation and how Happy Valley ideas change the world. She can be reached with story ideas and comments at caraaungst@gmail.com.
