Meet Kade Jenkins | Owner of Wilderlove Coffee

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kade Jenkins and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kade, what’s one piece of conventional advice that you disagree with?
“Start with what you have, you can always make improvements later.” Wilderlove Coffee has been open for one year as of June 26th. We had everything that we needed to start and run a coffee trailer 9 months prior. When we got our trailer it was fully stocked with syrups, cups, equipment, and outfitted to be a coffee trailer, as it was used by another shop before us. Many people told us, “Don’t spend any more money right now unless you have to. You can always make upgrades later” or “You don’t need to make your own syrups from scratch, you can start doing that when you have the space and staff to do it” or my personal favorite, “Don’t spend more than you need to on coffee beans. 90% of people will cover the flavor with milk and sugar anyways.”

These ideas just didn’t sit well with us. We knew that perfection wasn’t feasible but we decided to put every penny we had to move us in that direction BEFORE we would launch our business. We spent 9 months working on our trailer, our vision, and our craft before we ever had our first day of business. We spent time and resources to make these improvements before we opened because we believed that our first impressions would make or break our business and we were creating OUR brand. We re-painted the entire trailer so that it would fit our aesthetic. We replaced existing windows to create a more open and inviting environment for customers. We even went as far as to give away all of the existing cups and syrups that were stocked because we wanted every cup that came out of our window to be thoughtfully crafted by us and even though the items weren’t necessarily bad, they didn’t fit the type of coffee shop we were creating. Most importantly, we spent time practicing and working through different coffees, milks, and recipes in order to be truly proud of what we serve. By our first day of business, we had spent most of our money in our business bank account. We spent everything we had to make sure that from day 1, this was something we could be proud of. Again, we are far from perfect but we still strive to be the best we can be. We still invest money back into the business constantly to make these improvements and we still spend time studying and learning our craft and our trade and asking the question, “how can we get even better”. I think this is part of why our business has been successful thus far.

What should our readers know about your business?
I believe there are a few things that set us apart. The first is that we strive for excellence in everything that we do. No drink is finalized or decision made, without a lot of trial and error, taste testing, and finding what we believe to be the perfect product for our customers. Secondly, we use high quality beans (Shoutout to our roaster, Tenfold!) and we make our own syrups in-house, so we know that we are serving high quality coffee that actually tastes good and is something that we are proud of. Lastly, we truly care about what we do and the environment we create. We want to be a place where people feel like they belong and want to be. We want to be a place where the community gathers and enjoys their time together. We feel like we have created that environment at Wilderlove.

It has not necessarily been an easy ride for us. We had to overcome a lot of pushback from the city for being in a trailer, and then we had to move locations in the first 6 months of business. However, we feel like even though we went through some adversity, it brought us to the perfect location! We think our location now at Meadow to Market is pretty dreamy. We are tucked back under some trees and it is a picture perfect spot.

We’ve learned to never settle for less or to compare ourselves to what other coffee shops are doing. We are all truly unique, and what works for other coffee shops won’t necessarily work for us. We love that we are able to help our customers expand their palates and truly fall in love with great tasting espresso. We also love that our ever-changing menu that comes and goes with the seasons, gives people the opportunity to find a new appreciation of what can be paired with coffee and that it pushes people out of their comfort zones and go-to orders. We hope that every customer we meet feels like they have made a new friend and found their new favorite cup of coffee all in one interaction. We truly care about what we do and what we serve.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We’d probably take them on a coffee tour in Houston to all of our favorite shops, then maybe hit up some antique shops or one of our favorite shops, Manready Mercantile!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Our business wouldn’t be what it is today if it weren’t for my wife, Katie. She is the one who pushed me to pursue this long term dream in the first place. She is also who I run every idea, good and awful, through. She has always pushed us as a business to never settle for less. Sometimes it is easy to allow the thoughts of, “but this is good enough” to settle in and she has always been the one to challenge that thought and aim for excellence. She is the inspiration, the designer, the marketer, and she quite literally made my dreams come true.

Instagram: https://instagram.com/wilderlovecoffee

Facebook: www.facebook.com/wilderlovecoffee

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/wilderlove-coffee-montgomery

Image Credits
Christa Bailey Photography