Caffe D'Arte/Sappore Coffee Inc.

• Author: Martin, Gary L.
• Position: Alaska's 2004 Top Women-Owned Businesses Issue

Combine a creative mind and a good idea, then toss in hard work plus some long hours, and what do you get? Success! At least that is what happened about 11 years ago to Lori Brewer. That is when Alaska's "Queen of Coffee" moved to Anchorage and--as she is proud to claim--"Opened the state's first drive-through espresso bar."

But that's not where the 40-yearold Brewer's success story begins. Her maiden entrepreneurial voyage to success actually set to in the port of Seattle, early in 1992.

"I was in my late 20s when I opened my first drive-through espresso bar, which happened to also be the first drive-through (coffee bar) in the United States," Brewer admits. "I didn't intend to do that; I was just trying to make a location work and meet the needs of my customers. You know how people are always in a rush to work in the morning, and in Seattle, there are also the heavy rains and all that stuff. It just seemed to me like a drive-through was a good idea.

"At first people in the industry said I was crazy, and my idea would never work. They said that drinking coffee was a 'social thing,' and people wanted to sit down to drink coffee.

"Within a month after opening, we were having $1,000 days."

Like many other residents, Brewer initially came to Alaska for a vacation. She concedes it was love at first sight and soon decided to make the relationship permanent. That is not the only relationship she made permanent. Soon after moving to Anchorage, she married her husband, Robert.

Not unlike her life, Brewer's business has gone through a metamorphosis. She says most people know the company as Caffe D'Arte, but its actual named is Sappore Coffee Inc., (Italian for great taste). Caffe D'Arte, or the art of coffee, is the name of her seven coffee bars, which came from the brand name of the coffee Brewer both uses and distributes in Alaska.

Today Brewer, with 27 employees, does more than distribute coffee and quarterback the daily operations of her coffee bars. She also is a consultant and a wholesaler for all the equipment and products used in a coffee bar, except for dairy and bakery goods.

As a consultant, Brewer says she has mentored about 500 rookies, from both...