Coffee in a kiva: unique escalante business keeps tourists fresh and fed.

• Author: Madison, Rachel
• Position: SOUTHERN AREA

Escalante--Barrie Ence saw the American dream achieved firsthand when her father, the late Bradshaw Bowman, built the KIVA KOFFEEHOUSE in Escalante in the 1990s. "My father was 84 when he started the project and he was 87 when we opened," says Ence, who now co-owns the shop with her daughter, Sara Zorzakis. "It was a lifelong dream for him and he pulled it off."

Bowman moved his family to Utah from California in the early 1970s, and for 40 years dreamed of building a coffee shop. When he reached his 80s, he was finally able to make his dream a reality. The shop is shaped like a kiva--a large, circular, usually subterranean structure that was designed and used by Pueblo Indians for ceremonial and political gatherings. While the structure isn't subterranean, it is crafted from logs, stone and glass. The 13 ponderosa pine logs that make up the perimeter were collected over a two-year period in forests across the West, Ence says.

Some of the logs used to construct the kiva have nearly 300 rings. The smaller interior logs and rafters are spruce, while the latillas come from lodge pole pines. The sandstone walls were quarried from the property's on-site quarry. "The stone wall is absolutely gorgeous."

Ence says. "It took a year and a half to build. [The builders] put each stone exactly where [my dad] told them."

After opening the Kiva Koffeehouse, Bowman got the itch to build again. This time, he wanted to build a cottage on the property for travelers to stay in as they explored the Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon areas of the state. "In 1999, when he was 88, he...