THE ROSE ESTB: A PLACE TO INSPIRE.

• Author: Taylor, Adva
• Position: SMALL BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT - Editorial

Salt Lake City -- Seven years ago, Erica O'Brien wanted to create a place in Salt Lake City that would promote inspiration and person-to-person connection. It was "a spiritual purpose for me," said O'Brien. "My original intention was that anyone who came in would leave better equipped for their life--they'd be inspired, or they connected with someone they wanted to connect with, or even just that they were acknowledged by our baristas. I wanted us to leave them with something."

O'Brien's vision included local bites to eat, great coffee and tea, and a beautiful, relaxing space and environment. She found the location of her dreams in what had been a meat packing plant in downtown Salt Lake City in 1918. The space had been retrofitted and painted over so many times, said O'Brien, that a complete remodel was necessary to turn it into the space she'd envisioned. So she and her father (a retired plumbing and heating contractor) worked together to turn it into what O'Brien wanted: an open, inviting space with industrial, rustic touches, plants, lots of seating and, importantly, no WiFi.

"[My father] was the perfect person for a project like that. It was so fun. It was the best part of opening the business, creating it from the idea phase, working with Dad, and ultimately seeing it come to fruition," she said.

As they were building, O'Brien said a Shakespeare quote ("a rose by any other name would smell as sweet") constantly played in her mind. She began calling the business "the rose project" to others and to herself in lieu of an established name. Then, when time came to open, she found the name still fit. "Then I decided to name it THE ROSE ESTB...