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Letter to the editor

Taking things one sip at a time

By CHRISTINA K. COSDON, Times Staff Writer
Published December 2, 2007

The Coffee Mill opened in August 1976 in the front room of a turn-of-the-century house in Largo and moved to its current location on Indian Rocks Road in February 1977.

Originally a Sunoco service station, the building was remodeled and expanded into the style of an old-fashioned country store. The business includes a coffee bar, gourmet candies, cookies, coffees, teas, spices, seasonings, jams, nuts, dried fruits, custom gift baskets and endless gift choices for people and pets. The business was started by Alice Schoelles and her sister Evelyn Tyler. Eighteen months later, Tyler moved to Texas and Schoelles' daughter Karen Hone, then 24 with two children, came on board. Today, 31 years later, both mother and daughter are still working together and are still passionate about their business.

- What inspired you to start the business?

"A friend of my daughter had this little shop in Winston-Salem," Schoelles said. "It was so interesting, I was swept off my feet by it. I loved the coffee and I thought no one has anything really good like that here. My sister and I put in $500 and borrowed $5,000 to start. We had to keep borrowing until we had it up to about $20,000. We didn't make any money for the first two years, but I knew it would take off, and it did."

- What did you sell when you first opened?

"We carried eight kinds of coffee, nothing flavored, loose teas only," said Hone, who served 10 years as a Belleair Bluffs city commissioner. "We would buy 100-pound chests of English Breakfast and Darjeeling teas and sell them within a year. We also had bulk spices, fruits and nuts and accessories like hand-blown teapots."

- How has the business grown?

"Almost immediately we started to expand," Hone said. "We ran a restaurant in the back for about four years and then sold it. We now have about 2,200 square feet, plus storage. The store's inventory includes a complete candy store, a gourmet food section, a kids section, greeting cards, pet items, tropical items, 200 kinds of tea, both loose and in bags, and a coffee bar with more than 70 varieties of coffee. The nonflavored coffee is roasted on the premises."

- What are your plans for the business?

"I'm not sure what the future holds, it's up in the air," Hone said. "I'll be here as long as I can maintain and enjoy it. I still want people to enjoy the experience when they walk through the door."

Schoelles, who is 81 and a cancer survivor, works five afternoons a week. "I'll work here as long as I feel well and can add something. I'm not the kind to sit around home. I've been independent and very happy here."

If you go

The Coffee Mill

12199 Indian Rocks Road

Hours are 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. Call (727) 595-6717 or visit www.coffeemill.biz.

[Last modified December 1, 2007, 21:51:19]