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Reid's Beans closing doors after 13 years in downtown
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · September 23, 2020
In 2008, seven months after opening Reid’s Beans in the Hoover House in downtown West Branch, owner Laura Rierson started packing up to move to a bigger location at 106 East Main Street.
She and husband Jonathan Blundall saw the coffee shop and restaurant flourish so quickly that Rierson could not believe it, commenting at the time: “Who knows what the future holds? I thought I’d be here forever.”
Unfortunately, the future held the coronavirus pandemic, and it hit the restaurant, at what would normally be its busiest time of the year, on three fronts: reducing local traffic, motorists coming off Interstate 80 and visitors to the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site.
Like all other restaurants that closed dining rooms in March, Reid’s Beans cut its hours and offerings and tried to rely on take-out business and savings to get through. But last week, the couple announced it must permanently close its doors after more than 13 years.
“Obviously, we’re devastated,” Rierson said. “This wasn’t our plan, but we can’t see any other way.”
Yelp, which crowdsources business reviews, last week released a report on more than 160,000 businesses that closed between March 1 and Aug. 31. Of those that closed because of government shutdown actions related to the coronavirus, 60 percent of those would not reopen.
In the report, restaurants are among the five hardest-hit types of businesses, with bars, retail, fitness and beauty shops following.
Yelp’s report even looked at the types of restaurants, and those that focus on breakfast and brunch like Reid’s Beans were among those most affected.
Blundall and Rierson said repeatedly that they cannot express how appreciative they are of the residents and customers who stuck with them over the years.
“We’re very grateful to the people of West Branch, especially after coronavirus began,” he said. “It just became too much.”
Rierson said the community immediately welcomed them and so strongly supported them that they feel bad — even apologetic — about closing.
“We feel like we’re not meeting our responsibility,” Rierson said.
She noted that both of them are in their 50s and “we can’t wait for things to get better and just start over.”
Blundall said they wanted to reopen the dining room when Gov. Kim Reynolds allowed restaurants to do so at half capacity, but many of their most frequent customers are older and most susceptible to the severest consequences of the virus.
“It would break our hearts if any of our customers contracted the virus from our restaurant,” Blundall said.
Also, they said the size of the dining room — which used to be viewed as intimate and cozy — now seems insufficient for social distancing.
“Reid’s Beans is small and confined. That used to be to our advantage,” Blundall said. “We can’t wait to go until April of next year with our fingers crossed wondering what might happen. That’s too much of a gamble.”
Over the years, elected officials liked to stop by the coffee shop as an informal way to meet and chat with residents. U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack visited every year for the last few years and state Sen. Zach Wahls made stops there before and after his election.
Rierson and Blundall allowed Scattergood students to come in and learn practical lessons of food preparation and customer service.
Saying farewell
Many people saw social media posts about the coffee shop’s closing and expressed sadness with losing “the delicious meals,” the “best breakfasts and entrees and COOKIES.” A few people specifically mentioned the Farmer’s Breakfast as a favorite.
“That place and the people who ran it were treasures and will be missed,” read one Facebook comment.
West Branch Community Development Group shared the news “with a heavy heart” that the coronavirus pandemic led to the loss of a local business.
“(It) will be dearly missed on Main Street,” read the group’s post. “Together, let’s thank Jonathan and Laura for their 13 years of wonderful service to the West Branch community and (band) together to support our remaining Main Street businesses as we move through these unprecedented times.”
Blundall said that since business drops off in cold weather, they had not been able to earn “take-home money” since winter.
“(Business) picks up by late March and early April,” he said, which is right when the state closed dining rooms. “We make a majority of our profit during the summertime and earn money through Thanksgiving. We missed that entire window this year. It’s one thing to put aside a few months of expenses, but looking to put away a whole year?”
Rierson said the income from Reid’s Beans “paid for itself and gave Jonathan and I a really good life.”
“This industry is very difficult to survive in and West Branch got behind us,” she said.
Reid’s Beans survived multiple temporary government shutdowns of the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site and Hoover Presidential Library, one of which lasted five weeks.
“We went through some really difficult times,” Rierson said. “But everybody was front-and-center with it and they lifted us up many times.”
And the community rallied again in 2020, Blundall said.
“They carried us for a long time through this,” he said, allowing them to stay open for six more months.
Memories
Reid’s Beans is named after a grandson who was 2 when the company opened its doors in 2007.
Blundall said that running a business on Main Street for 13 years means seeing a lot of familiar faces — not just family — grow older.
“I will treasure watching children grow up … we saw them from infancy and now they’re riding bikes,” he said. “That was probably the greatest thing.”
Rierson said that time spanned four city mayors and she saw a few customers — even some who grew very close to her — pass on. She recalled one faithful customer who invited her to visit in his final days.
“There’s been too many to name who have come and gone,” she said.
And, of course, they learned many valuable lessons on how to run and survive as a small business.
According to JPMorgan Chase, about a third of new businesses fold within the first two years and barely more than half of small businesses are more than 10 years old.
Blundall said he and Laura “understood those odds” before opening their business and so he kept a full-time job in Tipton to hang on to both a steady paycheck and health insurance while Laura got the coffee shop going.
“Everybody thinks running a restaurant is so easy — ‘Just open, because you make good barbecue’ — but it has to be on you, and that’s how we made it,” Rierson said.
She spent time talking to many people, tweaked the business here and there but “stuck to our beliefs.”
“We were successful by having been in the industry for so long,” Rierson said, and that included going without a paycheck at the beginning. “People just want good food for a fair price and to be entertained for a short time.”
Rierson said the stress of the work prompted her to take a break from the business in the past four years, but then they saw the end coming. Blundall went looking for a new job, found one and set a start date. At that time, they decided it was time to officially close Reid’s Beans.
Now, they’re looking at their “next chapter,” he said, though they will remain in the area.
“We’re still sorting it out,” he said. “We don’t exactly know what’s down the pike, but we’ll take it as it comes.”
The two emphasized how grateful they are to the community, “and how sorry and how much we’ll miss it,” Rierson said.
Blundall called it “a wonderful ride” and “one of the most rewarding things we’ve done.”
“But nothing lasts forever,” he said.
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