A newcomer to business in the Cherokee Street neighborhood, Foam Coffee & Beer is steadily building its rep as one of the hippest destinations for drinks or conversation in St. Louis. If you’ve already visited Eleven’s latest Neighborhood of the Month, you might have stopped by for a cup of joe or a break from walking out in the sun. If you’re still hunting for an excuse to head over, however, then Black James’ live set at 9pm tomorrow might be just the ticket you need.
Eleven interviewed Foam’s owner, Mike Glodeck, for his take on building a business from the ground-up in one of the most up-and-coming parts of town.
Q+A:
Tell me about how you found yourself on Cherokee Street.
I spent some time looking at all the different commercial districts in the city. I wanted to be part of some kind of a community….and Cherokee has that potential. You know, you already have that on the Loop you have that in the CWE, but I was really excited to get in on the ground floor here.
What do you love about Cherokee?
You have to explore all the businesses that are down here. A lot of people make the mistake of driving down Cherokee, and from a car, you don’t get the real vibe, you don’t feel what’s happening here. And if you just walk down the sidewalk and don’t go inside you don’t get it either. You’ve got to go inside and talk to people to get the real feel for how nice they really are, and how much effort they really are putting into the place.
One of the things I love, well…it’s sort of a love/hate thing…I love that when I walk down the street, having been here for a couple years, it’s really difficult for me to get anywhere. Like if I’m just walking down the street to grab a taco, I run into seven people that I know, and I have five conversations. So sometimes I actually do have to get into my car and drive someplace nearby….because I love bumping into people, but you know, sometimes I’ve gotta get some work done too.
Tell me about your experience starting Foam as an intrepid into the nightlife scene here.
The vision that I originally had for the place I came to at a time when the economy was much better. Things have slowed down a lot since then. It’s taken longer for things to come together than I was hoping. Not to say that that’s a bad thing, it allows you to rethink your vision and gives you time to perfect things. But it’s harder than I thought. At first I just thought “hey, you get your liquor license and you open your doors and everybody shows up,” and you know, that’s definitely not the case. You’re competing with everything. You’re competing with television – if the premiere of [Fox TV show] Glee is on, everyone wants to stay home and watch that. So you have to try to come up with ways to get everyone to come in, you have to be a creative guy ALL THE TIME, and that’s not easy. I don’t always have the energy for that.
Over time we can build a following, and have more regulars that just like to come in and hang out here. The goal now is to just get to that point where you don’t have to come up with some silly drink special to try to get people to come in. That folks just know that it’s a cool place to come in and they know they’re going to run into some cool people.
What’s your vision for Cherokee Street? What’s the next thing?
I think Cherokee is a very, very cool place, but it’s at a stage where it’s almost secretly cool. I can imagine people coming down here, and then walking away and saying “you know, I don’t get it. I don’t understand what people are talking about.” But it’s the people here that make Cherokee Street special. And there’s lots of creative people down here, and they have really amazing apartments, or storefronts, anything. So I want the street to take that next step where it’s not a secretly cool place, it’s just a cool place. We’ll start to see that even more people will move down here, and open up businesses, and participate in all of the amazing things that are going on. And I think right now we’re kind of on the cusp of that happening.
