Anna Dunn, Soul Craft owner, and Cookeville native spoke about the coffee life
By: Baye Scarborough, UCBJ Contributor
When you cross the threshold of the bustling East Broad Street and enter Soul Craft Coffee, your senses are exposed to the coffee industry’s richness. From the aromas of cacao, the indie music, and the kindness of the person behind the bar, if our human experience could be reduced to a simple cup, life overflows at a coffee shop.
At any given time, you will see people from different backgrounds. There are children with parents, students studying in pursuit of dreams (or, if you were like me, claiming I was “studying” while actually hoping to see my friends and accomplish little on my to-do list, instead enjoying a good conversation with a friend) and adults grabbing their caffeine fix.
I am sure you know what I am talking about, even if you are not a caffeine fanatic. What conversations do people have at coffee shops? Is it good news? Bad? Catching up with an old friend? A first date? This, I believe, is irrefutable evidence of why coffee shops are truly an in-between place.
Anna Dunn, Soul Craft owner, and Cookeville native spoke about the coffee life. If you have been to Soul Craft, you have likely met Anna. You will find her taking orders, making drinks or just being a friendly face in the community. Throughout the interview, people were consistently stopping to say “hi.” She knew each of them by name, asked follow-up questions, and genuinely listened. Isn’t that what we all hope for living in a “small town” or a community where people truly take interest?
Anna and her husband Tyler met when they were around 18 while attending Tennessee Tech. Anna graduated with a psychology degree in 2011 and Tyler graduated with an accounting degree in 2013. They were married in 2014.
Soon after, the couple brought their specialty coffee (or coffee with carefully cultivated, roasted, and brewed beans) vision vision to Cookeville. The duo scouted the United States for a trailer to renovate into a fully functioning coffee trailer. Once found, it was all about the journey to get it home.
“Tyler took his F150 that we still have to this day, to Missouri and got this trailer. He and his dad went and got it and brought it home on the interstate, scared me to death, but it was fine. This one already had, the window and so it was perfect, it was so perfect for us and so when we got it and had it wrapped, we started pretty quickly.”
Then, the best part. The taste test.
“Afterward, we invited probably 20, to 25 people over to our house to try all of the drinks that we had at the time, which are all the ones that we still have today: our Bourbon Barrel Mocha, Whiskey Caramel Lattel, Vanilla Cream Lattee, Golden Bear, Strawberry lemonade, Chai Lemonade Soda. That’s pretty much all we offered on the trailer and all those things we still have today, which is cool, same recipes, same everything. They tried everything and we showed them the trailer and they were all just big fans and I’m so grateful for them.”
In the beginning, it wasn’t easy.
“We started opening the coffee trailer on the weekends and we both worked our full-time job, so I’ve worked all week, literally work seven days a week for an entire year, so from 2017 into 2018. We would pull the truck and trailer into the Kroger parking lot Sunday nights and eat our, meal-prepped food (which we still meal prep) but then we would get our food for the week, go home, and cook all our food for the next week. I’ll just never forget it, we just knew that there was this vision. It was like we were laser focused and like, how do we get how do we just just get it done?”
Through hard work and a loyal customer base the couple connected with building owners James Massey and Matt Swallows.
“One of those ladies that came over to our house back in 2017, 2016 when we first had people over to try our drinks and trying to figure out what we’re doing. She called James and said, ‘Hey, I have these kids’ (sidenote from Anna: we’re like 27, we’re like babies). We have these kids that want to open a coffee shop and I think it would be perfect for your space.’ That was it, James didn’t know us, and Matt kind of knew of us but he called us. I think, you know, one of the things I feel most proud of is paying homage to the people who invested in us. Just they took it, they took a chance on us. Matt was even in here this morning and it’s just so sweet.”
With that, the doors opened in the summer of 2019.
Check back for Soul Craft part 2.
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