RADICAL INCLUSION AT COPEKA

A COFFEE HOUSE THAT SERVES MORE THAN JUST COFFEE

WORDS

EOWYN LARSON

PHOTOS

JACOB PENICK

Copeka Coffee can be best summarized with their mission statement: radical inclusion.

“That’s what we do here. That’s the whole point. That is why we offer mostly vegan pastries. That is why we have three different types of non-dairy milk options. We are saying, ‘Hey, whatever you’re coming with, we are able to serve you something that tastes delicious,’” Copeka co-owner Kyra Rossier said.

From the drinks to its mission statement, Copeka is anything but ordinary. What makes Copeka most extraordinary are the people inside, who foster a welcoming and spunky environment for anyone, no matter their age or background.

Offering an array of drinks from coffee to cocktails on the corner of 5th and Belford Avenue, Copeka is owned by Rossier, Jana Joramo and her husband Lee Joramo. The name Copeka was inspired by a 1930s dance hall in Grand Junction called Copeco Dance Hall, which is where Jana Joramo’s grandparents met. The Copeco Dance Hall was originally an industrial farming operation with a two-story barn, in which the bottom floor of the barn held animals while partygoers danced on the floor above, according to The Beacon.

With this namesake, Copeka first opened its doors in November of 2017. They decided to run Copeka as a family-owned business, and through their coffee shop they wanted to create a common ground for anyone to be welcome and accepted.

“When the last election happened, we realized that what we really wanted to do was create a place where people could actually get together and not live in silos, but instead have a college student sitting here and some curmudgeonly old people sitting there, and slowly but surely, they'll end up being together,” Jana Joramo said, who is licensed as a nurse specializing in trauma but is currently focusing on Copeka.

Along with running Copeka, Jana’s husband Lee is a computer programmer and works in the IT department for School District 51.

Rossier lived in New York in the Hudson River Valley for roughly nine years, where she experienced a community with people who genuinely cared for each other no matter how different they were. She wanted to replicate that in Grand Junction through Copeka.

“There's kind of a gap in our larger culture — not one gap, but many gaps between communities of people, and specifically in Grand Junction. There was a lack of connection starting to occur,” Rossier said. She noticed that people were growing apart and weren’t making meaningful connections with people diverse to them.

Colton Mahoney, a barista of Copeka, explained that he grew up in Grand Junction and felt like he was missing something from the community, always wishing for some place like Copeka where he could be comfortable being himself.

“Working here feels like being a part of a bigger community. It’s so much more than just a coffee house,” Mahoney said.

The owners wanted their business plan to break the status quo. Rossier has worked for other businesses in the past that have made business-driven choices that she felt were not in the best interest of the employees.

“I am a mission-driven and ethically-driven person, and I’ve been told that you have to make tough choices and sometimes can’t be so idealistic, but I believe that’s not true," Rossier said. "We want to disrupt the system by doing it more ethically and paying more attention to the greater good."

This has resulted in a business that feels more like a family. Rossier and the Joramos focus on making their shop comfortable and supportive, both for the community and their employees.

“We're incredibly precise — we're not just slinging shots, and I would say that sets

us apart ... in terms of the way we treat our customers, [because] whatever we do, it's going to be incredibly precise,” Jana Joramo said.

Copeka employees pride themselves on being coffee nerds. The third-wave coffee movement is the notion that coffee is an artisanal product made with precision and quality.

“Third-wave coffee is like the beer movement or fine wine," Rossier said. "We care about where our coffee is grown, the well-being of the people that grew and processed it, and we are attentive to detail all down the line. The beans are roasted to elevate the flavor profile of the beans, then your barista gets hyper-nerdy about how they extract the coffee so that it tastes distinct and of course, delicious."

Copeka Coffee isn’t just a place to get coffee and free Wi-Fi — it is truly a place of radical inclusion; thus, its doors are open to anyone, no matter who they are. ▪