Mission Coffee House – a shop with purpose

Cheryl Hentz

Contributor

November 11, 2024

NORTH CENTRAL WISCONSIN – With the holidays quickly approaching, Russ Ehlinger, founder of Mission Coffee, said he is excited about making this Christmas special for all of Plover and Stevens Point.

Ehlinger said Mission Coffee, which has three locations in North Central Wisconsin, is hosting a Northwoods-themed “12 Days of Christmas” – an event he said he has envisioned for a few years. 

Located at 1804 Plover Road in the Artist & Fare building, Ehlinger said this free event “will transform Mission Coffee House into a delightful holiday extravaganza.”

“It will be decked out in a Northwoods Wisconsin woodsy theme, such as live trees, bough branches, an antique sleigh and Santa,” he said. “It’s a free event for the community to come and experience Christmas by meeting Santa and getting a photo. There will be free cocoa, candy, cookies and coffee.”

Each day of the 12 Days of Christmas, Ehlinger said, is being sponsored by a different business in the community.

He said the barbershop choir will be singing on a couple of evenings, and Moccasin Creek Family Farm will be on-site selling Christmas trees and wreaths. 

“Not only is this an opportunity for people to have this wonderful Christmas experience and meet Santa, but it’s also a destination place to get your tree,” he said. “When you’re going to pick out your tree, you get to meet Santa and have all of these other bells and whistles that help make getting your tree an awesome experience.”      

In years past, Ehlinger said people have had to drive to a variety of places to get that all-encompassing holiday experience. 

“There’s never been anything like this in our community at this level before – with us being a fun destination place to go,” he said. “We should have a place here where families and others can come together and celebrate without needing to travel somewhere else. That’s why I wanted to offer an event in the Stevens Point-Plover community.”

Ehlinger said he is extremely grateful to all the businesses who have helped pull this event together. 

“I could not do this on my own,” he said. “I lead a large networking group – I’m a networker and collaborator – and I decided to reach out to some of the businesses I knew of that were community-minded like we are and see what they thought. Every one of them said ‘yes.’”

Though sponsorships are already filled for each of the 12 days, Ehlinger said interested businesses can still participate.

“There is still a window of opportunity for other great local businesses that are community-minded that want to do something special for the community – to have their brand shine during the holiday season and to be able to say ‘Merry Christmas’ to everyone,” he said.

Ehlinger said he anticipates money will be spent at other local businesses as a result of people attending the event, but because this is the first year, he said he can’t even guesstimate how much. 

“We’re hoping it’s going to be a lot of fun,” he said. “What is being offered is geared toward families with young children, but that’s not to exclude a date night or something fun to do for older folks. Those of us with businesses in the Artist & Fare building are known for providing retail space for a lot of other smaller businesses that don’t have a storefront.”

Ehlinger said with costs high in many aspects of life right now, this free event can do lots of good. 

“There may be people who don’t even know how they’re going to financially pull off Christmas this year, and for them, this is really going to be something special,” he said. “To provide this type of experience at no cost is our business community pulling together for everyone in the community.”

The event will take place from 5-7 p.m. Dec. 9-14 and Dec. 16-21, except for Saturdays, when it will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

Not your average coffee house

When customers at Mission Coffee House order a cup of joe, Ehlinger said they aren’t just getting great coffee – they’re helping their community at the same time. 

“We are a community-minded business,”  he said. “Mission Coffee exists to sustain missions in local communities. We don’t do anything unless there’s a purpose behind it. We want to pour back into the community.”

Ehlinger – who owns the Mission Coffee in Plover, as well as a Plover-based roasting facility – said his good friend and colleague, Craig Shuler, owns the Mission Coffee in Stevens Point, and Shuler’s daughter, Allison, manages it. 

“We try to support his efforts to be involved in the community as much as we can be, as well,” Shuler said. “It was through another business that I own that I met Ehlinger and became friends because we both believe in our businesses being as community-oriented as possible.”

Shuler said Ehlinger has a give-back program where he puts money back into the community based on how many pounds of coffee he sells. 

“Customers can choose which groups they want to (have money go to),” he said. “Community involvement also might be sponsoring an event or being involved in something going on in the community. We just gave a gift to a chamber event coming up. It’s about trying to say ‘yes’ versus saying ‘no’ to things as much as we can.”

Mission Coffee-Stevens Point, Shuler said, started almost two years ago. 

“Because I know Russ well, I asked if he was willing to let us extend his brand into the Stevens Point market, and he said ‘yes,’” Shuler said, adding that he initially partnered with another gentleman. “It was actually (the other gentleman’s) idea.”

But about six months in, Shuler said that gentleman decided to bow out of the business – “I bought him out.” 

“Allison is on-site and has been managing the day-to-day operations for about a year now, having worked in the shop for about six months before taking over as manager,” he said. “Before that, neither she nor I had any restaurant experience, much less running a coffee house.” 

Shuler said their location at 1100 N. Main St., Suite 110, is perfect for a coffee shop. 

“It’s downtown and next to the (Central Wisconsin) Children’s Museum, so it seemed like a natural location for a coffee shop,” Shuler said. “We also have a small satellite location – a kiosk – on the main campus of Mid-State Technical College downtown. We’re only open there a few hours a day and a few days a week, but it’s nice for students or staff to grab something right on campus.”

Also, to grow their business, Shuler said this past March they started accepting online orders through the shop’s website (missioncoffeesp.com). 

“It’s been pretty successful so far,” he said. “I’d estimate approximately 10-15% of our business comes from online orders.”

Shuler said there are two basic kinds of customers that frequent Mission Coffee-Stevens Point. 

“First, it’s people who are going to meet at the coffee shop and meet some other friends and they want to sit down, get their stuff ordered and relax,” he said. “Others order online. They’re probably office people who work in and around the downtown area. They want to get their coffee and whatever else and go to their office. So, online ordering is great for them.”

Overall, Shuler said the business continues to grow.

“Business continues to steadily improve each month and quarter, with every quarter beating the previous quarter,” he said. “So we’re excited to see where it’s going.” 

Serving usual coffee house fare, and more

Shuler said besides giving back to the community, the quality of the coffee is the No. 1 thing that helps set Mission Coffee apart.
“Coffee can taste a lot of different ways to different people, but this particular brand is less of an artisan roast and more of what I call a tasty, drinkable, palatable roast,” he said. “That’s opposed to being really strong or even slightly bitter like some coffee roasts can be.”

Shuler said Ehlinger roasts his own recipes at his Plover roasting facility.

“Russ supplies coffee not only to Mission Coffee in Plover and Stevens Point but to a third location in Wisconsin Rapids,” he said. “He also supplies coffee to some restaurants and other coffee houses that don’t have their own local roast.”

For those non-coffee drinkers, Shuler said Mission Coffee House has something for everyone. 

“We serve a variety of kids’ drinks as well,” he said. “Coffee grounds can be purchased by the half- or full-pound for those who want to have it on hand in the home or business. Besides the quality of the coffee, the next biggest thing that’s unique about us is we do all of our own bakery. All our bakery is fresh, every day.”

Shuler said the bakery was his daughter’s interest. 

“We get a lot of good feedback on our bakery goods saying they taste really good,” he said. “We also offer breakfast and lunch menus with items such as bagels, burritos, toast and parfaits for breakfast. We also carry wraps, sandwiches, paninis, chicken salad and turkey provolone for lunch.”

Full menus can be found on the website, and customers can always find up-to-date information on Facebook, Shuler said. 

“We do catering for a lot of folks for a breakfast or lunch event, too,” he said. “With lunch events, we have options for different wraps and so forth.”

Mission Coffee-Stevens Point also offers catering services in the area for meetings or other events – whether it’s breakfast, lunch or all day, Shuler said.

“People can order directly from the menu, or Mission Coffee staff will work with someone to create a customized coffee and food/bakery menu to fit the particular event,” he said. “The baristas at Mission Coffee can even set up a professional coffee bar at weddings or anniversary parties, birthday parties, retirement parties or some other community gathering.”

Shuler said because of the satellite location on campus, Mission Coffee does a fair amount of catering for events at Mid-State, too.