Why a Seattle entrepreneur is opening a new coffee shop during pandemic

While numerous businesses are closing due to the coronavirus and the economy, one Seattle coffee entrepreneur is actually opening a business. Pilgrim Coffee started as a coffee truck, and now they’re opening their first coffeehouse in the city of Seattle and asking the community for some help pitching in to support them.

Justin Shaheen is the owner of Pilgrim Coffeehouse, and he joined the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH to discuss why he’s taking the chance during uncertain times.

“Well, we are hopeful things were going to get better, starting out with that. We set up our coffee truck in our neighborhood during the pandemic, and we were overwhelmed with the neighborhood response, having kind of an open atmosphere for our guests to come up and grab a cup of coffee off our truck. And we just really believe that our neighborhood is really needing a coffee shop, and so we’re willing to go all in on it,” Shaheen said.

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The shop will be located around North 105th Street and Aurora Avenue North in Seattle, and Shaheen hopes other business owners will give the neighborhood a chance as well, in an area that has had its struggles.

“Our focus is on this neighborhood, and we’re committed to being here. I live just down the road from where our shop is going to be, and it’s kind of a dream to live in a large city and to serve and work right in the same radius in which I do everything else. So it’s me investing in my own neighborhood and hoping that other businesses will see that this neighborhood is worth investing in as well,” he said.

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“Our team just really believes that it takes a business to commit and to show others that this neighborhood is worth fighting for,” he added. “The city has kind of redefined this area as an urban village, and we’re not really seeing the results of that yet, and so we believe that it’s coming. We’re right across from the soon-to-be opened light rail station of Northgate, and there’s going to be a walking bridge that’s going to take people from our neighborhood over to that. So we’re connecting this area. But businesses need to invest now while the time is right.”

Listen to the Jason Rantz Show weekday afternoons from 3 – 6 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (or HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here.