Durango’s Steaming Bean welcomes new owners, but has the same “heart”

DURANGO, Colo. – “Life happens while you’re making other plans,” or so the adage goes.

Rhonda and Ivan Unkovskoy were indeed making plans, hoping to move on from their most recent entrepreneurial endeavor, land development and sales, to something that brought the couple back into active interaction with the Durango community. Though they were exploring options, six months ago they had no idea that by January 21, 2009, they’d be the proprietors of the popular Steaming Bean.

“It’s interesting. It’s a whole new world, and it’s definitely a new chapter in our lives,” said Rhonda, who became well known in the Durango community through her involvement years back with the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic. “We hit the ground running.”

 

“We took a big leap of faith in really hard times,” said Ivan, a former Purgatory ski patroller who also co-owned a local roofing company. “But it’s paying off.”

Steaming Bean, located at 915 Main Ave., has been something of a Durango institution since 1991. Founder Michael (Mick) Hill, a former green coffee bean buyer, decided to settle down and get into roasting, and established Steaming Bean Coffee Company in Telluride.

“So not only does he have the knowledge and relationship with great coffee growers, he’s a master roaster,” explained Rhonda, noting that he opened the Durango location, but sold it when the birth of his twins encouraged him to remain closer to home.

For the past 10 years, Julie Dunn had owned and operated Steaming Bean in Durango, and can be credited for bringing The Bean into popular local culture. The Unkovskoys had been discussing the coffee business with Dunn for some years, anticipating opening a new coffee house in Trimble Crossing. The delay in that development’s construction, however, also delayed the Unkovskoy’s plans.

“Six years ago we had approached Julie about doing a joint venture there, but it never got built,” said Ivan. “Now that it is being built, we happened to see Julie at a fundraiser for the Durango Winter Sports Foundation, and reminded her of our plans for Trimble Crossing.”

Dunn’s life had evolved in six years as well, and though she hadn’t listed the business for sale, she was seeking “the right” buyers.

“She said, why would you that… jump off into a new business when you could buy my shop,” said Ivan.

“Then two months later we were behind the counter as owners,” said Rhonda. “It went so fast and so smoothly. We kept all of Julie’s staff, and they’re awesome – they’ve made it seamless. Sometimes jumping in is the only way to do it, because you don’t think about it too much.”

But thought had gone into it. Rhonda, who began her career in merchant banking in New York City, and continued it in marketing and sales in Aspen, had done a great deal of research into the coffee business.

“This made a whole lot of sense,” she admitted.

Steaming Bean has become a viable brand in Colorado. Hill established an informal type of franchise arrangement, allowing coffee house operators free use of the name as long as they purchased exclusively Steaming Bean beans. Assistance in point-of-purchase and more is offered, but each coffee house operator makes it his or her own.

“I’m very proud of the beans that we have,” said Rhonda. “They are quality. They’re hand roasted so the roaster goes by sight, sound, smell, so they get the nuances and the characteristics of the true flavor of the bean.”

A proponent of healthy, organic foods, Rhonda pressed Hill about offering organic coffees. All Steaming Bean coffees are Fair Trade, but not necessarily certified organic. (Fair Trade coffees are certified by an international agency as having been grown on a Fair Trade cooperative farm where farmers are able to warrant a fair price for their goods and at the same time uphold specific standards for the wages and living and working conditions of workers.)

“I asked him why all of the beans aren’t organic, because I’m really into that,” said Rhonda, but understood when Hill laid out the actual financial and even political issues faced by the small, independent coffee growers of Third World countries. “He said, some of these beans are grown up hillsides, in the middle of no where, and he promised, there are no pesticides. It’s too remote.”

All Steaming Bean coffees are shade grown and sun dried. For those who need the “label,” Steaming Bean in Durango always offers an organic variety as one of the “Daily Grinds.” And “flavored” coffees (sub-par beans sprayed with various artificial flavorings) are not in the mix.

“We now offer ‘flavored’ coffee,” said Ivan. “We use our medium roast and you can pick one of the Torani syrups to get the flavor you want. Also, with the decaf we brew a pot in the morning, but at noon we give customers a decaf Americano for the same price. It’s fresher that way.”

 

The Unkovskoys have little desire to make dramatic changes in the existing Steaming Bean, though as opportunities arise, they’re taking advantage. They’ve purchased new leather couches to replace the tired and worn ones in the window, and they’ve also reopened the electrical plugs in the south wall, facilitating those who wish to work on their laptops for an extended period of time. Plus a new exterior awning is in the offing.

“We want to leave it the way it is and let it evolve as it evolves,” said Rhonda, who hopes to bring back Poetry Night and include more acoustic music in the evenings. “People are resistant to too much change. We want to put our stamp on it, give it some fresh energy. That’s all.”

An area of focus, in addition to consistency in the coffees, is food service. Perhaps one of the better kept of Durango secrets, Steaming Bean offers fresh and fast breakfasts and lunches – from daily breakfast burritos to homemade soups to sandwiches made to order. Every effort is made to purchase locally grown or produced products.

“When the Farmers Market opens, we’ll purchase lettuces for our sandwiches and fresh veggies,” said Rhonda. “And we make everything. Our chicken salad, our flavored cream cheeses. We slice our turkey and ham ourselves.”

“Our smoothies are all 100 percent real fruit and fruit juice – no fillers,” added Ivan.

The parents of a six-year-old, the Unkovskoys have also enhanced the “healthy” offerings available for children.

“It’s a hard time to start a new business,” said Ivan. “But you’ve got to have faith in Durango, faith in the economy. If we all just sat on our hands, we’d never move forward.”

“We’re enjoying it,” said Rhonda, admitting that the honeymoon is not yet over. “But everything we’ve ever done, we’ve done ourselves, so this, it’s not anything new.”