Life & Work with Dale Donchey of Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dale Donchey.

Hi Dale, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
In an older time of the early 2000’s I moved to Atlanta from Richmond, VA with little but my car and an Aunt that was willing to house me for a short time. After bouncing around in general retail and getting my own place, I lost my main source of income, and took a second job to keep the little life I had started to build. That second job was at a Starbucks. While there I went full time, loved the service style, loved the amount of learning that was unlocked, and felt for the first time that my skill set was actually being used. After climbing the ladder to as high as my education would really allow at the time. I’ve only got a high school diploma and life’s lessons. I had customers that had followed me from store to store and they had a dream. A dream to open a cafe all their own and for whatever reason figured I was the guy to help. That’s when I developed the idea that I’ve carried with me throughout my career: “If it all falls apart, I can always go back to Starbucks”. 20 plus years later. I’ve seen coffee farms, cupped coffees with the best in the business, consulted for true culinary giants, made coffee in far away places, roasted for barista champions, made coffee out of an ‘82 VW van with my best friends, and built a coffee company that’s now 10yrs old. I’m as stubborn as that kid who left Starbucks and been blessed with a good, all be it adventurous and not always successful, blesssed af life.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No. Not a “go back to Starbucks” rough clearly, but not what I’d say was smooth either. I’ve closed what I thought was the greatest thing ever: A well loved cafe with my best friends. I didn’t know it then, but that is still the hardest thing I’ve been through. That includes covid, living off solo shift cash tips, not being paid by owners of cafes, being alone in a far away country for a job, losing barista competitions I put more hours into then my full time job, or even buying out a business partner. Closing that store changed me, slowed me down, broke my creativity for the first time. I didn’t even really know what I was. I worked in one of the best restaurants in Atlanta for a few years with a focus on coffee but was open to a different life. I was even a maitre d’ for a minute. They called me “Mater Dale” HA. But the love of my life looked at me over a coffee I had just made, maybe I was admiring my work or working through making it better, hard to say, and said “You had dreams of your own and I loved that about you. What are you doing?” And that’s how I made it through that to where I am now. Someone loved me enough to notice I was settling and said the straight forward thing to a stubborn person like myself.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’ve always been creative…I think? Not like a painter, musician, or even a magician. I love to work on editing of a thing, branding, storytelling, things that make laughter. The selling of the coffee and food has of course always been the means and I do think I am good behind the espresso machine or in the kitchen. And that is creative in its own right but at some point it’s just the vehicle for the creative parts I thrive in. I can do the thing and well. But it’s the story. The talking about the branding and its connection to cafe, baseball, the city I love, and me. It’s my business and doesn’t miss on the telling of my story in any corner of it. I think that’s the creative mark I’ve been able to tap into and hopefully inspire others that want to open their own business. This business is hard. With not a ton of dollar and cent rewards. So, I use it to tell my story through the brand. And have the greatest of creative friends to turn my storytelling into picture and design. It’s important to laugh at ourselves in a classy way that doesn’t shy from politics, culture, or the day to day. Cause that’s life, that’s the human experience, it’s the things we all have to deal with. I just do it all through the eyes of an aging barista who loves baseball, laughing, and hearing about other peoples lives.

How do you define success?
A work in progress. Not sure if I have the personality that allows me to cheers myself til I can say it’s done. Even after 10yrs of Spiller Park and 5 locations I’m not settled into the idea of it being successful yet.
I do, however, employee over 40 people that have the ability to be on employer provided healthcare, PTO, and never make less than $19/hr. I most certainly never worked for anyone that invested in my career that way. We have a handbook and everything! That’s the thing I carry the most outward pride in, cause it matters. It provides the professional stability to being a barista that I never got and I’m honored to be able to provide that. I’m not even satisfied in that “success”. I’d like to continue to grow the benefits we provide and do better/more for them as we grow.
…I think I just gave you a really long non-answer. Which probably tells you a ton about my imbalances.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.Spillerpark.com
• Instagram: @spilllerpark
• Facebook: Spiller Park Coffee

Image Credits
Gloria McDuff