Today we’d like to introduce you to Matteson Rushing.
Matteson, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I have been a barista for a few years now. I thoroughly enjoyed serving coffee and being in the coffee business as I was still in college. I wanted more out of my experience serving coffee, so with the help of my mother, we were able to team up and create Chillybean.
Chillybean was the name my father called me growing up, and still to this day he calls me Chillybean.
We started planning in the winter of 2016 and intended to acquire a coffee shop somewhere in the Atlanta Metro Area. Shopping around for a few months we came across a woman in Nashville selling her fully equipped, remade, 1950s Shasta trailer with a gelato freezer, fridges, sinks, generators, coffee maker, grinders and of course a top of the line La Marzzoco dual-head espresso machine. It was a match made in heaven. I knew that with my busy school schedule it would be difficult to run a shop, but with a mobile shop, I could choose the events I wanted to be apart of with much lower overhead cost.
With many months of planning, we opened Valentine’s Day 2017 in the town of Norcross selling bourbon gelato and fresh desserts along with coffee. We now serve at weddings, movie sets and festivals all around Atlanta serving only local and the best quality pastries, coffee and tea.
Has it been a smooth road?
The beginning was very difficult for us. It was a ton of trial and error on our part to find out where we fit in best and who truly appreciated our product.
We had a few slow events and learned about our waste and how well we would do based on the event.
In the beginning, we had terrible amounts of waste. We would purchase way too many pastries per event and ended up taking them afterwards to our local fire station (not at all a bad thing). We also had gone to events that didn’t quite fit our style. Once our name was out there to the planners of the big Atlanta art festivals and production companies, business boomed and we were able to strive in the first year.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Chillybean Coffee – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We are a mobile coffee truck specializing in all local and organic coffee, tea and pastries. We travel to many different events in Atlanta, private or not serving only the best quality espresso beverages and pastries. We also cater to big breakfast or lunch meetings with fresh croissant sandwiches, fruit and pastries.
We specialize in high-quality espresso drinks and also have been known for our outstanding milkshakes (which came to us as an accident). We have a famous White Chocolate Lavender Milkshake as well as a delicious Lavender Latte.
I am very proud of how far we’ve come in such a short amount of time. When it comes to small businesses, it really takes a few years to get established and be profitable. We have overcome so much in the past eight months and we have become well known around Atlanta. We love our loyal followers, some only come to events to see us. We also have fantastic loyal customers who consistently call us for their movie sets and shows.
Atlanta has few coffee trucks, all very good. What sets us apart is our ability to really fit into any event and customize orders for a crowd. A wedding may have a totally different coffee menu than a movie set. We have also been known to dress up for our Great Gatsby event south of Atlanta (Great Gatsby Lawn Party at the Wren’s Nest). Unlike the other coffee trucks, we have a variety of different beverages besides coffee such as our Just Add Honey Loose Leaf Tea, a variety of festive hot chocolates and handcrafted sodas in Lavender or Raspberry.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
There is plenty of diversity in Atlanta, you find so many different people in Atlanta there are very open-minded and love to try so many things. Atlanta can really be considered a melting pot of the south with so many people not from just the U.S. but so many other countries as well.
I do wish Atlanta had more to offer as the big city it is. I know that it is changing every day and more things are constantly being added but I do believe we would attract even more people to visit or live with more things to do besides the Aquarium and World of Coke. Atlanta has so much potential for more places like Ponce City Market. Putting in more places like this will make Atlanta that much more interesting to visit.
Pricing:
- Lavender Latte – $5.25
- White Chocolate Lavender Milkshake – $7
- Raspberry Soda – $4.75
Contact Info:
- Website: www.chillybeancoffeeco.com
- Phone: 770-655-9546
- Email: info@chillybeancoffeeco.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chillybean_coffee_co/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chillybeancoffeeco/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/the_chilly_bean
Image Credit:
Matt Rushing
Amber Rushing
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