By Morgan Bryce
Editor
Sandy and Trish Toomer of Toomer’s Coffee are holding a grand-opening celebration later this month for their business’s new retail storefront and roastery, located at 1619 Thomason Drive.
The Toomers purchased the nearly 4,500 square-foot structure last March from personal friend and local businessman Steve Benson because of the property’s close proximity to both Tiger Town and East Alabama Medical Center.
“That was the first thing we noticed when we came to look at this building. When we or other people come from Auburn to see their doctor or (go to work), this is the road that everyone takes,” Sandy said.
Toomer’s menu possesses many traditional, signature coffee shop items including cappucinos, espressos, lattes and machiatos, as well as offering traditional brews, pourovers and low-acid, keto friendly options for patrons.
Delicacies like fritattas, scones and the Auburn store favorite “baked oatmeal” will be served daily, with daughter and former Mylks Cookies’ owner Sarah Toomer overseeing those operations during the week.
Other items that will be offered inside the shop include coffee accessories and equipment, mugs and their wide assortment of pre-packaged coffee blends from ethically sourced farms in Africa, Asia and South America.
The Toomers said they plan to hire one to two part-time employees to help with opening during the week. Their tentative hours of operation are 7 a.m. to 4 or 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and closed on Saturday and Sunday.
History
Toomer’s Coffee was started in 2004 in a small space within the Johnson Furniture Galleries store at 205 S. 10th St., which is now known as the Bennie Adkins Meeting Center.
Being one of, if not the only, locally owned coffee shop that offered free wifi, Sandy said business was slow and patrons were often confused by the concept. In 2005, they relocated to the University Village Shopping Center on South College Street in Auburn.
The Toomers started roasting and selling their own coffee later in the mid-2000s, which became a focal point of their business in 2013 after closing their Auburn storefront.
In the last six years since closing down in Auburn, wholesale, e-commerce and consulting with both domestic and international clients have emerged as profitable options for the Toomers, who roast and produce coffee under three different brands: Toomers, Coffee4Missions and a soon-to-be-announced line of coffee for keto-dieting individuals.
“The true heart of the
Toomers is missions”
Coffee4Missions is not only a brand focused on working with churches and Christian organizations to distribute quality coffee and reach people for Jesus Christ, but also an emblem of the Toomers’ heart for missions and sharing the message of Christianity around the world.
Trish, originally from Hurricane, West Virginia, relocated to Birmingham after visiting some Alabama relatives in the mid-1970s. There, she met Sandy, who was born and raised in the nearby suburb of Vestavia Hills.
In December 1979, shortly after finishing his broadcast communications degree from the University of Alabama, Sandy married Trish.
Through a mutual friend, the Toomers ended up living and working in Houston for six years before Sandy accepted a sales position with an Atlanta-based oil and gas company.
In 1990, the Toomers followed God’s calling and moved to Elizabethton, Tennessee for Sandy to enroll and train to become a missionary pilot at the Moody Bible Institute’s aviation school, which has since relocated to Spokane, Washington.
Graduating in 1993, the Toomer family moved to Costa Rica the following year, where Sandy began his career as a missionary (commercial) pilot with the Mission Aviation Fellowship. In 1995, he was moved to Ecuador, where he and his family lived and worked for the next seven years.
MAF representatives offered Sandy a recruiter position for the Southeast region in 2002, which brought him and his family to the Auburn-Opelika area. He officially retired from working with the MAF in December 2008.
The 10/90 Lifestyle
When speaking of their success as a small, family-owned company, Trish was quick to give credit to the one they deem responsible for it.
“It’s all God. He has truly, truly blessed us,” Trish said.
As their profits and business ventures continue to grow, the Toomers said they plan to dedicate more and more to the Lord and those carrying out His work both at home and abroad.
“Basically speaking, the ‘10/90 Lifestyle’ is where you live on 10% and give away the other 90%. One of the keys to doing that is staying out of debt, which we’ve done really well,” Sandy said.
“Our goal as a business is to give more and more to ministry and missions,” Trish added. “Besides tithing to our church, we give to about six different mission organizations. I want to encourage other businesses to think about what the Lord says in terms of giving both our tithes and offerings. After being in missions work for 15 years, long-term support of missionaries out on the field is more critical than ever.”
Future Developments
The aforementioned keto line is expected to launch by early November, according to Sandy. He added that they plan to generate more content on their social media pages about coffee roasting and production in 2020.
For more information, call 334-332-6652, like and follow their Facebook and Instagram pages or visit www.toomerscoffee.com.
