Chatterbeans is a relative newcomer to the coffeehouse business in Central Oregon, but it entered the Bend market last year with a unique twist: It caters specifically to mothers with young children.
Joah Whitt, Chatterbeans’ co-owner and a mother of three children under age 5, moved to Bend last year and was looking for a place where she could get coffee, relax and let her children play.
“I wish I could say I came up with this idea, but actually we moved from Medford where they had a Play & Stay and I kept looking for one here, and there was nothing like it, so I said to my husband, ‘We need to start one,’ ” said Whitt, 30, who relied on nothing more than her “mother’s intuition.”
Her husband and co-owner, Allen, a former residential loan officer, exchanged his suit and tie for a polo shirt and barista apron, confident the concept of a coffehouse with play area would work in the crowded coffee market.
No comments yet.