Southern Utah community rallies for community shop shut down during pandemic

ST. GEORGE — Elise West believes a coffee shop is more than a place to get drink or a pastry; it's a place where a diverse community can gather.

"I love the conversations that take place over coffee. I had long envisioned myself working in a coffeehouse," the St. George resident said. "I just thought it would be the coolest job. It wasn't until 2016 when I dove into that."

West opened a truck called Affogato in 2016, and that quickly morphed into a brick-and-mortar shop bearing the same name.

West said that when she initially applied for a business loan, she was asked if people in St. George "really drank coffee."

She soon found that there was a community longing for what she had to offer. Dixie Hirschi moved to St. George from the Midwest around the time Affogato opened, and she said finding West's shop made her feel at home.

"I moved here about 10 years ago, and I think there were a couple of coffee shops," Hirschi recalled. "But there weren't many that were like the shops where I am from. Whenever I went to Elise's shop, it was just a special space where you felt like you could be there doing whatever you wanted or needed to do, and you were not going to be rushed out."

The shop was located in an old office building without a kitchen. West got a license to cook pastries at home and bring them back to the shop. She eventually started renting out rooms in the building for small shops, and she said it became a community gathering space.

"For about 2½ years, it was amazing," West said. "We had live music and little shops. It was really kind of like a little local market. We had a farmer's market there. It was a gathering space that just happened to serve really good coffee.

"It was your third place," she continued. "You have your home, and you have your work, but where do you really go to hang out and feel like you're part of the gang? Professors would come grade papers there, we had an ongoing puzzle. It was a magical place."

As magical as West'sshop was, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the infrastructure wasn't enough to weather the storm.

"I had my best month in February 2020," West said. "We were rock solid. It was amazing. We were doing nothing but growing, and I still didn't have a kitchen, but that didn't matter. Then March hit, and by March 17, we were instructed that we had to shut down our businesses on the inside."

West said she did everything she could to keep the business alive, but it wasn't built to hand out drinks from a drive-thru.

"Due to the pandemic, I had to make the tough decision to close, and that was gut-wrenching," she said. "It took some time to heal from that because that was my dream."

The community is now helping her rebuild that dream via fundraising and spreading the word. And at age 65, West will open another shop that she is naming West Village. She says that she doesn't want this to be her "last hurrah."

"You're only limited by your own beliefs," West said. "I still have a lot of youth left in me. I have hungered for another coffeehouse, and my main reason for doing this is because I miss my community. I miss that face-to-face and all the things that Affogato provided for our community.

"It hurts to see people arguing online," she continued. "My preference is to see them sitting across from each other with coffee between them."

West said that since she announced her intention to open a new shop, the community response has been amazing. She said her goal is to provide a similar service to that of Affogato.

"My favorite game growing up was connect-the-dots," West said. "As I've grown, it has now become 'connect-the-person-in-the-community.'"

The new shop will be located downtown and is set to open in April.

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