Retail roundup: A Coffee Cup reopening in Monument

Wendy Diggins remembers walking into A Coffee Cup the morning after a fire had ravaged part of the restaurant she and her husband, Jeremy, own.

“It was a pretty eerie experience,” she said. “The day before, the restaurant was really bustling, but that day, it was smelly and scarred and empty.”

In the midst of what the Diggins called a “record breaking” summer, a fire started near the roof of the restaurant, just above the kitchen. Investigators provided multiple scenarios about how it started, but the Diggins are still uncertain about the actual cause.

What they feared was losing their restaurant — and their livelihood.

But three months after that fateful June 30 night, they’re ready to reopen. They’ll unlock the door and serve their first customers on Oct. 12.

Most of the damage came from smoke and a water pipe that burst. Even so, the owners were forced to gut the entire restaurant.

“All of the flooring and interior walls had to be removed,” Diggins said. “Every piece of furniture and every piece of equipment had to be professionally cleaned or replaced.”

Located in downtown Monument, A Coffee Cup opened during 1978. Jeremy Diggins began working at the restaurant as a backup cook when he was 13. During his teenage years, he learned all the jobs involved in running the operation. Following a four-year stint in the Marine Corps, he returned to Monument and his former employer, this time as manager.

During 2000, the original owner decided to sell the restaurant. When Jeremy heard the news, he offered to buy, and he’s owned the operation since.

Business has been good, according to Wendy Diggins. So good, that the couple purchased the adjoining space and expanded the restaurant last year. They also opened another location, A Second Cup, in the Gleneagle neighborhood during 2008.

The operation had moved along smoothly during the past year. Even the worst recession in half a century hadn’t put a damper on sales.

Then at 5:45 p.m. on June 30, a Monument police officer noticed smoke seeping from the roof of A Coffee Cup. He called the fire department and crews responded within minutes.

Wendy was home with the kids, waiting for Jeremy to arrive, when he called to say the restaurant was on fire.

“At first we thought we might lose everything we own,” she said. “If not for adequate insurance coverage, we might have. But it worked out. Our policy even paid our employees for two months, which was also fortunate. They didn’t have to look for work and we didn’t have to hire a new staff.”

A Coffee Cup will host a grand re-opening on Oct. 23. During the day, a portion of revenue will be donated to the Tri-Lakes/Monument firefighters and in the evening, the Diggins will host a party with live music and giveaways.

Shake, then Sleep

The Chapel Hills Mall has welcomed a new mattress store — with a twist.

Retired chiropractor Duane Smith and his son Alma and daughter Debra have opened Natural Form Mattress on the upper level of the Macy’s wing.

The store sells Natural Form Mattresses, along with an exercise machine called Whole Body Vibration.

“A Natural Form Mattress is a medical mattress, a pressure-free sleep system that uses a patented air technology, which allows pressure to be uniform throughout the body,” Smith said. “(The bed) has nine horizontal air compartments, and the technology allows air to move in and out without the use of pumps or regulators.”

Smith said the mattress has been available for 12 years and has been used in hospitals and rest homes. According to the company’s Web site, Hilton Hotels tested the bed during 2004 and decided to include it in every room of its Hilton Garden Inn locations worldwide.

But Smith wasn’t satisfied by offering just one unique technology. Visitors to the store also will find the Whole Body Vibration machine, a device that’s designed to improve circulation and align the spine.

“Basically, it’s a teeter-totter that you stand on, and it allows you to do an infinite number of exercises,” Smith said. “The Russians developed it in the 1990s for their Olympic weightlifters. Astronauts have also used it to build lean muscle mass and enhance bone density in a very short period of time.”

To Smith, the two products seemed to work well together, so he decided to offer both.

“We’re not just a mattress store and not just an exercise-machine store,” he said. “We’re selling the concept and the technology to help people heal while they’re sleeping.”

Sales have been a bit slow during the first few weeks, but he attributes that to the lack of word-of-mouth advertising.

“People don’t know we’re here yet,” he said. “The chiropractors here in town have been quite receptive, and we’ll be doing some direct marketing. That’s our challenge — to get the word out.”

Scott Prater covers retail for the Colorado Springs Business Journal.