At Java Jacks in the riverside town of Tappahannock, Va., the sausage is savory, the beignet-like jacks are sugar-dusted and you have your choice of t-shirts.You can get a brightly-colored one with an image of the cafe and its slogan, "Come in, We're Awesome," or you can go for something darkly funny that says "Coffee Makes Me Feel Less Murdery." "We started by selling just the t-shirts of the building.
And then we'd gotten a couple of the sarcastic shirts for the staff and the customers were trying to buy them off of our backs," owner Jeans Owens laughs from behind the coffee bar.Java Jacks started in 2006, in what was once someone's little one-story home on the main road through town.
The atmosphere is cozy and friendly, with pictures of smiling customers and staff taped to door frames and to the wall.Owens and her husband took over the business about eight years ago.
"What we were interested in was being our own bosses," she says, "and something that could set us up a little better for retirement."But their first years running the cafe have included the pandemic and inflation: lots of expensive bumps for small business owners."Our coffee prices went sky high," she says.They're up over 30% since 2022.
The cost of beef is up, so is the cost of sausage and paper products for takeout orders: "To-go boxes.You know there was a time we were paying 12 cents for those," Owens says.
Now, it's nearly 30 cents.And to-go cups? "The cup, the lid, the straw used to cost us all together maybe 3 cents." She says it's now more than 20 cents.The cafe's electricity bill has also recently jumped.
"Normally, I'm paying $450, $500 a month," she says."I'm paying over $1000 now."Owens says Java Jacks has a loyal customer base and she's been committed to doing whatever she can to keep menu prices affordable, including keeping some meals at $10.
She says she now goes to Walmart early in the morning to get milk and juice rather than purchase them from a supplier.She goes to a loca...