Trust in the Grind

By: Raina Brewer

Before Tara Wright could become a well-known and respected personality on the West Side of Saint Paul as owner and operator of Amore Coffee, she had to get a job there. She almost didn’t. 

It was 2013. Wright had just moved to West St. Paul, bought a house, and was working for the state as a care provider. She was also working against the poverty cycle as a single mom.

“It’s almost impossible to pull yourself out of the poverty loop,” Wright said. “It’s a level of poverty that most people don’t understand.”

For Wright, being stuck in this loop left her feeling unstable for many years. With every little win, she worried a catastrophic loss lurked behind the corner. 

“Being poor is one thing, but being systematically stuck is completely different,” Wright said.

But Wright came to the West Side with a sense of hope for new beginnings.

In those first few weeks exploring her new neighborhood, Wright recalls a gloomy spring day spent with her cousin Ashley, driving across Saint Paul’s landmark High Bridge and up the steep slope of Smith Avenue — right past Amore.

Wright recalls that her immediate thought was: “Oh, that place is cute, I’d like to work there.”

A month or so later, Wright found herself strolling into Amore for a fresh-squeezed lemonade and a job application.

“My cousin was like, ‘You’re crazy, why would you want to work there? You already have a great job.’” Wright said.

“I felt drawn to this place,” Wright said. “I knew right away when I walked in that I belonged here.”

Nancy Breymeier and Cate (formerly Kathy) Hauser, romantic partners and the shop’s co-owners, were at odds on whether to hire the “bubbly” lemonade girl.

“Kathy was the one that didn’t want to hire me at first,” Wright said. “To Kathy, Amore was more than just a coffee shop, it was their passion project and they were protective of it.”

It was likely, at least partially, because she had no experience, but Wright said that Hauser chalked it up to being overstaffed.

But Nancy, who took on more of the financial side of the business, knew Wright was worth the risk.

“She had no experience, but said she would work for free just to learn,” Breymeier said. “That was when I knew she would be the best employee.”

It wasn’t long until both of her bosses began taking notice of her work ethic.

“I never had to make a list or ask her twice to do something,” Breymeier said. “In fact, most of the time I didn’t have to ask at all, she just did the work that needed to get done.”

A few months into Wright’s employment, Hauser’s elderly mother took a turn for the worse and Wright began pulling extra shifts to cover. Hauser started trusting Wright, and it wasn’t long until she was promoted to manager.

For Wright, her sense of community and her new life was beautifully unfolding. But simultaneously for Hauser, her passion for the shop was beginning to dwindle.

“Her mom wasn’t healthy and the relationship with her partner at the time was ending,” Wright said. “Simply, Kathy was burnt out.”

Eventually, Hauser and Breymeier announced they were selling everything: their belongings, their house, and the coffee shop. Wright was devastated.

Wright knew she didn’t have any money, but she also knew she didn’t want to leave Amore.

”I messaged Nancy and Kathy that night,” Wright said. “I told them, ‘I don’t know how, but I would like to buy Amore’ — which was literally laughable to them.”

But the partners soon realized she was serious. Breymeier stipulated that she needed to fix her credit, save money, and buy a house for her to even consider a sale. Wright was up for the challenge, and because Breymeier believed in her, she decided to buy Hauser out while Wright worked out the kinks.

Over the next five years, Wright worked hard to earn Amore. She worked one-on-one with Breymeier to fix her credit and get her finances in order, as well as to learn every position possible. Today, Wright has a closet full of hats she wears for Amore: owner, operator, roaster, cook, barista — and the smiling face out front.

Over those same five years, Amore’s sales doubled.

“Tara just needed a bit of encouragement to realize what kind of person she could become,” Breymeier said.

Amore was always a special place, but soon became a bustling local hub for people both new and old.

A place where community members mingled and church-goers flocked, 

A place where knitting and book clubs chimed away, and where local bands played and practiced, 

A place where retired school teachers offered free homework help to students on Sundays,

And a place where everyone, no matter who you were, could gather — even the furry ones.

“She was worth more than I could pay her,” said Breymeier regarding her former employee. “I knew right then she needed to own the coffee shop.”

So, on a handshake agreement, Breymeier sold Wright the shop.

“It’s not every day that someone chooses to believe in you the way Nancy believed in me,” Wright said.

“Sometimes it does hit me, it just kind of overwhelms me with gratitude and the realization of my blessing,” Wright said. “It does take a really — I want to say like — Godly person. She really did redirect my life in a very very profound way.”

“Because she was so kind to me, and took a chance on me, I’m able to help a lot of people and support a lot of people in a way that without her trust I would never have been able to do,” Wright said.

These days, Wright is more of a coffee person than ever. But every once in a while, she still enjoys a fresh-squeezed lemonade. To her, the sweet-and-sour tinge serves as a refreshing reminder of the satisfaction that comes from hard work paying off.