2Ten Coffee Roasters expands after fire

Jan. 24--A feeling of devastation shook Steven Svoboda II when he saw the heart of his business go up in flames days before Christmas in 2014.

But as he viewed the smoldering warehouse in Anthony, Texas -- where his coffee roaster, burlap bags filled with several thousand pounds of coffee beans, and computer equipment were housed -- his mindset quickly shifted. He forgot the devastation and began figuring out how to get coffee to customers.

"We worked really hard to get those customers and we weren't going to lose them," Svoboda recalled last week.

"I'm a very competitive person," said Svoboda, a Franklin High School graduate and former New Mexico State University basketball player. "I like to win. I'm not one to fold."

Thirteen months after the fire, 2Ten Coffee Roasters is not only still in business, it's growing from its new base at 3007 Montana in the Five Points area of Central El Paso, where Seham's House of Coffee had been located.

Svoboda, 33, is co-owner and director of operations for 2Ten, which began five years ago as a West Side drive-through coffee shop licensed under the Bear Creek Coffee brand.

He and his partner, El Paso management consultant Scott Munden, still operate the drive-through at 643 N. Resler. But they exited their license to sell Indiana-roasted Bear Creek Coffee. About three years ago, they started roasting their own coffee and changed their business name to 2Ten. The name is tied to the boiling point of water in El Paso -- 210 degrees, which is the best temperature for brewing coffee, Svoboda said.

The company, with five employees besides Svoboda, roasted 45,000 to 50,000 pounds of coffee last year -- more than double the amount it roasted at the Anthony warehouse, he said. It has more than 50 wholesale customers, including dozens of El Paso area restaurants, offices, hotel and others. It also supplies coffee for its Resler drive-through and Montana Avenue coffee shop. Besides supplying coffee roasted to a customer's specifications, 2Ten also supplies brewing equipment, and brewing instructions, he said.

It had about $500,000 in sales last year, Svoboda said.

2Ten is one of only a few wholesale coffee roasters in the fledgling coffee-roasting industry in the El Paso-Las Cruces area, Svoboda said.

Bldg 6 Coffee Roasters operates in East El Paso and Picacho Coffee is a Las Cruces coffee roaster.

"There was no (wholesale coffee) roaster in the El Paso area when I started in 2009," said Chad Morris, 36, Picacho owner and roaster. However, some coffee shops and restaurants do their own roasting, he noted.

Morris started roasting as a hobby, and it grew into a business that supplies 40 to 50 big and small wholesale clients, including several El Paso restaurants, he said.

"There's enough room for all of us, and there can be more" local roasters, Morris said.

Rudy Valdes, chef and co-owner of Pan y Agua restaurant group, has been buying coffee from Svoboda for several years for the group's restaurants, including three Crave Kitchen and Bar locations, and Hillside Coffee and Donut Shop on the West Side.

"Steven has the same level of passion and dedication on the coffee side as we have on the food side," Valdes said. "I can't imagine how he felt" when his roasting facility burned down, he said. "It must have been terrifying."

"It was very uncomfortable for him for a little bit because he had to have his product roasted somewhere else. But I tell him it was the biggest blessing he ever got" because now the business is in a bigger roasting facility and is "set up for the next big step," Valdes said. "It's the story of the Phoenix rising from the ashes."

Munden, 2Ten co-owner, agreed with that assessment.

"As devastating as the fire was to our production capability, not to mention emotionally, I believe it has actually put us in a better position to execute our expansion strategy," Munden said in an email sent from Baghdad, where he was doing consulting work last week for his main company, SLMM International.

Svoboda knew nothing about the coffee business when Munden asked him to help open the Resler drive-through in 2010. That was shortly after Munden had opened a coffee shop in Baghdad, which has since closed. Svoboda took a weeklong course in 2010 at a Portland, Ore., coffee school and fell in love with that city's huge coffee culture -- a culture he's trying to help grow here, he said.

Svoboda, who once had a dream to play in the NBA, said he was hungry to succeed in business when Munden asked him to operate the coffee shop.

Munden said Svoboda has grown into a brilliant entrepreneur who is able to handle the roller-coaster ride of building a successful small business.

"He runs the entire (2Ten) operation from top to bottom and has created a repeatable business framework that makes it easy to plan for expansion and meet the demands of the market," Munden said.

Svoboda said about two days after the Dec. 19, 2014, fire, he contacted friend and former Bear Creek Coffee brand owner Matt Swenson, now director of U.S. operations for Nobletree Coffee, which operates a coffee roasting facility in New York. Nobletree roasted coffee to 2Ten's specifications and shipped it to El Paso. That bought time while Svobada figured out how to get another coffee roaster.

"You can't just buy a coffee roaster down the street. It takes months to get one," Svobada said.

He contacted local roasters to see if 2Ten could temporarily buy time on their machines. That led to Seham's House of Coffee, which had a large coffee roasting machine. The business was started by Esau Halow, who died in fall 2014. A son was operating it and 2Ten made a deal to buy Seham's equipment and take over its Five Points location, Svobada said. Insurance money from the fire helped to partially finance the deal, he said.

By Jan. 6, 2015, 2Ten was roasting coffee again, and by the end of February 2015. the coffee shop had been remodeled and renamed to 2Ten Roastery and Cafe. The coffee shop is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, with coffee roasted on Thursdays and Fridays. The area doesn't yet have enough traffic to make night and weekend hours worthwhile, Svoboda said.

Svoboda and Munden are now looking for another El Paso location to add a third coffee shop this year.

"The coffee industry has changed dramatically (in recent years) in a good way. People care about the coffee they are drinking," Svoboda said as he stood near the roasting machine inside 2Ten's Montana coffee shop. "You can put a smile on somebody's day" with a good cup of coffee, he said. "It's a never-ending journey to find the perfect cup."

Vic Kolenc may be reached at [email protected]; 546-6421; @vickolenc on Twitter.

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