how did this even happen?

Most of our first time customers have the same question when they come through our line - “How did this get here?” I understand to many locals, Packhouse may seem strange. We basically bought a 96 sqft shed and retrofitted it into a full-service coffee shop. This idea is not novel, however. My husband is from Oregon where little drive-thru shops like ours are plentiful! My first visit to Oregon implanted the idea in my head. I want to open one of those.

Fast forward about 10 years. My husband and I are now out of the Army. We live in Virginia away from both our families. We have three kids in five years. I stay home with the kids now instead of working. I’ve just finished my Master’s Degree. It is time for me to go back to work. We decide to move to NC close to my family when my husband Ryan gets a job in NC. Within a month of moving here, we start the search for locations…and how to open a coffee shop.We settle on Youngsville for our location and could not be more blessed with that decision. Between March and July we get the shop built, settle on the name, learn how to run an espresso machine, test our recipes, hire our friends, and pray that this will work. Along the way, my sister Lindsay and Brother-in-Law Jeramy help us with EVERYTHING. We quickly realize it would be beneficial for us to ask them for some official help and split some of the workload between me and my sister. After all, between our families, we have 6 kids, and we spend all of our time together anyway. Did I mention how supportive my husband was with this dream? He lovingly pushed me towards it for probably 8 years. If he didn’t think I could do it, this never would have happened.

That is who we are, now, let’s talk about what we do. I had never worked in a coffee shop but I sure do love coffee. We researched the best equipment, the best suppliers, the best roasters, and decided what we wanted to be as a company. We bought all the best “stuff.” We didn’t want to skimp on the quality of anything. We knew we wanted people to be surprised that a 96 sqft shack in Youngsville NC had amazing coffee. I believe we have followed through on that vision! We use high quality, fresh ingredients for all of our drinks and our customers appreciate it. Over the past few years we have developed and tweaked our recipes and we are always looking to improve and add new things our customers want. 

So, that is how we got here! It was intentional. And no, we have no desire to be more than 96 sqft. It is difficult to fit everything we need in there, but we always make it work. We hope to post more in the future to give more insight on the shop and what we have done since we have opened. If you have any blog topic requests, please let us know! 

Harrison and Gavin painting Packhouse.

Winnie helping Ryan with the countertops.

Lindsay serving our first customer! Our dad :) I’m pretty sure he came through twice that day.