Help my wife name her coffee shop

• majorspark

  

  I am in the process of purchasing a small coffee shop for my wife to run. Its right in the center of a small town. The county courthouse is less than a block away. The main office of a large area bank is right across the street (about 5-6 story building. The hospital, health department, and many medical offices are on the same street roughly a mile down. The coffee shop is small. No place really to sit inside. Just kind of a small lobby for walk ups. Plenty of room for expansion on the lot. There is a "patio" area outside where people can sit. Most of the business comes from the drive thru.
  
  She is trying to nail down a name. Coffee shops are a dime a dozen. So its kind of hard to come up with a name that isn't taken in Ohio. She is in the center of town so that is why most of our final choices have that in in name. If you think of something else go ahead and suggest it. I am sure some of the comics and pervs will not be able to help themselves.
  
  Her top choices so far are:
  
  Perk Place
  Central Cup
  Ground Central
  Central Grounds
• LJ

  

  Is this in Lancaster?
• gut

  How about Morning Grind or Daily Grind? [edit the former, at least, is the name of a morning radio show, and I imagine both names may be copyrighted]
  
  Perk Place is a bit too corny, and combined with Central Cup is kind of a rip-off of "Central Perk". My advice is to go back to the drawing board. There are two things that are very important to consider:
  1) The name is going to contribute to the atmosphere - the connotation is going to create a certain expectation and attract the appropriate crowd. My example of the "Morning Grind" might illustrate a poorly chosen name in the sense that you it probably won't attract very social people. But that is a distant second consideration to choosing a name that's recognizeable and attracts some interest.
  
  2) Along the same lines, remember Starbucks, Caribou Coffee and Seattle Coffee seem to be everywhere...along with Dunkin Donuts, McD's, and a slew of other places. It's very competitive. I'm not sure her latter 3 choices are going jump out as being a coffee shop, and they might not come up very high in google searches - which spells death for a coffee shop in such a competitive market.
  
  I think Central Grounds is DOA - I'd not process that it is a coffee shop in the 0.5 seconds I took noticing the name on a sign or in a google search. Central Cup could just as easily be a pub or sports bar. They are all ok choices for names, but I think unless you have a great location they are a bit cryptic.
• majorspark

  

  gut;936220 wrote:How about Morning Grind or Daily Grind? [edit the former, at least, is the name of a morning radio show, and I imagine both names may be copyrighted

  Daily Grind would be great. Too bad a coffee shop in a town about 30 miles east has got that one. Morning grind is likely copyrighted. Its very difficult to find a good name that stands out. Coffee shops are everywhere and good names are taken.
• -Society-

  

  Java Junkies
  
  Already taken here in Virginia, but nothing came up in Ohio.
• majorspark

  

  LJ;936219 wrote:Is this in Lancaster?

  Millersburg
• majorspark

  

  -Society-;936232 wrote:Java Junkies
  
  Already taken here in Virginia, but nothing came up in Ohio.

  Not bad but the previous owner had the name Java Jo west. Her main shop is just about 10 miles east. So my wife is reluctant to use any name with "Java" or "Jo".
• majorspark

  

  GroundHogs was another one that stayed on the list for awhile.
• password

  

  Chewies
  
  The name will not make your business in the long run. You will survive with a good product and great service, as word of mouth is what makes or breaks a business when there is competition. It sounds like you would be getting a lot of local workers from the area so you may want to choose a name that is different so you stand out from the other shops and concentrate on the product and service.
• Dthane

  Joe to Go
• Timber

  Juan "Miller" Valdez's Coffee Connection
  "The place for Fresh Amish Ground Coffee beans"
  
  
  In all seriousness... Since coffee shops are a dime a dozen, What will differentiate you from other coffee shops? P.S. I do not drink coffee, I really dislike the taste. But, do not forget about us Soda/pop drinkers in the morning also. Will you have donuts, pastries, breakfast sandwiches, etc?
• I Wear Pants

  I'm not particularly fond of any of those names. I mean, they are the names everyone thinks up when they think of names for a coffee shop.
• majorspark

  

  Timber;936263 wrote:Juan "Miller" Valdez's Coffee Connection
  "The place for Fresh Amish Ground Coffee beans"

  LOL! My wife is not from amish country though her last name is Miller. She does not want to play off the Amish thing. She has to dodge too many Amish bikers at 5:00 in the morning.
  

  Timber;936263 wrote:In all seriousness... Since coffee shops are a dime a dozen, What will differentiate you from other coffee shops? P.S. I do not drink coffee, I really dislike the taste. But, do not forget about us Soda/pop drinkers in the morning also. Will you have donuts, pastries, breakfast sandwiches, etc?

  Yes she is going to offer donuts, pastries, and breakfast sandwiches. She is also looking at offering some lunch sandwiches as well. Something the currently the shop does not offer. The other coffee shop in town is on the edge of town and does not have a drive thru. It is a "non profit" (don't get me started on this) shop so their prices will be lower but the quality less. She will offer smoothies and is looking into other drinks but they will have to be bottled. You may not be a coffee drinker but she makes some drinks that don't taste much like coffee.
• majorspark

  

  I Wear Pants;936264 wrote:I'm not particularly fond of any of those names. I mean, they are the names everyone thinks up when they think of names for a coffee shop.

  Personally I'm not sold on any of them either. These responses will be good for her to see. She has to come up with a name soon so she can get an LLC set up in order to get the legal stuff going.
• I Wear Pants

  So the premise here is no profits, and lower quality? That seems dumb.
• I Wear Pants

  majorspark;936266 wrote:Personally I'm not sold on any of them either. These responses will be good for her to see. She has to come up with a name soon so she can get an LLC set up in order to get the legal stuff going.

  Far be it from me to tell someone what to do. My advice would differ depending on the type of shop and future she envisions for the shop. I mean, if her goal is for it to be a financial success then I'd say "how many successful coffee shops do you know that have names which are wordplay involving coffee? (Starbucks, Caribou, Tim Horton's, Seattle's Best, etc).
• hoops23

  

  Name it 'Tim Horton hears a Caribou while looking at Seattle's best Stars'
• majorspark

  

  I Wear Pants;936267 wrote:So the premise here is no profits, and lower quality? That seems dumb.

  No that is the competition in town, "Jitters". They are a non profit that donates a portion of their proceeds to Christian based charities. They receive donations for some of their operating expenses. Of course tax breaks. And have tried to get local advertisers to give them time or discounts because they are not profit. The previous owner has a contractual agreement with a local supplier that distributes a higher quality coffee. She has a contract that no one can sell that coffee in the county without her permission. She would allow my wife to purchase this coffee. Jitters has tried to purchase it but was told no. Though a non profit they appear to be competitive in getting business in the area. Running expensive full page adds in the newspapers and radio ads. A non profit should not use the tax advantages it gets and then compete in the free market against those that don't get the same. Not exactly fair IMO.
• majorspark

  

  She was looking at first for a name that played off of a character in literature or history that loved coffee. A little story behind the name. Starbuck's has that as Starbuck was a character in Moby Dick that loved coffee. She was off on this thing about Johanne Sabastian Bach writing some coffee contata or whatever the hell you call those things. I am not a classical music fan.
• believer

  

  How about:
  
  Cool Beans
  The Pump Station
  Kona Korner
  Yoder Java
  
  Tell your wife good luck.
  
  Maybe the next time I'm visiting family in Coshocton and I do my obligatory "Amish country drive-trough" I'll stop in and buy a cup.
• brutus161

  

  Make it a Jewish coffee shop, and call it "He Brews"
• believer

  

  brutus161;936293 wrote:Make it a Jewish coffee shop, and call it "He Brews"

  LOL Naw this is Amish and Mennonite country. It's be more like "HershBrew".
• Belly35

  

  C-Cup (Women owne business or "C" stands for coffee)
  Good Morning
  
  Millersburge Mud
  Square Cup
  Miller Brew
• HitsRus

  

  What you are really trying for here is a niche....so try doubling your market by offering express breakfast. Sell some specialized foods..such as offering a wide variety of Bagels.
  
  Burg's Bagels and Beans
  
  or since you are primarily a drive thru..keep it simple and catchy
  
  "Express-o!"
• OneBuckeye

  

  I am a fan of (insert name here)'s coffee shop. As long as you have a short one or two syllable name or How about Charlie's Coffee shop? Millersberg was founded by Charles Miller. Maybe the daily drip, that is all I got.
  
  http://www.historicdowntownmillersburg.com/history.html