Balanced on her dad’s shoulders, the little girl gripped her stuffed animal and giggled as she was entertained by his antics. Nick Alliston opened the sliding window, placed their drinks on the counter, and asked them to double-check that the hot chocolate was not too hot. No more than three years old, the little girl with pale, blond curly hair held the small cup with both hands and took a sip.
“It’s so good!” she said as she shuffled off in pink rain boots over to her booster seat, accompanied by her dad.
Best friends and former college roommates Nick Alliston and Reid Finnegan launched Sunroof Coffee in the fall after graduating from Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia. Pooling their crowdfunded finances, savings, graduation presents and a little credit card debt, the boys embarked on their first business endeavor and opened their walk-up window coffee shop on Aug. 5, 2023, in the Mill District in Athens.
“Opening day was unbelievable. We had a line from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. nonstop. We were so unprepared for that,” said Alliston.
Their plans looked different on paper than what they experienced that day in August. Eighteen months later, Alliston, Finnegan and their handful of staff continue to serve coffee, tea and sweet treats through their window.
Sunroof Coffee’s story is a testimony of what it can look like to use experience from university, apply it practically and serve the community that helped along the way. Every day, regular customers and new faces filter through their patio and have developed enough support for both Alliston and Finnegan to quit their supplemental jobs and work at the coffee shop full-time. Their unique business model has become a niche addition to the residential and professional blend in the Mill District.
“It’s funny because when we opened, I think we viewed the window as such a con, or such a short-term like, ‘This is all we can do,’ and I think we’ve realized over time that it’s kind of a novel, fun thing for people as well,” Alliston, a co-owner, shared. “There are pros that, honestly, I sometimes forget about. [To not be] hiding behind it like, ‘Well, we’re just a walk-up window for now. . .’ [and] instead being like, ‘Yeah, no, this is all we are’ is fun. We’re focused on serving good coffee.”
Alliston and Finnegan’s mission for Sunroof was to offer specialty coffee in an approachable way. With prices comparable to big-chain coffee brands and recognizable menu items, Sunroof Coffee is a place for coffee enthusiasts and the average coffee drinker. The sourcing of coffee beans, drink recipes and high-quality barista training are all attributes of artisanal coffee.
Sitting behind the window, Alliston reminisced on how Sunroof came to be. Not having received any job offers from the corporate world during their senior year of university, Alliston quietly spent weeks planning the logistics of what was needed to start a business and crunching numbers to see if they could turn a hobby into something profitable. As they were hanging out one day in the late fall of their senior year, Alliston proposed the idea to Finnegan.
“Okay, I have something crazy to say,” Alliston started.
“What?” Finnegan replied.
I think we should start the coffee shop,” Alliston said.
“Yeah, I’m in,” Finnegan said.
“Really?” Alliston had spent weeks thinking about this and was surprised that Finnegan agreed immediately.
“No, yeah, I’m down,” Finnegan clarified.
Freshly equipped with a combined education in finance, economics and entrepreneurship from the Terry College of Business, the boys felt that they had enough training to start a small business, but they learned the most through trial and error. Some aspects they found to be self-explanatory, like spreadsheets, while some mishaps could have been avoided through more practical experience.
“It was a very different shift, popping right out of college and starting your own business and having no guidebook for it,” Finnegan said. “As you go along, you’re like, ‘Oh wait, I kind of know how to do this.’ I think Terry helped develop those skills; a lot of it you kind of learn as you go.”
Alliston said he has learned a lot through what Finnegan shared with him from his experience in the entrepreneurship program, but wishes that Terry had impacted him a little more. Although he learned principles that have helped him run Sunroof, Alliston said that the entrepreneurship program was “probably the most helpful thing either of us did.”
Understanding the risk in mixing friendship and business, Finnegan explained their compatibility as business partners.
“People will warn you that it’s not a good idea and all that kind of stuff, but it’s awesome when it works. I trust him with everything here, and he trusts me with everything here. There’s a lot of ease,” Finnegan shared.
Alliston emphasized with a similar sentiment.
“I gave him a lot of that creative freedom versus: I write a lot of the recipes, I source some of the equipment, I run payroll, I do some of the inventory,” Alliston said. “We will comment and check in on each other, but we don’t necessarily collaborate, which I think is sometimes easier; [there’s] less stepping on each other’s toes. We kind of just trust each other.”
After ordering and receiving their drink through the window, customers often walk around the building to the seating available on the patio. Inside the small, dark gray building, there is enough space for the essentials of running a coffee shop: an espresso machine, syrups, a couple of industrial sinks, floor-to-ceiling racks for storage, a chest freezer and a desk to operate the point of sale system. The boys agreed to operate out of this humble layout to prioritize their brand’s mission over scale or extravagance.
“It has its limitations, but it wouldn’t have really been possible for us to start a different way,” Alliston shared. “It’s been great for us to build a brand in an area like this, and in the future, we can open up something more traditional … and we already have a footing in town.”
As Alliston prepared a coffee order, two voices could be heard through the open window, one explaining a recent repair they had done for Sunroof. It happened to be Tom Bagby, a regular customer and dear friend of Alliston.
“I’m a farmer; I know a little bit about everything, so I’ve just always offered to help,” Bagby said.
Bagby explained the most recent repair that was done while the boys were out of town.
“That water thing in there was pouring water out the other day, and [Nick] texted me a video of it like, ‘Can you help?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll come by, happily!’”
Having built their connection by working together at a chocolate shop, Bagby was the first person Alliston entrusted the Sunroof Coffee dream with- even before Finnegan. During every shift they worked together, Bagby would investigate the status of the business more.
“I saw everything about this place being born, and I was so happy about it,” Bagby said. “Then, it came into existence. Obviously, love Nick, support Reid, support them and everything like that, but then, it’s good coffee!”
Bagby drives about 15 minutes at least once a week to support Sunroof- it’s the only coffee shop they visit now. They glanced at the large menu posted on the wall next to the window. Gesturing with the limited-edition Scout’s Honor latte in their hand, Bagby proceeded to think out loud about the compatibility of the owners and their achievements.
“It’s crazy that Reid did all this, and he isn’t a graphic designer at all, and it’s like, perfect,” Bagby shared. “It’s that type of thing where so many people try. . . but put both of them together, and it just works. It’s great.”
Around the corner from Sunroof Coffee, Adrian Prelipceanu is the owner of Active Climbing, an indoor rock climbing gym. Although he admitted to not drinking much coffee, he accompanies his wife on morning walks; they occasionally stop by Sunroof for her coffee and a friendly chat with Alliston and Finnegan.
As the owner of Active Climbing for almost 15 years, Prelipceanu was present for the preliminary sketches of the Mill District and the birth of Sunroof Coffee.
“Having them and then the other shops behind us, like the Buvez, the Hidden Gem, all these great places, just makes this a little hub. People did not know about this area that much, but now they are coming here, and that’s great,” Prelipceanu said. “It’s nice because [the Mill District] is not too big, not too small, it’s just enough for what it is.”
Back inside Sunroof, pinned to the dry-erase calendar near the door for staff entry, there is a Polaroid picture of two smiling children and a handmade card. As Alliston prepared a drink, he glanced over at the gifts and shared a story about a regular customer who visits and brings her toddlers to Sunroof almost every day. She invests in Alliston and Finnegan by catching up and asking lots of questions.
“Since I get to work here so much, there’s so many people that I know only from this window that it’s almost weird for me to remember that we don’t know each other outside of Sunroof because of how much they know about me and how much I know about them,” Alliston said. “We are active parts of each other’s lives.”
Joelle Erwin is a student in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.
Show Comments (0)