A new coffee shop opened in the downtown core this week as Skôka Coffee House, located in the back of Colborne Convenience at 43 Colborne St. W., began serving customers on Monday.
When Waterloo native Taran Ranu and her husband and Orillia native Puneet Vashisht purchased the unit over a year ago, they listened to the community for ideas on what would best suit the needs of the surrounding area.
“Everybody told us they want a convenience store here because the hospital really needed it and the (university) students really wanted it, so we started off as that,” Ranu explained.
However, after getting the convenience store up and running, Ranu realized she had an opportunity to pursue one of her dreams
“I’ve always wanted a coffee shop and I realized that I have an opportunity now to do it, so we decided to keep the convenience store, put the coffee shop in here, and see how the community responds,” Ranu said.
The Skôka name is a wordplay on Muskoka, referencing the shop's mountain grounded coffee. The menu features a specialty house brew from Ethiopia which is a blend of dark roast with full flavour.
Skôka, she said, is also winning customers over with their specialty drink menu that consists of options such as the Pumpkin Spice Latte.
While there are several other coffee shops in town, Ranu didn’t hesitate to open Skôka. She says the other local coffee shops aren't competition, but more like a community.
“I feel like the other coffee shops are very supportive and we kind of help each other out. We all have something different to offer,” she said.
“We are targeting mostly the people at the hospital and the students at the (downtown campus of Lakehead) university. We do specialty discounts for those people," she explained.
To set Skôka apart from the competition Ranu has added different unique characteristics to the business, including a complimentary small cookie that comes with each warm drink order. Skôka also offers a fully customizable drink menu.
Ranu said she wasn’t intimidated by the COVID-19 pandemic when it came to opening the new component of the business.
“Like everyone says, if you want to do something, do it now, don’t wait till tomorrow. So even though we are operating during COVID and in a difficult market we wanted to get it going and then go from there,” she said.
Ranu said she is already starting to see regular, returning customers.
“The feedback has been phenomenal - a lot bigger of a response than I expected,” she said.
“People love the concept and the little cookie ... we’ve also had a good response on how the drinks are tasting.”
