Grandma Fox, a child of the Great Depression, hated waste and taught Patricia Acheson the value of reusing and repurposing everyday items. Her inspiration not only gave Acheson the name for her coffee shop, The Fox Den, it also gave her a business model.
Acheson didn’t start out with a love of coffee or even an ardent eco-consciousness. She started in the San Francisco Bay Area knowing she wasn’t cut out for her tech job and wanted out. After all, she was a Fox. She wanted to own her own business just as her mother and three aunts had.
So, Acheson took a job at a high-end bar to see what opportunities might present themselves. During her shifts, she would talk to the coffee guy when he arrived with deliveries. They’d talk, sometimes for hours, about the coffee business, from his childhood on coffee farms to tips for roasting coffee beans.
Photos by Jordan Secher.
It was then that Acheson’s love of coffee took root and sprouted. She began roasting her own coffee as a hobby and, two years later, she opened a small grab-and-go coffee spot in the Bay Area.
Acheson began to notice a trend: About 10 percent of her monthly budget was going toward single-use items. People would walk away with a paper cup, several napkins and packets of sugar. All of it, used or not, ended up in the trash. She could hear Grandma Fox in her ear.
“It drove me nuts,” she says. “I started researching more. I realized even compostable items, if they are going into the landfill, can’t decompose.”
She knew she had to make a change, if for no other reason but to quiet the voice of Grandma Fox.
The no-waste concept
The Fox Den: No Waste Cafe & Roastery opened in Fort Collins in March 2022. The name reflects how the business operates as a no-waste concept, which was embraced by customers young and old despite Acheson wondering how the more traditional coffee drinkers would take it.
“We have a good amount of the older population who come in,” she says. “They immediately loved it and were willing to [give it a] try.”
There are no single-use items in the cafe. Glass jars are offered for free (used and washed) or for sale (new) for customers to take their coffee or beans to go. Napkins are cloth, and plates and mugs are mismatched and reused. Even food waste is deposited into a food cycler to break down and become compost for the garden.
People in the community loved seeing items reused so much that they donated most of the furniture in the coffee shop, along with mugs, glasses, silverware, plates and other essentials. It was the ultimate warm welcome.
From laundry to coffee
Acheson opened the Fort Collins cafe after her husband, Daniel, an oral surgeon, received a job offer in Fort Collins. They made the move and immediately fell in love with the area.
“I knew my concept would work here,” Acheson says.
While searching for a space, she chanced upon an old laundromat that was sitting empty on Laporte Avenue. “It was an absolute dump,” she says. “I thought to myself, ‘I think I can work with this.’”
Stodgy Brewing Co. had opened just down the street, and Acheson could see the potential of the area. She rented the property, rolled up her sleeves and took three months to clear out the old machinery and fix up the space. It was an arduous but rewarding process that transformed the vacant area into a thriving cafe unlike any other in Northern Colorado.
Acheson roasts all her own coffee at The Fox Den. She mainly sources her coffee beans from women- and family-owned farms and buys fair trade, mostly organic beans from farms dedicated to preserving the rainforest. She roasts four different blends, along with a decaf and single origin brew.
The cafe also serves beer and wine, and Acheson regularly holds events, such as open mic nights, to give patrons a reason to stick around into the evening hours. A new, expanded patio offers up even more space, and neighbors are embracing the west Fort Collins spot, which Acheson says is proof that “clearly people in this neighborhood want somewhere to go that isn’t downtown.”
Acheson hopes to build more no-waste coffee shops, but first she wants to focus on streamlining her processes. Her dedication to food composting is just one of her efforts to implement the no-waste business model. Her jar program is another. She even plans to expand her small bulk station—which has body products and detergent, among other things—into a “mini market.”
Fellow coffee shop owners have also taken notice, expressing interest in a universal mug program that would be accepted at several Fort Collins coffee shops, including The Fox Den.
Until she’s ready to expand, Acheson is happy to continue building on the Fox women’s influence in her own life: “The women in my life have been amazing … they can do it all. I wanted to dedicate this first coffee shop to them.”
Coffee Brewing 101
When a customer says they no longer drink coffee because the acidity bothers their stomach, Acheson always takes a pause.
The complaint, though valid for many, can also be the result of a poorly made cup of joe.
Her advice for brewing the best (and therefore less acidic) cup of coffee starts with the beans. “Always buy whole beans and grind them as you go,” she says. “They will taste better and be less acidic.”
Pay attention to how you grind the beans, too. Make sure to grind them for your specific type of coffee maker. The wrong grind—say, too fine for a drip machine—will make your coffee more acidic.
As for the best way to make coffee? Pour over, of course, says Acheson. However, home mini percolators do a good job, too. The reason the coffee tastes better and is less acidic is that the water goes through the beans more slowly, drawing out the flavors, then the process repeats. A regular coffee maker generally sends water through the beans one time at a fast clip, which doesn’t pull out the nuances of the beans.
Finally, choose good beans, Acheson says. Every coffee shop roasts and sources their beans differently. She recommends dailycoffeenews.com for those who want to learn more about coffee. She also offers classes on roasting and brewing coffee, along with classes on composting and other zero-waste topics. Visit nowastecoffeeshop.com to see her current schedule.
