Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Ebaugh
Hi Sarah, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
In 2003 my husband and I were lucky enough to purchase a little cottage on Crooked Lake, in Lake, MI Clare county. We fell in love with the area and enjoyed spending as much time as we could up here with our 4 children. I am a Realtor at Real Estate One and my husband Ken is VP of Mortgages at First State Bank. In 2016 we decided to invest in our little town, First we purchased a cute little building on Mystic Lake Dr. but found out that our neighboring restaurant was attached to our septic and using it at full capacity, We decided to put that place on hold and went around the corner and purchased an old ice cream shop that had been closed for years. We worked on it for a year and in 2017 open what is now Ebaugh’s Whistle Stop Ice Cream and more.. After about 6 years we decided to take another look at our cute little building on Mystic Lake Dr. (we had been doing some work on it and using it as storage over the years) We had the health department come out and reevaluate our septic and found that we actually had 500 gallons more than they originally thought, So we were able to move forward with our plans for a little coffee shop and Kaleidoscope Coffee was born, its not your average dull dark coffee shop, it is full of color and sunshine, it’s warm and welcoming and just brings happiness, every time you walk in the door. One year after opening Kaleidoscope, I was talked into opening a pizza shop with one of my ex Kaleidoscope employees. We opened Twisted Sisters Pizzeria in June of 2023 and in October she decided she didn’t want to do it anymore, so in Dec 2023 bought her out and now I own three restaurants in our little town of only 7 businesses. We have played a key part in helping build our little town. We have attracted more people to invest and discover all our town has to offer. We now have all kinds of community events including Lake Days in the summer, Trunk or Treat for Halloween and our favorite event is our Christmas Tree lighting Celebration, the whole town comes together, to welcome Santa, who arrives in a fire truck, Lighting our newly planted Christmas tree (which was donated by myself and Sandy from our amazing Lake General Store). Santa (my husband and a professional opera singer) leads us in Christmas carols to help bring in the Holiday season. We are so proud of how our little town has grown and how much the community has come together in the last nine years, and we are proud of the part we have played in it 🙂
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It definitely has not been a smooth road. People do not understand how much has to go into each place. My job never stops, it’s 24/7 and the unfortunate thing is, you have to be very careful who you trust with your business, who you hire and who you have to let go. The Whistle Stop is mostly first jobs for kids, so its a lot of training and weeding through people, to get the perfect fit. Its seasonal so we have to re train people every year. Since Covid people haven’t been very nice, so we have to work around that. Its a huge commitment, I’ve learned a lot.
We are in a small town with a lot of summer cottagers, business is great in the summer, super busy, so we can employ a lot of people, but once everyone goes home at season end, business comes to a screeching hault. Keeping the coffee shop open is a struggle in the winter, so we do what we can to try to attract more people. We love our employees and don’t want to lose them if we close have to close down, so its a little hard.
Twisted Sisters holds its own, my guys there are amazing and run that place like fine oiled machine. We struggled when we first opened, we were not ready and had faulty equipment, but after my partner left, we were able to have professionals come in and retrain everyone and we bought a new oven. So now our pizza is top notch. I’m very proud of all of my employees, if not for them, I couldn’t do any of this.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
It was a major risk opening all of my restaurants in such a small town. I have put my heart and soul into this town for 9 years, with little back. If we were in a bigger town, the risk would be way less than it is here.
Contact Info:
- Website: kaleidoscopecoffeemi.com and TwistedsistersPizza.com
