WNY Women:
Click here to read about more WNY womenSally Morin
A SPoT to call home
By Elizabeth Licata
During her years of exile in Long Island, Boston, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and Seattle, Sally Morin used to talk about Buffalo all the time.
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Sally met her husband Mike in Boston, and since their meeting, the two have lived all over the country. When, as Morin puts it, “traveling got old,” the two had something of an epiphany in a Seattle coffee house. After working for other corporations most of their life, they had always wanted to run their own business, and, suddenly, they knew exactly what that business would be. Coffee. And not just coffee but a creation of a place to be, a place that provided relaxation and stimulation, solitude and conviviality—a community, not just a business.
“We then found out that upstate New York is actually one of the top four coffee markets in the country. We loaded a U-Haul, came here, and I think we got something of a jump on the market, although Solid Grounds, Java Temple and Caffé Aroma were already here ... We always wanted Spot to be for all ages—we tried to create distinctly different environments, with the couches in one corner, the booths in another, and the tables up front.”
The story of Spot is the stuff of local legend by this time, and has already been well-documented in local media. Suffice it to say that although no local bank would provide the Morins with an initial loan, Spot Coffee opened in December, 1995 in the former Holzman’s drugstore at Delaware and Chippewa. They now have 180 employees and four stores, including Spots in Ellicottville and Rochester, and another Buffalo store on Elmwood Avenue. Judging too, by the number of other coffee shops who have since joined the scene or opened new outlets—including three Starbucks outlets—upstate New York coffee potential is everything it was cracked up to be and more.
Morin, 40, is no longer just a “proud Buffalonian.” She and her husband are credited with having changed Buffalo, with having created anchors of synergy and positive activity in two crucial areas—the Elmwood business district and the Chippewa strip. Spot has expanded their offerings to reach into the workplace, with a local coffee service called “Office Spot,” and are continually improving their sales and tastings of the coffee beans they roast daily.
Morin’s involvement in the city doesn’t stop with Spot. As the most visible partner (Mike Morin is usually tied to his office, dealing with investors, business strategies, and legal affairs), she has stepped up her involvement with the local community. A board member of Forever Elmwood, Morin is on their economic restructuring committee, and has recently become involved with The Avenue Association, a group of businesses who, like Spot, inhabit the space between Allentown and the downtown core. Morin is currently working with small business guru Susan McCartney to design a series of workshops for would-be entrepreneurs, and plans to institute a survey of local consumers to determine “what’s missing,” from the local shopping scene.
In addition, Spot is now financially comfortable enough to be a benefactor to area non-profits. “We’re not at the point where we give grants,” says Morin. “but our nature is to want to help, and we’re very committed to children and literacy initiatives. We receive requests and we evaluate them.” Spot is a corporate sponsor of the Preservation Coalition’s summer tour series, now going full-blast (see the Spree listings for upcoming tours), introducing both locals and out-of-towners to Western New York architecture and history. A very appropriate sponsorship, given the Morins’ fierce dedication to the well-known Buffalo “sense of place.”
“We came to Buffalo because we wanted to be a part of something, to know people, to be more active in the community,” Morin says, adding “Buffalonians need to change our image, our perception of ourselves.”
She suggests that community groups and the city should focus on street beautification “during the gray months,” and that “preservation of our buildings is critical.
“Destroy no more buildings. Start a positive image campaign and bring people’s awareness up. And we need people in office who make good decisions—not just based on reelection. We should implement Downtown Buffalo 2002, which I think is a good plan.”
Shortly before we went to press, I saw Sally Morin in (where else) Spot, where I was buying a “Jug of Joe” for my neighborhood planting group. She was concerned that she hadn’t talked enough about her ideas for making Western New York better. She had—more than I had space to include—but even if Morin wasn’t as involved as she is, and even if Spot did nothing in terms of corporate giving, Spot is itself a gift that has changed Buffalo for the better forever. Very few people in Buffalo can claim to have given such a gift.
Elizabeth Licata is editor of Buffalo Spree.
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