Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Adler.
Hi Sarah, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Josh Matthews and I (Sarah Adler) are business partners in Lovely All Day, we also have 2 kids and have been living and working together for 12 years. Josh is the Head Coffee Roaster and I run the business. I started as the Head Chef and as we grew have helped expand the business every step of the way. We started with just Josh and I (mom and pop classic) small neighborhood cafe making fresh organic breakfast and lunch and quality coffee. We moved from. the 900 soft location 2 years ago and moved into a 4000 square foot industrial space that we turned into a neighborhood oasis, one side is the cafe, wonderful Rhodi tree patio and the other is a production kitchen, where we bake, cook and roast coffee. We offer house roasted specialty coffee, organic cold pressed juice, all organic brunch and lunch everyday, full barista bar and specialty cocktail menu, gift shop, artist merch t-shirts and hats. Nothing is off limits to us, our main rule is to be obsessed and do it right from start to finish.
Josh, began as a professional skateboarder before helping create the marketing program at Levis — building 9 skate parks around the world while providing job opportunities in each community. Josh is an avid learner, always diving head first into a craft. He took these skill and has become Lovely’s creative marketing, fix it all and make us laugh guy! He is now Lovely’s Head coffee roaster and we are all more happily caffeinated for it!
Sarah started her career in the arts, working as an actor, most famously in The Social Network. She shifted gears to BTS: producing and working in catering kitchens in LA where she grew to love farmers market menus and quick healthy meals. Then family came knocking and Sarah worked with her dad to open eight Will Leather Goods stores in seven cities over just four years, including their first web presence. She is now the one running Lovely, making sure we have colorful, healthy and fun food, drink, creative marketing and gifts always and all employees are feeling good.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
We started by putting our houses and all our money into the business. People liked it, but covid hit one month into being open and we couldn’t close because we had no income and no savings and a 1 year old at home. so we kept going. we made a rule to be open 264 days a year, to change and pivot as needed, to be a space for the community, wether people were sick, there was an ice storm, fire or neighborhood need, we stayed open. We were committed to providing jobs and a nourishing meal for all. So we just figured it out, whether it was the covid safe grocery store we started and then went to grab and go and then cold pressed juice, anything we could sell that people could easily and happily take home.
financing has always been a struggle for the restaurant industry. we have never been funded well. no government assistance, no support to grow the business, we have struggle to find funding and had many stressful weeks and days to find the means to keep it going.
When we moved to the new location we went from 4 employees to 25 employees and the growing pains of running a mom and pop shop to dynamic management to keep Lovely consistent and wholesome presented long hours and constant learning. Now we have an admin team and lots of support from mentors and friends. We are every learning and trying to find more processes to keep all the people happy whether you are an employee or customer or neighbor.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are committed to the community, to bringing an honest experience to our customers. We believe in the whole package, good coffee and good food and a creative space are what we are proud of.
How do you think about luck?
We don’t really talk about luck! I would say luck is everywhere and it starts every choice you make in your journey. each good or bad experience brings us closer to the good stuff.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lovelyallday.com
- Instagram: lovelyalldaycafe
