Northern Kentucky couple Casey and Carrie Williams are opening their second NKY Biggby Coffee location at 1811 Monmouth St., Newport, in the old White Castle building that has been sitting empty since 2018.
Their first time taking on the experience of owning a franchise was in February 2021, when they opened their drive-through Biggby Coffee location along Turkey Foot Road in Erlanger.
They said they have been adamant about staying in Northern Kentucky, and being on the front end of revitalizing a community with their Newport location was attractive to them.
The Monmouth Street location’s opening day is March 21 and will be much larger than the one in Erlanger, with a drive-through, and walk-up mobile order window.
The couple started fantasizing about quitting their jobs and owning a Biggby franchise in 2019.
Carrie Williams had been working as a teacher for 14 years, and Casey had a job in marketing. In 2019 Casey said he joined Leadership Northern Kentucky and was inspired by his classmate, Shanna Novosel, the Area Representative for Biggby Coffee. Novosel was the first Biggby Coffee franchise owner in Northern Kentucky.
Carrie was on the same page. She was falling out of a passion for teaching and said she would kid around with a colleague about quitting their jobs and opening a coffee shop.
“‘ Let’s just quit teaching; let’s open a Starbucks’—at this point, I had no idea about Biggby,” Carrie said. “I just wanted someone to make me coffee, coffee, make teachers happy.”
Shortly after, she said a Biggby Coffee coupon ended up in their mailbox, and they decided to go check it out. On the way out, Carrie said she took some franchising information, only thinking seriously about it once her husband mentioned the area representative was in his Leadership Northern Kentucky class.
Even after speaking with Novosel, the couple was still determining if this was the right move for them.
“I still was like, ‘I just don’t know. I mean, this is crazy to think about,'” Carrie said. “And he was like, ‘you need to go do what makes you happy.'”
They decided to go all in and open their own store, adding that it happened to be the perfect timing.
Opening in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, they said they still had a few hiccups; however, the shop was drive-through only. Casey said the franchise grew during COVID-19 because walk-in coffee shops were closing.
“It didn’t just become a place to go to while other coffee shops were closed,” Casey said. “We captured those customers and made them aware of it.”
They said one thing they wanted to inform people of with Biggby Coffee is that everything is handcrafted and made to order. Casey said it is a franchise, but every individual shop is family owned.
During the months of deciding if they should open their shop, the couple started frequenting one of Novosel’s stores to support the business.
Casey said his wife told him to tell Novosel that her chai lattes were “life-changing.”
“So, I told her that, and she’s like, ‘funny you chose those words life-changing,” Casey said.
After owning their first location for two years and embarking on their second one, Carrie said, “This terrifying decision turned out to be life-changing. I guess if you want to keep the cliché, yeah.”
