In Our Twenties Era

Take yourself back. It’s 2005 and you think those caramel cappuccinos from gas station machines are the height of cool. Then a little house on sleepy Jefferson Street in Morton opens up and you sip your first real specialty latte. Mind blown.

Ever since her college days in Colorado, Katie Vandenberg dreamed of opening a coffee shop like those quaint shops she’d spent so much time in. When the property at 205 West Jefferson Street came for sale, she took a leap and purchased it. Friends and family helped flip this old house, built in 1860 by Eli Messenger, into Morton’s first ever coffee shop.

For the first year, she worked her mortgage lender day job alongside running Eli’s. But things took off quickly, and she came to Eli’s full time. With her undivided attention, the bakery and deli side grew, and along with it, customers’ love for this quaint, full-service cafe! With its burnt orange feather-painted walls, squashy armchairs, outdoor tables under wide-limbed trees, and embracingly cozy layout, that original shop invited you in like you were just coming over to a friend’s house for a casual hang.

Eli’s became the community gathering spot in Morton. Bohemians flowed freely from Day One, alongside Grounds For Change’s Fair Trade, organic coffee – another first for Morton. The bakery lineup changed daily, as Katie’s passion and creativity manifested itself in all manner of scones, biscotti, muffins, cookies, and more.

It’s easy to lose sight of the things that make a business beloved as it grows. From a single location and a small, tight-knit team, then a second shop and dozens of employees, and ultimately a transition in ownership, Eli’s has tried to stay true to its origins.

What started as a part-time job through college on her way to becoming a history teacher turned into a passion for Rachel. A part of the Eli’s Family since 2010, she’d seen Eli’s through seasons of growth as first a barista, then a baker, and manager of both the Morton and Tremont shops. When her and her partner, Weston, approached Katie about investing, it felt like a natural next step for everyone! Rachel and Weston took ownership of Eli’s in April of 2015.

From the earliest conversations about transitioning leadership, Katie and Rachel wanted to ensure the mission and heart of Eli’s would stay true. Weston and Rachel took the step to rebrand the company with a new logo and three pillars to ensure that mission would live on. A new logo with an approachable, lower case font, a circular postal stamp style to pay homage to our post office heritage, and a coffee cup callback to our original logo became our new brand. Putting language to what we already knew to be true at Eli’s, Connection, Community, and Heritage became our guiding principles.

This one could just as easily be called Eli’s Covid Era. But just as during that time, we are choosing to focus on the good in a tough situation! In the months leading up to the pandemic, our leadership team had been researching and discussing how to best add a mobile ordering system to our shops. But with bustling shops and teams doing all they could to keep up with the demands of day-to-day customer service, we just weren’t sure how to logistically make it happen.

A forced slowdown in the form of a global pandemic was the opportunity we needed. It was scary to make an investment in technology during a period of uncertainty like this, but we leaned in. The Eli’s Rewards mobile app launched just seven weeks after the first shelter in place orders went into effect.

And you have embraced the app with a force we couldn’t have anticipated! With over 17,000 users and around a third of all orders coming in through this platform, we’re so excited by the way both you and our teams have welcomed this. You can of course place a mobile order through your app, but it’s also a great place to check out what coffees are brewing each day, send credit to a friend for a pick-me-up latte, and redeem your points for free drinks and treats.

So here we are, in our twenties era! If twenty years has taught us anything, it’s that we can’t predict the future. You’ve supported Eli’s through financial crises, a global pandemic, the opening and closing of shops, and so many more highs and lows. Through it all, y o u have been our guiding lights. Answering the question, “how can we better serve our people?” has never led us away from our core pillars.

For the next twenty years, I hope Eli’s continues to be an incredible workplace, valuing the contributions of everyone on our team. I hope that every customer feels how genuinely glad we are they walked through our doors. I hope each shop can hold space for meaningful conversations and connections.

But most of all, our hope is that Eli’s gets to be around for twenty more years, and twenty more after that! It might have different branding, different staff or owners, new locations, but at it’s core, we want Eli’s to live on. After all, e v e r y o n e, even us small-towners, deserve great coffee.