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Meet Barb and Paul Granados of Lattes On Location in Richardson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Barb and Paul Granados.

Barb and Paul, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I started as a part time barista for Starbucks. I loved the atmosphere and seeing connections being made over a steaming beverage. I am such a connections person, we came up with the idea of bringing that connection atmosphere to other places, parties, offices, the church foyer to create that same phenomenon at events. An ice breaking, aromatic, relationship building situation right there where you need it. We just knew people would love it, on location.

So we set out as caterers, using coffee from a local roaster, with a small menu similar to a local coffee shop, and we dove into what I call the coffee nerd world.

The coffee experts in this country and this community are amazing! Always learning, always pursuing the perfect flavor, and the most beautiful drink. Engaging with the Specialty Coffee Association, I became a certified barista (recently, after 14 years of serving). Barista Camp! It was awesome and I’m still learning.

We did try our hand at a coffee shop called Coffee Dreams in Allen, TX for a couple of years in 2004-2005, but we returned to being exclusively caterers because the overhead was crippling for us at the time. Nothing wasted, we came away with some of the coffee suppliers and experts that we still use today.

The other hand of our business is the opportunity we have to run a coffee shop in our church, Northplace Church, in Sachse. We have served coffee to our church family for as long as we’ve been in business, and it’s such a privilege. Coffee, to us, is connection.

Today we are moving toward duplication, because having a business that was this quality, run from home while my kids were growing up was amazing. I would love to give that opportunity to other entrepreneurs in other cities.

We have the process down to a science, from booking to brewing. We’d love to share it, and save people from having to start from scratch by offering a license, or franchise with processes and products in place.

From espresso to smoothies or Italian Soda and Cold Brew Coffee, we are in the coffee adventure and love to take it on the road with us.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
We’ve been doing this for 14 years, so there were definitely seasons that have gone smoothly and some that did not. Sometimes we didn’t have enough events to cover our personal budgets, so I’d work another side job. But the growth of the company mostly has been in making the systems work best for the client, offering products that were well made and consistently good.

Love quality control in the coffee business. Delicious responsibility.

Sometimes funding equipment was a challenge, but we pretty much have done this with the bootstrap method, with little funding.

Please tell us about Lattes On Location.
Our espresso drinks are incredibly good, but what we specialize in is customer service.

Whoever is having the party, or organizing the seminar or in charge of employee appreciation gets to get the credit for finding and bringing in something different. Notable.

Not just the taste buds, but the olfactory senses get a treat.

When we go into an event, all we need is a table near an outlet and we bring everything else and serve the whole crew.

I think what sets us apart is the experience, ours for 14 years, always growing and listening to our clients and our teachers.

One of the favorite things we hear from our clients is what a good idea this is!

That’s a real pat on the back, especially when you are serving teacher appreciation and those teachers are telling you what a good job you are doing. Hey, who doesn’t want praise from a teacher!

What I believe sets us apart is our real espresso, freshly and locally roasted espresso and family business based passion.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
We paid too much for the coffee shop that we bought, and we didn’t see enough financials to know what it really cost to run the shop. That was an education of the hands on variety, and we sure did learn a lot. Investing in the catering business was the best plan.

I probably should have gotten my trademark sooner.

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