Popular coffee house will move this spring

COEUR d'ALENE - An iconic downtown business isn't going away.

It's just going east four blocks.

Java on Sherman will still be Java on Sherman, but this spring, owners Lindsay and David Patterson are taking the coffee house and restaurant from 324 to 819 Sherman Ave., site of the former Jonesy's restaurant. An exact opening date hasn't yet been determined.

"There's a term called 'critical mass' in the restaurant industry," David Patterson told The Press. "It's where you reach a point where you can't physically move people faster or do the process any better. We've reached that point."

"It's a great problem to have," added his wife, Lindsay. "We're basically taking our business and putting it in a bigger and better location where we're going to be able to do exactly what we do, but taking it up a notch on all levels.

"We produce so much product out of such a small kitchen, and now we'll have a gigantic kitchen. We are not losing the coffee-house feel by any stretch of the imagination."

Java on Sherman has been called North Idaho's first coffee house, having opened in 1994.

While holding true to their business model and that "coffee-house feel," in many ways the Pattersons see change as good, too.

The new site is 4,182 square feet, more than double the current Java's 1,700 square feet. The full-fledged kitchen, 60 parking spaces and a substantial increase in employees are all part of the new picture. Java now employs 16 full- and part-time; David estimates that number will swell to 25 or more employees when the new restaurant opens.

"We've got a great opportunity too because with the expansion on East Sherman, I know there's a lot of growth that's going to happen in that area," David said.

"We'd love to be an anchor for that in the future," said Lindsay.

And there's another advantage of the new location that can't be overstated.

"There's more than one bathroom," Lindsay said with a laugh.

The Pattersons ackowledged that some of the walk-in traffic Java on Sherman now enjoys might take a hit, but David said Java and its famous "bowl of soul" is a commuter destination, too.

"Our business model works there," he said of the new location.

David and Lindsay met at Starbucks, where both worked in the 1990s. The couple moved to Hayden in 2005 and purchased Java in 2007.

In May, Java on Sherman will celebrate its 20th anniversary.