Carly’s Story

Hello, my name is Carly and I am a coffee addict. This is my story.

History

I have been drinking coffee for almost 20 years now and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago where the good coffee options were limited to Starbucks and Caribou (which I honestly miss). But as most people do, I started with the soft stuff like frappes and worked my way up to the hard stuff. When I moved to Nashville for university, I was amazed at the coffee shop options and made it my mission to visit all of them at least once. I had a running list on my phone of the coffee shops, what I ordered and what I rated them in multiple categories (atmosphere, seating, comfortability, quality of drink). I would bring my friends with me to help rate them or to join me for a good study session. Coffee shops became such a central part of my life, and I loved spending time in them.

That’s where the coffee shop dream started. Seeing all the different varieties inspired me, and the idea that I wanted to open my own started forming.

However, I was studying to be a teacher and that was my priority. I had the amazing opportunity to student teach in Bogotá Colombia for a little over 2 months. It goes without saying that the coffee in Bogotá was next level. It was my time there that moved me to the level of drinking black coffee because it just didn’t need anything. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to visit any coffee plantations but I very much enjoyed the coffee.

Ireland

Fast forward about five years, I found myself moving to Dublin for a masters degree. I had dreams of finding cute and comfortable coffee shops in Dublin to study in, similar to my undergraduate years, but was met with the rude reality of cafes in Dublin; they are tiny. Not only are they very small, but the chairs are all hard wood and limited, if there even are chairs. I wanted a place where I could comfortably sit for a while with a book or my laptop to sip on a coffee and study, but I couldn’t find any.

On top of this, I realised that the drink options are vastly different. Everything here is espresso based. When I moved here 6 years ago, you couldn’t find a drip brew or batch brew anywhere. And you certainly couldn't find iced coffee anywhere (see other blog post for nerdy coffee explanations). I also found that some cafes here take their coffee very seriously and can make the average person who doesn’t know much about coffee feel bad about themselves. I’ve walked into many cafes here and felt insecure about my lack of coffee bean knowledge, not fitting in with the vibe, or just generally felt judged by the baristas.

This disappointment did not stop me from visiting many cafes around town trying to find something that worked, but I still couldn't find exactly what I wanted. Nevertheless, I continued on with my new career for a few years, working my way up the corporate ladder as I thought I should, but never gave up the idea that someday I wanted to open my own shop. So much so that on one of the very first dates I went on with my now husband (Shea), I mentioned it to him. I wanted him to know as early as possible that this was a dream of mine that one day I would make a reality. I just had no idea how soon it would actually happen.

Timing

Which brings me to the end of 2025. We were engaged and working away in our civil service jobs. I had just been promoted to a department I thought I would love but ended up negatively impacting my mental health. At the same time, my last grandparent was rapidly declining back home. I knew that when I had visited him in the summer it would likely be the last time I would see him, but it is still really hard being so far away from your entire family when something like that is happening. He ended up passing away at the end of November 2025 and combined the grief of that with the intense mental toll of my job, I was not doing well.

A few weeks later, Shea and I went to a local café that had been on my list. In theory, it ticked many boxes on my list of a good café; it has a nice comfortable seating area and is decorated nicely. The coffee was decent, but the food I ordered was genuinely horrible. I am a people pleaser by nature and have only thrice in my life sent food back to the kitchen because I couldn’t eat it, and this was one of those times. I ended up eating my side soup for lunch and even that was hard to swallow. As we sat there painfully making our way through lunch, we discussed for the hundredth time the dream coffee shop. Shea made a comment that the only way for me to have exactly what I want here is to build it.

That very same week, I learned that my grandfather was far wealthier than I ever anticipated and I would be inheriting a decent amount. Not enough to buy in Dublin (nothing is), but enough of a runway to work with. Shea had just come back from a bout of burnout from his job, but was on a fast-track right back as none of the circumstances of the job changed after he returned. I was still deep in my bout of depression from everything, so the number we were presented with looked like freedom. I had thought I wanted to stay in the civil service forever, but as soon as I realised I didn’t have to, the idea seemed so daunting to me.

We talked and thought about everything for a week, crunched numbers and made budgets, and decided that the timing was right. We were going to quit our jobs, get married, and open a coffee shop.

Dreams become reality

As I mentioned earlier, and as we are all aware, buying in Dublin is impossible unless you are actually a millionaire. While I was gifted a large sum, it wasn’t that much. After taking classes and talking to many people, I slowly came to the realisation that my dream coffee shop is still a bit further in the distance than I originally thought. I need to be smart with the capital and work my way up.

Something everyone mentioned was a coffee truck or trailer. A few GAA clubs have them, the Monkstown Dart station has one that is very successful, and they are popping up everywhere. They are so much cheaper and easier to get started and will be hugely beneficial in the long run.

Which brings us to now. We have acquired a coffee trailer and are finalising a location for it to remain. The reason I spent so much time talking about my story and the ultimate dream is because it will eventually come true. We are going to use the trailer to build revenue and a customer base. We will get the name out there, fine tune the menu, and save up until we can start working on the brick-and-mortar shop. I wanted the whole story of how this came to be because it is just one stop in a larger story that is still unfolding. We are so excited for this part of the adventure and look forward to seeing all the new faces at our coffee trailer. My husband and I have put so much time and passion into making this dream come true and we can’t wait to share it with the world.