Katonah Small Business Spotlight: Little Joe’s Coffee & Books

KATONAH, NY — Our Small Business Spotlight shines a light on local businesses we may not know that well.

• Business: Little Joe’s Coffee & Books
• Owners: Gretchen & Peter Menzies
• Website: www.littlejoescb.com
• Address: 25 Katonah Ave., Katonah, NY 10536

How did you come up with the name? Little = We’re small, Joe’s = Coffee

Why start a business in this town? Katonah is the best walking town around with the most incredible and involved community members. It is also gorgeous and as quaint as can be.

What business are you in? We are a bookstore and coffee shop.

What’s the most difficult challenge you’ve faced as a business owner? Getting people to realize we are an actual bookstore and transition from buying online to buying in the store.

What’s been your proudest achievement since opening? Increasing the amount of books we put in people’s hands in a year. Both the adult and the kids’ sections have grown tremendously and we feel great being able to provide an intellectual center of sorts for the town — a place people come to talk and read and learn as well as having fun!

How does your business give back to the community? We provide a place where people can gather, we host nonprofit events and fundraisers, we sponsor an educational series at the hospital, we post nonprofit events on our social media and we support numerous local nonprofits with in-kind donations and financial donations. We are also involved with the Community Center and donate food at the end of each day to families in need. Check out our non-profit page on our website for more information.

If you are a small business owner and would like to see your business in the spotlight, go to this link, answer the questions and send it to Patch.

Photo credit: Submitted.