ORANGE PARK – Kari and David Marshall’s childhood and subsequent marriage seem to be a series of almost scary coincidences.

Their fathers were both in the U.S. Navy, stationed at the same base in the Philippines while Kari and David went to elementary school. They never knew how close they were until an old home video revealed they used to play together on base, challenging the belief they’d met at Clay High in the 90s.

Now, the hospital where they delivered two of their three children is the home of their next business venture.

After months of planning, feedback and what seemed like secret construction behind nondescript sheets of drywall, these two high school sweethearts opened the Quickfire Café inside Orange Park Medical Center.

“A lot of the employees didn’t know what was going on here because there was drywall hung up, we didn’t have a coming soon sign,” Kari Marshall said. “Then suddenly we took the walls down and there was a café and everyone was really excited about it.”

The café offers wraps, paninis and other café classics, designed to give anyone in the building new options for any appetite on any budget.

The two decided to stay local with their beverage options and source their coffee beans from Brass Tacks Coffee Company, an artisan coffee roasting company headquartered in Green Cove Springs. Quickfire Café has specials on its beverage options and can handle custom orders.

Staff can pay with their hospital badges. The hospital reimburses the café at the end of every pay period.

Previously the only option for hospital lunch was cafeteria food, which Kari said doesn’t offer the same options. It was for that reason, Kari said, the hospital looked into opening a café.

OPMC reviewed a corporate climate survey and found their employees wanted other options at lunchtime besides the cafeteria. The hospital’s leadership decided to act on it and began the search for a partner who could run an in-house café.

Previously, Kari and David flipped houses, but wanted to own a local business to have another source of income. Kari found out that OPMC was looking for a café through an online advertisement and began formulating a plan.

Soon after opening however, the café proved to be a 116-hour a week job for them. It took two weeks for Kari and David to manage the customer rushes and work out any remaining kinks.

“I actually worked there with them for about three days on their bar when they first opened to make sure everything went smoothly,” said Steven Kelley, operating partner of Brass Tacks Coffee Company, and a Green Cove Springs City Council member. “It’s definitely fantastic. We got them setup with all their equipment. They bought through us and we service it and maintain it that way we can make sure it’s standing.”

Kelley worked on the front end, before the café even opened, to help make their entry into the hospital successful on the artisan coffee front. He created the café’s training manuals and trained the baristas to make coffee similar to what guests taste at Kelley’s Green Cove Springs coffee shop, Spring Park Coffee.

All the work seems to have paid off. The medical staff seem to enjoy it based on the steady procession of scrubs in the café’s line.

“I think it’s been a fabulous partnership and much needed, not to take away from our cafeteria operations, but really just to add another layer of visibility,” said Kathy Hester, chief nursing officer at OPMC. “The only negative is they want it open 24/7.”

Quickfire Café opens at 7 a.m. and closes at 9 p.m. currently, but they’re going to experiment with later hours to catch different shifts.

Kari and David have trimmed their hours to 40 hours a week and undoubtedly can now enjoy more free time at home with their kids.

“I’m proud to be part of it, because you can see how the employees think,” Kari said. “When they did come here and saw it, they were excited.