GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Before he opened Spring Park Coffee in 2011, Steven Kelley knew nothing about making a cup of coffee, especially exotic lattes, espressos, cappuccinos, mochas and macchiatos. 

His wife, Valerie, had just opened Bold Blooms (now called Devine Florist) at 322 Ferris St., and two doors down, Starbucks closed its doors. Steven naively saw it as an opportunity. 

“The landlord told me about it, and I was like, you know, I'm going to figure it out. We can do it,” Steven said. “I wanted to figure out how to be here in Green Cove. This is where I was born, and all of my family is here. At the time, maybe a little ignorantly, I thought I could definitely survive on a fraction of what they were doing. They're a huge corporation with a whole bunch of overhead. We can make it work.” 

It turned out to be much more difficult than he thought, especially since he didn’t know how or where to buy roasted coffee beans, or what to do with them once he had them. 

“I had a lot of blind ambition at the time, and maybe a little bit of miscalculation combined,” Steven said. “I was like, all we need is X amount of dollars a month, and I'll be fine. Turns out we needed double or triple that. But we got there. Now we're to the point we're doing more than double what Starbucks was averaging at this location.” 

The Kelleys not only survived; they thrived. Not only did they eventually master the coffee business, but they also turned Spring Park Coffee into a hometown hub of handcrafted indulgence - a cozy spot to chat, relax, check emails and absorb the rustic ambiance, all with their comforting small-town charm. 

“If there's ever an error or a slow order, or if they have to wait for a little while, they're so patient and kind about it because they realize that this is something special,” Steven said. “Having a small place like this lasts for as long as we have, especially in an industry where it's competitive when you've got your Dunkin Donuts and your Starbucks and all these other alternatives. People can go to a gas station and purchase an energy drink. However, what you can't substitute are the truly great people you get to meet, the socializing and the community space, which we consider ourselves a part of. 

“You can’t be a big box. You have to be local.” 

The Kelleys have since opened two other coffee shops. Brass Tacks Coffee is located in Jacksonville and Fruit Cove. All three stores sell breakfast sandwiches, pastries, hot and cold coffees, and teas. 

Oh yes, and biscuits. 

The Spring Park Coffee/Brass Tacks Coffee biscuit recipe is so renowned that it was recognized by Southern Living magazine last June as one of the Top 12 biscuits in the South, and the only biscuit from Florida to receive the mention. 

The Kelleys also solved their coffee bean roasting problem by buying a roaster and obtaining beans in bulk. Now they supply other coffee shops with their roasted beans. 

“I remember on our first day, I had the blenders, but I didn't know what to do with them yet,” Steven said. “I was determined to give them what they wanted. Someone ordered a latte, so they asked them to come over and let’s figure it out. They came back there, and we both worked on it together. When they left, he gave me a thumbs-up. 

“I don't know if I would do it that way again. I tell people all the time who want to get into this type of business: if you asked me to do it all over again, I probably wouldn't. But now that we have, I'm glad we did, because we made it through. We get to work with the people that we care about most – our customers. It's been a pretty fun little experiment.”