History of the Firestarter
In my coffeeverse, James almost always works at the same coffee shop. It's called the Firestarter Cafe, and is a small art gallery&cafe downtown. It resides in the corner of an old brick building that used to be a hardware store. It's known for its coffee, sure, but more than that it's known for all its abundant charm.
The Firestarter was started as a small specialty pastry shop by its current owner, Elena, when she discovered that university was not going to work for her. Elena was going to school to be a graphic designer, and her two passions had always been baking and art. The Firestarter - then known as Elena's Big Red Bakery - specialised in alternative bakery designs. Cakes piled high with iced flowers and cupcakes with abundant pearly sprinkles had no place here - you came to Elena's for her flavour of the week pastries and cupcakes, which ranged anywhere from whiskey sour to maple bacon to imitation candies that were somehow always perfect. (How she made a cupcake taste exactly like a peppermint patty or a package of red hots or twizzlers is a mystery even today).
After a few years of running a slow but steady business, Elena had saved enough to expand to a bigger location, and by her customers' frequent request, she added coffee to the menu. Unfortunately, her flavour skills didn't extend to coffee, but she hired a young woman who had a great deal of managerial experience and got the place up and bustling despite. Soon after transferring to the new - current - building, Elena began selling out the extra three walls of the building to budding artists as a gallery, and renamed the place the Firestarter Cafe.
For the next two years, Elena struggled to keep not only clientele but employees. After her initial business partner unexpectedly split town, Elena was unable to hire anyone at above a minimum wage, and the hours and work were brutal. She had all but given up hope when a young man came along with the ultimatum that he just needed something to do, that he had no idea how to make more than the coffees he did for himself in the morning, but that he would work harder than anyone ever had. Desperate, Elena hired him, and it proved one of the best decisions she'd made in the history of the business.
Bucky Barnes, ex-military and the most charming man Elena had ever met, worked for Elena at her every single request. Though she apologised every time she needed to call him in or ask him to stay, he never seemed to mind. In fact, he gladly showed up on days when he didn't work sometimes to just help out for a few hours here and there, and stayed from open to close on the ones he did. He just liked having something to do, and he seemed to love the job - certainly picked up on it quickly enough. Once Bucky had mastered the coffees (and it was his idea to add a few lunch specials, too), Elena was able to focus on bringing her specialty pastries back to light. Though she's only just gotten started on that endeavour, old customers are beginning to flood back in, and Bucky delights in giving each new cupcake a fantastic repertoire on the sandwich board every morning.
They make an excellent team. Elena's even starting to consider putting some of her art up for sale. Bucky does enough coffee art to give the place a reputation (he speaks four languages and likes to give them fancy words in their froth if they stay), but it'd just be nice to get back to her roots from time to time. Maybe once she can keep on a steady third employee (this guy Nix is already giving her a headache).
