‘Livin La Vida Mocha’

Pour Jons expands business to include old vinyl

— The new owners of Pour Jons have long wanted to invest in a downtown business. So when they heard that the former owners were looking to sell, they went for it.

Chris and Jen Moore of Siloam Springs purchased the coffee shop at 223 N. Wright St. on July 15.

“This is our family business,” Jen said.

It will become a twostory coffee shop with a vinyl record store once work is completed, possibly as soon as late September. The new name of the shop is Pour Jons Coffee & Vinyl.

“This is my place,” Chris said. “I love it.”

They will leave the existing coffee shop as is, but on the second floor, they’ll add the vinyl store and a stage. The second floor would also be available to rent for private parties.

The atmosphere will be more relaxed upstairs with couches and soft chairs. A meeting table is in the works that will be on cables to allow it to be raised up to the ceiling.

They’d like the shop to become more familyfriendly and be a third space or a home away from home.

Customers will be able to place orders upstairs. Food and drinks will be made downstairs and taken to the second floor via dumb waiter.

Chris said his dream was to open a record shop.

In their house sits “a huge row of records,” Jen said.

Vinyl is coming back, Chris said. “It’s a good time to go after my dream.”

The only music sold at the shop will be on vinyl records. Customers will be able to order records there also. But other merchandise will be available to buy such at T-shirts.

Chris hopes the stage will attract more bandsand musicians. He wants to have talent from John Brown University play there as well. Panels will be added to improve the acoustics upstairs.

The Moores are building the second-floor addition themselves. The investment in the project is between $12,000 and $15,000.

Chris, his father and others have already built a stairway to the second floor where the stage and record shop will be located.

“All these people want to come to say they are apart of it,” Jen said about those who’ve helped. “It’s just been really fun.”

But while many new things are coming to Pour Jons, some things won’t change.

The menu has remained the same from the previous owners. Mama Carmen’s Coffee is still being served.

“We’re keeping our quality at a really high level,” Chris said.

Some additions to the menu include $1.50 waffles and a $6 peanut butter milkshake.

“It’s the bomb,” Jen said about the milkshake.

The waffles are the recipe of barista Andrew Haught, pronounced ‘hot.’ And the waffles were aptly named ‘Haught’ waffles.

A partnership with 28 Springs is also in the works, Jen said. If an agreement is reached, the shop would serve food from the restaurant.

Other things new to the shop will be the gift cards, which look like a record, and loyalty cards. The loyalty cards allow customers win merchandise if they drink acertain number of drinks and types of drinks.

Nine employees work at the shop.

Chris left a construction job to work full-time at Pour Jons.

Jen works at DaySpring as a senior product manager.

They grew up in Norman, Okla., and movedto Siloam Springs 10 years ago. They have a daughter, Bella, who is nearly 3.

Until construction is completed, shop hours are 7 a.m. to midnight Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to midnight Saturday. The shop is closed Sunday because of construction.

Business, Pages 9 on 09/12/2012