Locally owned Central MS chain started by dynamic couple
The coffee culture seems to be alive and well everywhere. A few years ago, John and Natalie Baten decided to get involved when they opened their first two Mocha Mugs in Flowood and Brandon. Now, each city has two and a fifth location opened in October in Madison. All are doing well.
What was their motivation? “I’m a nurse and my husband is a doctor and we lived on coffee,” Natalie Baten said with a laugh. “We like caffeine and coffee drinks so it was a natural progression. But really, we saw a trend for coffee shops and an increased interest in the coffee culture.”
She keeps up her nursing license but is no longer working in that field while Dr. Baten is a gynecologist with Flowood Clinic.
Now, the former nurse keeps the five Mocha Mugs running smoothly, doing all the bookkeeping, payroll, hiring and training. “I’m taking care of about 70 teenagers although we also have some older employees,” she said. “It takes time to train them but we have a good staff.”
Baten believes the secret to Mocha Mugs’ success, Baten believes, is the strong customer service, the fact that it’s a local business and not a chain, their loyalty card with the tenth drink free and the specialty recipes she develops. There are several feature drinks each month, all her own recipes. For instance, the December featured drinks are Peppermint Mocha, Gingerbread White Mocha, Candy Cane Latte and Caramel Praline. “I try hard with the measurements to get the recipes just right,” she said.
When it comes right down to it, Baten said the main secret of running a thriving coffee shop is a smiling face at the window. “A lot of times that face in the window is the first person someone sees,” she said. “But then, some people don’t want you to speak to them first thing in the morning. There might be some grouches, but I tell my staff they just have to go on with what they’re doing and smile.”
The Mocha Mugs locations are two-sided drive-throughs with no indoor seating. They offer muffins, scones, biscotti, cake pops and cookies. They also have an online store where customers can purchase ground coffee, coffee bean, mugs, t-shirts and sweatshirts, and shipping is not a problem. “I just shipped some coffee to Savannah, Georgia, today,” said Baten on the day the Mississippi Business Journal spoke with her. “Business usually picks up in the cooler months.”
Asked about additional expansion of Mocha Mugs, Baten said, “It’s possible, but there’s quite a bit of competition and it’s hard to find workers. For now, we have good locations and I love what we’re doing.”
