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Jump Start Coffee and Tea expanding to include outdoor fun area, miniature golf course

Jump Start Coffee and Tea Shop owner Leona Goettel (center) smiles from behind the counter in Jump Start’s current location in downtown Grand Lake. Working with Goettel earlier this week was her son, Shane Murphy (left) and Murphy’s partner Ali June (right).
Lance Maggart / lmaggart@skyhinews.com

GRAND LAKE — Local business owner Leona Goettel has a big vision for the future.

When Goettel opened Jump Start Coffee and Tea Shop in 2016, she already started nursing a dream of expanding her venture. That dream is quickly moving towards reality and, by next month, Goettel expects to be in her new location with even more developments planned for the coming summer.

“We are expanding into a bigger place to allow for indoor seating and an outdoor fun area,” Goettel explained. “Basically I want it to be a gathering place in the community, a place for people to get together and socialize. I call it networking unplugged.”



The expansion of Jump Start involves several parts.

First, the shop is moving a few short yards west down Grand Avenue into the long-vacant “Boot Hill” building located immediately adjacent to the shop’s current location. Goettel has hired contractors to install new flooring, a new bathroom and to renovate an expansive outdoor patio space. The new shop will be significantly larger and include indoor seating, which the old shop did not feature.



In addition to the work on the new building, Goettel is planning to develop the outdoor area beside and behind the Boot Hill building into an outdoor family fun area. Goettel said the space will eventually include a nine-hole miniature golf course, a children’s play area and a collection of games such as cornhole, bocce ball and supersized Jenga, among other items. Goettel says she plans to charge a minimal fee for the use of the games and activities in the outdoor area.

Goettel’s son, Shane Murphy, and his partner, Ali June, are also planning to open a street taco stand in the small building located on the northeast corner of Hancock Street and Grand Avenue sometime during the summer.

Work on Jump Start’s outdoor fun area is expected to begin as soon as possible following the spring thaw, with the miniature golf course being the area workers will likely begin, according to Goettel. She cautioned that the redevelopment work would be an ongoing project during the summer and that the outdoor space would likely not be fully completed until summer 2020.

Jump Start Coffee and Tea Shop is a specialty drink shop located on the far east end of Grand Avenue on the north side of the street, almost directly across from Pancho & Lefty’s. Jump Start first opened in August 2016 after Goettel purchased Back 40 Coffee from its previous owners before rebranding and relaunching the business.

The shop serves a standard collection of coffee, espressos, lattes and Americanos. The shop is perhaps best known for its dizzying array of teas, including bubble (or boba) tea, multiple varieties of chai and over 100 different flavors of loose-leaf teas including hard to find teas such as Lapsang Souchong and gunpowder tea.

“We have people drive up from Denver to buy our tea as Christmas gifts,” Goettel said. “It is really hard to find that big of a selection of teas anywhere else.”

According to Goettel, many of the teas served at Jump Start have healthful properties and are beneficial to people suffering from colds, sore throats, lost voice, abdominal problems and much more.


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