Almost three years since it first opened in Montpelier and became a hot spot for those craving exceptional espressos, Cookie’s Coffee is now set to bring its fan-favorite roasts, delectable sweets and dirty sodas to the tourist-rich city of St. Charles.

Owners Nick Heroff and Jack Winward said to expect the second location to be operational by Memorial Day, meaning the shop’s beverages will be available all summer long for the busy season.

“The expansion is a celebration of the loyal customers who have supported Cookie’s Coffee from the start and a sign of its growing reputation for great drinks, treats and community spirit,” the husband duo said regarding the new shop that’ll be located at the North Beach Shops at 101 N Beach Rd.

This location will be the perfect spot for early bird beachgoers to snag a cup of coffee or for dirty soda addicts to fuel up on their carbonated fix before hitting the sands and sun of Bear Lake.

Heroff and Winward explained they plan to offer the same quality gourmet coffee and homemade treats as the Montpelier shop, though they might not have the full menu available until later down the road. The duo explained they expect to see plenty of tourists at the St. Charles shop, something they are not unfamiliar with at their original location.

“We get a lot of tourists going from the airport in Salt Lake to Yellowstone or Jackson in both directions, and a lot of people from out of the country of course visit those areas,” Heroff said. “A lot of them come through and they’ll say ‘you know this is the best coffee I’ve had on my whole trip’ and it just makes me feel so good to hear that.”

The couple credits the quality taste of their coffee to two sources. The first is Inkom-based Leapknot Coffee Roasters, who supply them with plenty of coffee beans to keep the crowds coming back, and who the pair began stocking since the early days of the business.

“When we opened the shop, we really wanted to find a local roaster and I think it was maybe two weeks after we opened a roaster came into our shop and they brought us some samples…and it was the perfect match because I was really wanting someone regional,” Winward said. “We’ve been very satisfied with them. They do such a great job. They have the best espresso roast, which is called Lift Ticket. We’ve tried others and nothing compares to it.”

The second source they credit to their business’ success is Heroff himself, who has about thirty years of barista experience and knows how to brew up a killer espresso.

“I tell this to people a lot and they think I’m joking, but I say Nick is the best barista in the valley and it’s true because it takes a lot to know the difference between, say, an americano and a cappuccino and getting the right amount of foam on a cappuccino versus how much it would be in a latte, or a cortado, a flat white, and all those,” Winward said. “And not everyone who stands behind an espresso machine has the experience to know all of that.”

The pair said that opening a coffee shop in Garden City was their original plan, but opportunity popped up in Montpelier when the town barber was looking to add something to his shop.

“Part of the reason why we felt we could do this was the Oregon Trail Museum across the street had a coffee stand and the woman running that said ‘you know, everyone’s always asking for espresso and we don’t have what it takes to do espresso here’,” Winward said. “So we were picturing all these busloads of tourists stopping at the trail museum coming in and getting our espresso.”

When it came time to find a name, they kept to the rustic influence of Montpelier and the Old West, when cowboys would flock to food wagons for meals and call the wagon cook “Cookie.”

“So ‘Cookie’ is the nickname for the person in charge of the chuck wagon in wagon chains,” said Winward. “That’s why (our logo) has the hat and the wagon wheels…We want to accentuate the fact that it’s an apostrophe and not a comma.”

Though the shining star of the business is their coffee, they do sell homemade treats such as Rice Krispies and cookies provided by local bakers. For non-coffee drinkers they also have plenty of other beverages such as sodas, hot chocolate, steamers and more.

A drive-thru is in the works at their Montpelier location as well, which they will announce soon via their Facebook page. Fans of Cookie’s Coffee can also contribute toward getting the St. Charles location up and running sooner through a kickstarter that was launched on Jan. 15.

“It’s more than just another coffee shop—it’s a homegrown success story continuing to spread its warmth one cup, one cookie and now one dirty soda at a time,” their kickstarter said.