September/October 2007

Coffee Date

High school sweethearts Jeff and Heather Jones create community in downtown Suffolk at Java 149

By Michael Jon Khandelwal

When Jeff Jones met Heather Boyette in middle school, he knew he liked her right away, but it took her a while to agree to go out with him. Finally, while in high school in Virginia Beach, they became a couple.

After the high school sweethearts tied the knot in 2000, they soon followed Heather's parents to Suffolk. After the birth of their children, Julianne and Alex, they saw an opportunity to go into business for themselves and opened Java 149 in 2004.

Their coffee shop has become the go-to place in downtown Suffolk. People come for the coffee, but also for friendly conversation accented by the sound of foaming milk. The walls are covered with clippings from local publications that feature members of the community, announcements of the goings-on in the area, and photographs by Heather.

On a late summer morning, Jeff, 27, and Heather, 26, talk about their shop and what it means to run a business with a spouse. They chat casually while keeping an eye on both customers and their son, who patiently waits for his parents and watches the fish swim by in a large tank by the front door.

What led you to open Java 149?
Heather Jones: We bought this building and the one next door with my dad. That side we leased out, but this side was still vacant. At the time, Jeff was working for some people that ended up promising things that didn't happen.
Jeff Jones: I had been in the restaurant business for a while, and had just moved to a new one on Granby Street [in Norfolk]. We helped open it and had a dispute about how much our time was worth. It dawned on me that we could open our own place. We had an empty building. I needed a job. So, we did it.
Heather: It's going well.
Jeff: We can always do better, but we feel like we're ahead of the game.

What was it like starting a business and working with your spouse?
Jeff: Stressful. You're with your coworker all the time, but you're also with your spouse. So any problems you're having—in either area—are always mixed. If you have a problem with a coworker in a regular job, you leave that coworker. If you have a problem with your spouse, you would normally leave that spouse to go to work. But when you run a business together, you're always together, but it does give you all that time to work things out.
Heather: It's fun, though, at the same time. But it becomes stressful because if anything goes wrong, you take it out on each other.
Jeff: Because we're the only people each other sees. If you communicate a lot, you're all right. But, if you're the type of couple that doesn't communicate much, you're going to struggle. She and I talk constantly. We're best friends, so, it's easier. I wouldn't want to open a business with anyone else.
Heather: No Way.

What's a typical day like for each of you?
Heather: Crazy.
Jeff: Kids get up. Open the shop. Make everybody in town breakfast and coffee. Run the kids to school, make them happy, make them breakfast. Come in here and work a full day, then come home and instantly you're back into parent mode.
Heather: After we close, we make dinner and play with the kids, but as soon as the kids go to bed, we're on the computer doing inventory or orders or making flyers.
Jeff: She's also a photographer, and I'm also a writer, so we go home and try to find time for all that till midnight or one in the morning, go to bed, and wake up at 6 a.m. We don't rest very often, and we still haven't been on a honeymoon.

Was creating community for the downtown Suffolk area one of your intentions?
Jeff: Whenever we talked about opening a restaurant, it was always about an identity and a community. Coffeehouses traditionally are always places for exchanging ideas, and we felt like downtown Suffolk needed a place where everyone could meet. We want everybody to feel like this is their place to sit and talk about what they want to talk about.

For the rest of this interview, see the September/October issue of Hampton Roads Magazine, currently available on newsstands.