QC, THAT'S WHERE!
QC, THAT'S WHERE!
A Haven for Literature Lovers and Coffee Enthusiasts
There's a special kind of connection that occurs when books and coffee come together, and this episode's guest, Kara Taghon from The Atlas Collective, is a true magician in that respect. With the scent of freshly brewed coffee in the air and a library of stories at our fingertips, we explore the creation of a community hub that's reinvigorating the Quad Cities. Kara reveals the life of a new business owner and how her introverted nature thrives within this extroverted venture, providing insights into the deep connections and vibrant community stitched together through shared stories and steaming cups of coffee.
As we unwrap the layers of The Atlas Collective's book club, we're invited into a microcosm of diversity and dialogue, where the joy of reading unites people from all walks of life. Our conversation ventures into the club's challenges and triumphs, from keeping pace with literary trends fueled by social media to honoring the timeless allure of the classics. Kara's journey as an introvert leading a book club paints an intimate portrait of connection and understanding, celebrating the richness of a community bonded over the pages of their favorite tales.
The episode culminates with a look at the broader picture of the Quad Cities' coffee scene, where the QC Coffee Trail casts a warm glow on the patchwork of local businesses. We hear touching stories and explore upcoming events designed to spark creativity and foster engagement within The Atlas Collective. Our gratitude for the QC increases as we reflect on the unique charm and collective joys that Kara's haven of literature and coffee brings to the heart of the Midwest.
QC, That's Where is a podcast powered by Visit Quad Cities. Through the people, partnerships, and personalities woven throughout the Quad Cities region, you'll meet real Quad Citizens and hear the untold stories of the region.
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They just they raved about the Quad Cities and both of them were from the area, but they haven't lived here since the 90s. They moved to the Kansas City area and they came back and it's night and day compared to the 90s. That's what they told me, and I'm not from the Quad Cities originally and I think people know that. But they were like if this coffee trail existed while we were here and this specific shop existed while we were living here, we never would have left?
Speaker 2:Where do you find a family of communities connected by the storied Mississippi River, where young explorers and dreamers, investors and entrepreneurs thrive? Where can you connect with real people living and creating in a place that's as genuine as it is quirky QC? That's when.
Speaker 3:Well, everyone, welcome back to QC. That's when podcast I'm hosting today, leah Nelson, and I'm so excited to invite owner of the Atlas Collective, cara. We're so excited to have you on. Thank you for having me. This is awesome. Yes, of course, I think we need to start with, just like the basic question how did this idea come? What made you want to open, you know, an independent bookstore slash coffee shop in the Quad Cities?
Speaker 1:I like to tell people that I had a bug in me and I'm passionate about books and coffee and I just wanted to make something in this community that's so special to me. That's a reflection of myself and the folks that I brought in and want to continue to bring in. So I've worked a lot of weird, odd jobs in my life and I reached a point where I was like you know what, if I'm gonna take a risk, the risk should be taken now, and it has paid off tenfold. Every day is the best day of my life and I'm just really lucky to be able to do this.
Speaker 3:So that makes me so happy to know that every day is the best day of your life while living in the Quad Cities. So could you talk a little bit about what every day is like? I know it's probably so different and, like you said before we started recording, you're like every day feels like 15 minutes. So what kind of consists of your day at the Atlas Collective?
Speaker 1:Um, bare bones of it is. I show up at 7am, I put my bag down, I check my email, maybe once I get a cup of coffee in me, and then, honestly, all hell breaks loose in the best way. So I, with opening the Atlas Collective, I think the best part about it and what I wanted the most was I wanted every day to be a little different. I didn't want routine. There's routine, of course, but I didn't want the same exchange every day all the time. Occupational, just like repeat, repeat, repeat. And I've had jobs like that and it doesn't serve me.
Speaker 1:I'm a creative moving, I just I'm a fidgeter, I'm a tinkerer, I'm all over the place. So every day at the Atlas collective, like I said, is genuinely the best day of my life. But all walks of life come through my door. Most of the I mean right now, it's new people, because we literally just opened the door in January, and it's uh, we do have our wonderful regulars which are a constant, which is so cool, what the heck? Um, but it's uh, putting out fires, running around, getting my steps in making cups of coffee, ordering books, putting books away and like those things stay the same, but it is genuinely always a little different.
Speaker 3:I leave feeling different every single day, in the best way yeah, I was gonna say I think that's what makes working so fun. I see that in like visit quad cities. I love running around, I love getting content in different places. Like I mean, our staff came and hung out at atlas collective one of these days and it was so fun and literally everyone raves about it. And we know Brittany. Uh, she comes back and she's like we have to all go to the Atlas Collective. It's a blast and it is. It's such good vibes in there. The coffee's great. I'm a big reader and so, like all of the books that I love were on the, were on the um racks and I was like, oh, I need to hear that that's the hardest part.
Speaker 1:Genuinely, that is the hardest part of everything, because I also tell people like we're abbreviated as a business, like we have a little bit of books and then we have the to go coffee. We don't have a sit down experience not yet but it's so hard to curate that collection. We handpick everything and we listen to suggestions daily. We've been doing mass returns, like we've gutted those shelves twice and turned around and put new titles up there and things just continue to move. And that's so cool that we have such a diverse community. People want so many weird and awesome things that I didn't expect the community to want and we have a little suggestion box for that. Or people just come up and talk to me about it and we're open to literally anything. We'll order any title for anyone. If we have the capability to do it, we'll do it. It's just awesome.
Speaker 3:It's so nice to hear because I mean, you have a suggestion, I want to see a book, and to hear that you're so open ears and you're willing to make that order is fantastic. Talk a little bit about the book club you guys have going on. I think that's amazing. I love bringing the community together, together in any type of way, and the fact that you guys host a book club is pretty cool.
Speaker 1:We. That was in the plan from day one when I started writing the business plan. Like we always the community aspect of the Atlas Collective, we wanted the book club to be the starting point and the hub of that, and we started our book club in January when we opened with Legends and Lattes, which is a very light fantasy about um, an orc opening a coffee shop. So we're like, okay, well, this speaks to us and we're gonna go ahead and give that a go. We had incredible, incredible, incredible engagement with that. We sold out both sections right away and we were like, oh, wait a minute, wait a minute.
Speaker 1:Every month we've done something just a little bit different. We've jumped genres. This upcoming month in May, we're doing two books, two different books at the same time, two sections of one and then a section of the other. All of those sold out what in the world? But we just continue to jump around because we're not really sure what people want yet and we have people voting. We put polls on our social media, we talk about it every time we meet.
Speaker 1:But we have had returning members, but we've also had newbies that are just right off the street and then we get everybody in the same room and the conversation is organic and beautiful and everything that we wanted in book club and people have been craving that and we had no idea. Literally I just did what I wanted to do, what spoke to me and what I love to do, like when I travel outside of the Quad Cities which is rare because I just I don't know it Cities which is rare because I just I don't know it's rare, I'm busy, I don't know, but I I seek out bookstores and I love the whimsy of walking into one and like moving around and like kind of sitting in the community that I'm in, you know, and people get to do that at the Atlas Collective and book club is kind of people have made new friends there and that is so cool and amazing and I would say I'm at a loss for words but I'm just gabbing.
Speaker 3:Okay, no, I have. I have goosebumps and seriously like at this age, honestly, as you get older, like out of college and whatnot, it is hard to make friends as you get older, like out of college and whatnot.
Speaker 1:It is hard to make friends, oh my gosh. And like it didn't help, girl, and we're trying to like shake it up a little bit. And I'm, I'm not old, I don't know what old is, I don't even think about old. I have not reached the 30 mark yet and I'm inching. I'm right there. I'm right there my May. But, like I, I tell people all the time also that I'm an introvert running an extroverted business. Yes, like turn on my business owner hat and then turn it off and be a silly goose. But I love making connections with people in my space that are like minded and also introverts like me, like I, just I gel with all of our customers. I have not had one weird experience. I love, I love people. I've always loved people, and the people that come into the Atlas collective come for a reason and it's just so cool.
Speaker 3:I don't know it's just cool. You know it's. It's so cool and I can speak from experience of like when we walked in. I've never met you, I've only heard word of mouth of like oh, how cool this place is. I'm not kidding you. We all left, people like the people from visit quantities that came. We all left and we're like that is the coolest place ever. Such good vibes. It just felt like comfortable. I could have stared at the bookshelves forever, even though I walked back and forth through them like 20 times already. But it's fun, cause you have a bookshelf that celebrates um different whatever that month is. So you've had, you know, black history, you've had women um authors, it just it's cool that you guys are um making it important to celebrate different communities, different cultures. It's not just like oh, here's, here's the popular books that are on TikTok, it's like you guys really care about who's coming in to your coffee shop.
Speaker 1:Yes, 100%. We have such a beautiful and diverse community and I think people forget that sometimes and I and I've had a lot of poetry, that's, all different kinds of authors, bipoc, queer, just all different kinds and, um, I, I kind of I've started now to like mix our queer books in with our regular stock because it's, I mean, that's normal. You know, like just just do it right and, um, there are some that I highlight cause they're my favorites. And then I do have to look at TikTok sometimes and like, you know that's and that goes with the wind too. I just have to be on it.
Speaker 1:And again, I'm lucky to have a team that I have, because my Brooke, my creative director, she is on it, she's on it, she knows what's trending, she's's, we're in, we're ordering all the time, like multiple times a week, and again we order for people as well with special requests, and we are, we're just always learning the whole, it's only learning, and it's just wild how things have been changing, especially with books, um, and following what's trending. It does give me a migraine, I won't even lie, but it's also it does turn into a fun game to like what are people in the mood for now?
Speaker 1:Like it's just, but we also have the classics, so it's it's just crazy.
Speaker 3:That's how I get my book recommendations. Sometimes, like I got to log on and see what everyone else is reading, I'm like, why don't I just listen to what I want to read? I'm like, nope, not enough reviews on TikTok or Atlas Collective hasn't ordered it yet, so it must not be good you're so real for that?
Speaker 1:because we, we like, go to Goodreads. We're like, well, let's check the reviews on that, but, and like, goodreads isn't like a catch-all for everything it's. There aren't a lot of platforms out there that are good and if there are, I want people to tell me about those. Come into the Atlas collective and educate me, hello. But I'm a mood reader through and through. Like. I have a TBR that's 80 years long. Don't talk to me about it. Don't talk to me about it. I have books. I have a library at home. I'm sitting in it right now. I'm staring at all the books that I will read someday, maybe, if I feel like it. Like the wind has to be just right, and then I'll pick a book and people think that's kind of wacky, but I don't really care.
Speaker 3:I love it. It's whatever you're feeling. And and I have to ask you do you, if you're reading a book this is, this is kind of off topic but if you're reading a book and you're like a chapter and you're like this isn't for me, do you shut it and put it away? Are you finishing it? What a question.
Speaker 1:You know I've. Only I can count on one hand the amount of times I've done that I, oh, I'm a commitment girl.
Speaker 3:And I got to see it through.
Speaker 1:I have done that with one book in the past five years and God it really wasn't for me. I won't put the book on blast right now because some people really it's a genre that's trending right now, but there was one book that I. That's a lie. There's two and they're in the same genre and I got a couple chapters in and I'm like I have limited brain space. I am not going to force myself, like force feed this book into my brain when I know there's better stuff out there for me. So like I don't feel bad anymore, I just like my time is precious and I barely I got a lot going on up there. So whatever I'm putting in needs to serve me, fill my cup so I can pour it into other people, you know. So that's just kind of how I feel about that. I love it.
Speaker 3:I need to learn from you, because I'm so like, oh, this book, it is going to get so much better. I just trust the process and then I'm like forcing myself and I'll. It's just, and you kind of know Where's the enjoyment, babe.
Speaker 1:Where's the enjoyment there? Reading is a leisure fun Some. I mean sometimes it's necessary, like for work, for school, whatever. But it can when it's leisure. Do not force yourself.
Speaker 3:I can't know that. I can't wait. I can't wait to end this recording and ask you what those books were, because I, in my head, I feel like I yeah, I say that to people and they're like oh, I already know and I'm like cool, you're my people like okay but I already know.
Speaker 3:Oh, I had to ask as, like someone else who reads, because it's, I feel like it's split 50 50. There's people that if they're not into it in the first couple of pages off the shelf they don't even think twice. Or there's people that I give it a couple chapters At least.
Speaker 1:I'm like I got that. There's the trust, the process, this itty bitty part of me. I'm like, okay, we'll give it a couple of chapters, Like if the first hundred pages are kind of like oh, yeah, oh, you gotta, you gotta put it. You gotta hook me man.
Speaker 3:Uh-huh, uh-huh, it's hilarious. I'm glad you answered that it was. It was brewing inside me, so uh, you guys are officially on the QC Coffee Trail.
Speaker 1:Yes, Woo, woo. We're having so much fun Good.
Speaker 3:And, uh, we're celebrating for people that are listening in. Um April we're celebrating two years of the coffee trail, so it's just really exciting. Like we love it. We're hearing great um things from it, from the community. Um, I love going to different coffee shops. It's fun when new ones join, so just kind of chat about your experience and people coming in and and using the qc coffee trail I have so many incredible experiences to talk about.
Speaker 1:I just want to say, like before I opened the Atlas Collective, I was a coffee I mean, I am a coffee trail girl. I there are so many incredible coffee shops in the QC that I frequent when my doors are closed because sometimes I want a treat that I don't have to make with my hands, and there are so many coffee shops that I go to in the Quad Cities. There's no way that I want you know, I just I you pour your money back into the community. But as far as our experience with the coffee trail, I have to highlight one incredible experience I had a couple of days ago with out of towners that found the QC coffee trail and did about five in a day and we were their last stop and by the time they reached us they were from the Kansas City area and somehow they found the coffee trail, which is so cool. It's really cool. They came in. I watched them visibly take a deep breath and get immediately emotional in our space.
Speaker 1:And the couple they were a trans couple, which was so cool and they came up to me and they were like we are from out of town and we're here specifically for the coffee trail and we didn't realize you had books too. And I go yeah, we're, we're two-part, we're hanging out. And they were like we wouldn't have known about you if we, like, we were just going through the coffee trail website, like, and they were talking about how beautiful and everything you guys have done and how you've set it up and how it's user-friendly and there's such great information on there. And they were like we found you on that platform and this was one of the best stops, if not the best stop of our day. And they sat with us for, oh my god, like an hour and a half.
Speaker 1:They got each of them got two drinks each and they we were their last stop to get their blanket or whatever their prize was I think it was the blanket and um and they just they raved about the Quad Cities and both of them were from the area, but they haven't lived here since the 90s. They moved to the Kansas City area and they came back and it's night and day compared to the 90s. That's what they told me. And I'm not from the Quad Cities originally and I think people know that coffee trail existed while we were here and this specific shop existed while we were living here. We never would have left and that I've been meaning. I was gonna email y'all right away, but I can't wait to tell everyone.
Speaker 1:I was like, oh my gosh, like you guys have made something so beautiful and incredible and you should be so proud, and, um, it was such an emotional interaction that I had with them.
Speaker 3:I feel like I'm getting emotional now too. Like you think, oh, a coffee trail, like no big deal, or even just the coffee shop that you've opened, like it's, you're passionate about it. But to create such a safe space for people in the Quad Cities, but even out of the quad cities traveling through is such an incredible experience and feeling to have.
Speaker 1:It is you guys made something amazing, and the fact that we get to represent you guys and then you guys are a part of us, it's just, it's symbiotic and gorgeous and incredible. And the fact that out-of-towners get to do it and get to experience the Quad Cities in a totally different way than so many other communities, it's huge.
Speaker 3:It's huge it creates a community is what I like to think. Like it's an easy pathway from like visit Quad Cities to you guys. It creates relationships so we can do this kind of fun stuff, but then it also creates this community to our community and it's just perfect. It brings us all together. We love when people come in and they're like I just went to like so many places on the QC coffee trail, or like I make a post on social media and people comment all their favorite places, Like they all have their go-tos. But yeah, the QC coffee trail also allows them to like try different things that they might not like some people everybody has something different in this community.
Speaker 3:Every shop is different, and it's so awesome it's so fun and I like that you're so open to that too. Like, yes, it's competitive, you want all these people, but it's also like a community, you want people to just get out, totally have relationships.
Speaker 1:People ask me about that. Like I tell people all the time, I just I I'm a mood person. I go where I want to go. There are coffee shops. I mean, I sat and built my business plan in Milltown. I loved Milltown, I still go to Milltown and I will not stop doing that. I love what they do, I love who they are and I don don't the competitive side of me I almost feel like it doesn't exist when it comes to the coffee. You know, coffee is coffee. Coffee brings people together. I'm gonna go where I want my team does the same. You know, like we, we love our community and I'm gonna continue to support others because it comes right back around to me too.
Speaker 3:It really does. It really does. Oh, I'm like I can't wait to go tell everyone. Brittany's going to be so excited, katrina's going to be so excited, everyone, the whole staff, is going to be like oh my gosh, the QC coffee trail. It's really nice to hear hear those stories. I, dave just our CEO and president just posted a thing on social media yesterday. He went through a coffee shop and someone was like oh, like, where do you work? And he said visit Quad Cities. They're like oh, we love your text messages and your website and I'm like it's just nice to hear that kind of stuff. It's nice to know that people are like loving it and it's helping the community and it's giving them resources to know what's going on around the Quad Cities. I love the Quad Cities and I want everyone else to love the Quad Cities, and so these resources are just really exciting for people to hop on to 100%.
Speaker 1:I'm with you.
Speaker 3:We also. There's also a really exciting thing that's happening this weekend, april 27th 2024. For people that are listening, maybe in the future, but it's National Independent Bookstore Day. Yeah, folks, yeah and look who has national independent bookstore day. Yeah folks, yeah, look who has an edit, look who has an independent bookstore it's me hi, it's me.
Speaker 1:Um, indie bookstore day. This is our first, obviously, and we are uh foaming at the mouth. We are very excited, bursting at the seams to share all of our, our goodies with you guys. I know we've dropped some hints. If you follow us on social media, we have um a special drink called the Eos all week. Um, it is a, it's like a orange Julius dupe with a little bit of energy. I know we're silly, so, yeah, yeah, just tastes like sunshine. So we have that. We have. We're releasing some new shirts that are in a bright golden yellow. Uh, we're releasing exclusive stickers of our signature drinks. So, if you're not familiar with those, we have the atlas, the veto, the cleo, the sticks and the ivy. Uh, they're adorable and hand-drawn by our creative director brooke, who's the bombcom. We have children's reading at 9 30 in the morning. We're doing blackout poetry. Uh, digging deep.
Speaker 3:Right now, my brain is uh soup so anyone can just come into the atlas collective on saturday and just hang, get a great experience. Oh yeah, With you guys.
Speaker 1:Coffee bars open all day, which is different. So usually we close our coffee bar down at 3, but we'll have it open all day until 5, and that's a huge deal. And then we're also doing a raffle. We have a shredded book so you can guess the shredded book. Put it in our raffle. Those who guess the shredded book correctly go into a separate raffle. We pull that winner and then you get a free paperback of your choice, which is so cool. That's so cool, so cool. Oh, and we have propagation, uh, propagation stations and little babies, uh, to give out for the first 15 people that make book purchases that day.
Speaker 3:So what an incredible, what a fun event for the community. Again like, congrats, it's your first one, so very cool. But oh, I'm gonna have to stop by on Saturday. I have some books that I are on my on my list to read. I just started a series a couple days ago. Uh, thrown a glass so. I and I know you've already read it right. Did you read that, or did you read Crescent City or all?
Speaker 1:I read them all, babe, okay yeah, and we'll chat about that when you come see me on Saturday.
Speaker 3:There's lots of oh, what a fun thing, very so much exciting stuff happening for you guys. I mean, do you, do you plan on changing like your coffee menu at all? Is it, is it different or is it pretty solid?
Speaker 1:Um, we have the classics, for sure for those folks that uh you know, have routines and they don't want to.
Speaker 1:They don't want to mess around. I'm a drip coffee person by nature as well, so I get that Um, as far as switching it up by nature as well. So I get that, um, as far as switching it up. We have not talked about anything major. But our summer menu obviously will be coming out soon and we still have our spring, which is the Gaia and the Dryad. And the Gaia, which is the honeydew matcha with the boba has been super popular and people love that. But as far as a mass switch not quite in the cards yet we want to get through the year. Yeah, see what's up and then shake it up from there.
Speaker 3:So it's just crazy to me that you guys haven't been open for a super long time, because to me it's like you've always just been part of the community, like you always just been around down the street from us.
Speaker 1:So it's so funny that you say that. So many people say that to me and I tell people like I remember the day I sat down to write the business plan for the Atlas Collective and then I think I went to sleep and then I woke up and I was already doing it and I feel like I've been here forever, but it's been 15 minutes, genuinely okay so you know, um, that's inspiring though.
Speaker 3:So like, if anyone has a business plan, go to a coffee shop, write it down and just start it the next day you know, the coffee shops are where the magic happens.
Speaker 1:Everyone, this is not news, this is, this is fact, so put it on a t-shirt. I watch me write it down.
Speaker 3:It's pretty incredible. So you're not originally from the quad cities. You said that. Oh, I'm not. So what is your favorite part besides coffee shops? Take that off the off the table, doesn't it? Because that could have been an easy answer. What is just your favorite part about the quad cities and living here and working here?
Speaker 1:I this is going to be the weirdest answer ever. So just everybody brings that off. This is like not, this is off the cuff. I, one of my favorite places in the Quad Cities is the Riverside Cemetery. Okay, because I love. My favorite part about the Riverside Cemetery is I love walking in there and then I reach it's very hilly, so I get to a point where I'm at like the highest part of the hill and I can see the bridge, I can see Iowa, I can see like a good chunk of the Quad Cities and it's so peaceful to me.
Speaker 1:And moving here from I grew up in the Chicago suburbs, south Suburb area and it's and it's so much different. It's night and day and I moved here for my partner who's from the area, and I just remember feeling peace. People are friendly, the community is good. It was good when I moved here. I don't know six years ago now. Perhaps this is just such a beautiful place to live and be and I know riverside cemetery is a really funky thing to pick out of all the most amazing things that we have here, but, um, being there and walking in there gave me, it just gives me peace. There's so much wonderful history in this collection of four towns five, I guess, if you want to get you know, people like to add another town like a bajillion I know it is.
Speaker 1:There are um, I don't know. I feel really small when I'm up on the hill and I'm looking at the Quad City conglomerate. It's a cool feeling, I don't know I.
Speaker 3:I love that because I've never heard when I ask people that question. You know, usually people don't go to cemetery, but I, that just makes you you and it adds even another layer to the Quad Cities.
Speaker 3:Like guys, are you kidding me? Even even these cemeteries are great and incredible and inspirational and, like you said, we do have so much history here. There's so many layers to the Quad Cities and I probably sound like nerdy, even though it is my job. Like Quad Cities, history here, there's so many layers to the Quad Cities and I probably sound like nerdy, even though it is my job. Like Quad Cities, come here, but I genuinely love it and to hear, like you say you love it, having such a good experience with your business and the community, it just it warms my brand and content coordinator heart for social media. I love it. I love it. It's so fun. Well, is there, besides independent bookstore day or, yeah, independent bookstore day is there anything else on the radar that we should be like looking out for for the atlas collective, any other events?
Speaker 1:if not, certainly fine, but yes, there are a lot of things coming up. Um, some I can share and some I can't, because you know I got secrets. You gotta stay tuned. Um, what has been announced so far for upcoming in may, which apparently is next week and that gives me hives because this year is moving really fast um, we have the wags and tails reading program. We're partnering with the quad city animal welfare center and we're doing um their uh little readings in our shop for children and we're they're bringing puppies and it's going to be beautiful and we're going to continue that throughout the year.
Speaker 1:And the first inaugural one is May 11th, saturday at 930, I believe we set it for and Patty will be coming to read a book called Can I Be your Dog. Everyone will cry about that. It it's beautiful, there will be dogs there. It's a huge deal. So we're starting that reading program very soon. Um, but please be on the lookout on our social medias. We have some workshops and events coming up into the summer, and june is pride. So you know we're gonna go bananas. So just keep an eye out for us, because we can't be stopped. We can't, apparently.
Speaker 3:And keep going again. You're bringing so much great energy to the Quad Cities. We love having you here. We love having you on the QC Coffee Trail again. It's crazy that we've been here for two years and you've joined and you've already had such a great experience with the Coffee Trail. So that's incredible, so exciting. We can't wait for you to be on it for a bajillion more years, of course. Well, I don't want to take too much of your time, but we always end, you know, our podcast with a QC that's where statement. So I gave you some time to think. So fill in the blank QC, that's where the magic happens.
Speaker 2:In the blank, you see, that's where the magic happens.
Speaker 3:It's true, you see, that's where the magic happens.
Speaker 1:I had a little body.
Speaker 3:Just it's where the magic happens. People know it. That was so good. Well, thank you so much, kara. Seriously, I appreciate it. It has been such a blast. I could talk to you for hours and hours and hours. I know, I know I can't wait to come in and grab some coffee. Can't wait to tell the staff about the amazing experiences you've had in your store. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:I haven't shared it sooner.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:Again, it's not real.
Speaker 3:Again, it's not real. Seriously, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Of course, anytime, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening to QC. That's when a podcast powered by Visit Quad Cities Text VISITQC to 38314 for insider events, activities and updates sent straight to your phone. That's V-I-S-I-T-Q-C, one word to 38314. Message and data rates may apply.