Today we’d like to introduce you to Betsy Wood.
Hi Betsy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
What started as a cozy coffee shop dream during the height of COVID has grown into something much bigger — and much more delicious.
Founded by local owners David and Betsy Wood, Towne began with a simple vision inspired by a memorable weekend getaway to Mount Pleasant, Tennessee: create a warm, welcoming place where people could gather over exceptional coffee and incredible food.
Chef David Wood brings more than three decades of culinary expertise and professional culinary training to every dish served at Towne Café, with his chef-driven menu consistently earning five-star reviews from customers. Today, having relocated to Columbia, TN, food represents nearly 85% of Towne’s menu and business, with guests returning again and again for made-to-order breakfasts, fresh lunches, baked goods, and chef-inspired specials. The response has been overwhelming, and the Woods have leveled up their littlecoffee shop to full on Café.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The story of Towne Café has been filled with challenges!
Starting in the charming and sleepy town of Mount Pleasant mid covid, challenges centered around extreme fluctuations in food prices and getting the word out that they were open. But the biggest challenge they faced was the restoration of the downtown, as well as the repair of the bridge at the entrance of town. While, both projects were exciting and essential for the life of downtown Mount Pleasant, David and Betsy knew they would never be able to financially survive the loss of revenue- especially since Betsy had joined her husband full time to manage the shop post-shoulder surgery for David.
(Side bar, Betsy does NOT drink coffee and never worked in a food business!)
And so began the search for a new location. A former vacant Taco John’s restaurant stood on Nashville Highway in Columbia, —a prominent location with 40 times the traffic of Mount Pleasant, unavailable but beckoning them! After months of looking for the right space, they were offered the opportunity to open in the vacant Taco John’s building.
The next hurdle was securing a loan and closing, only to be followed by the task of turning a former fast food restaurant into a charming café- in s-i-x- weeks!!! Thankfully Betsy, a Designer and Creative Director with more than 30 years of experience in brand identity and product development, was up to the task.
As they grew, they began to understand the complexity of the coffee market – in addition to the crowded space with a dozen other coffee shops in Columbia, customers were not even coming in to see that they offered so much more than just coffee! Their breakfast and lunch menu, which had won best breakfast and best lunch in town and had garnered over 300 FIVE star reviews was going unnoticed with the assumption that a coffee shop does not have a substantial.
Always looking to improve, David and Betsy decided to make the switch to a restaurant. Rebranding as Towne Café they will introduce:
More fresh and flavorful menu options
Expanded seating and gathering spaces
Increased catering offerings
“Our heart has always been about creating a place where people feel at home,” say David and Betsy Wood. “Towne Café reflects who we are today — a chef-driven café experience built around great food, amazing coffee, and community.”
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Towne Café?
We are:
A Locally owned and lovingly operated business
Led by Husband & Wife Team
A Chef & A Designer
We started 5 years ago as a coffee shop in Mount Pleasant, TN mid-covid- called Towne Coffee.
We relocated to Columbia, TN to a larger location. In 2023 we won Best Breakfast and Best Lunch in the Reader’s Choice Awards sponsored by the Columbia Herald.
Our focus on chef crafted, delicious and homemade food sets us apart from others and has led us to shift our business away from coffee shop to restaurant– rebranding as Towne Café.
One of our best selling breakfast items is amazing Eggs & Avocado toast featuring fresh avocados.
The standout from our lunch menu is the Warm Chicken & Bacon Salad featuring house grilled potatoes and a delicious pairing of Balsamic Reduction & Garlic Mayo. Dubbed the “MAGIC Salad” by one of our customers because it is so spectacular.
“Our heart has always been about creating a place where people feel at home,” say David and Betsy Wood. “Towne Café reflects who we are today — a chef-driven café experience built around incredible food, great coffee, and community.”
Our hospitality and our charming and eclectic decor make our guest feel welcome.
We are open 7 days a week
We serve in our restaurant and accept orders online and on our app. We can also be found on Door Dash.
We have a drive through window for convenient food pick up and for ordering drinks.
We have a burgeoning catering business, including Coffee service, Breakfast, Lunch, Hors d’oeuvres and Dinner too!
Our Café is available to host events and can include drinks and food if you would like.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 17% of restaurants close in the first year and 50-60% fail within the first 5 years! Add those statistics to opening during a pandemic and you could definitely call us risk takers!
While you may think that we are crazy, we were actually very calculated with our decisions. David has a culinary degree, years or experience in MANY kinds of food businesses and business degree! In addition to delicious menu design, he is an expert in margin and inventory management. Betsy’s 30+ years’ experience in design and branding provided a cohesive identity and welcoming environment. In addition to our extensive skill sets, we chose to start SMALL. Our first location, where we proved our concept, required very little investment.
Our second location was a much larger risk, but we had proven our concept, the projections were sound and having in-house marketing and design kept our budgets manageable.
Don’t get me wrong, this this process included much nail biting and second guessing, but second guessing and nail biting are important because they make sure we are fine tuning and responding to challenges.
Most important of all is the abilities to envision, believe and trust!
Pricing:
- Well priced!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.towne.cafe
- Instagram: TowneCafeColumbiaTN
- Facebook: TowneCafeColumbiaTN
