PJ's Coffee celebrated 10 years in El Dorado last week with a block party that stretched from the storefront at Main and Washington down to Elm Street.
Angela Curry, who manages the cafe with her husband Chris, said the party was held exactly 10 years to the day after the coffee shop first opened on Sept. 30, 2011.
Originally from Louisiana, the Currys moved to El Dorado so Angela could take a job at a local company; but when the opportunity to manage the new PJ's franchise presented itself to her about two month after the new shop had opened its doors, she couldn't say no, she said.
"It just kind of fell in our lap. I got contracted to come to El Dorado for another job, and then I was here for a year, and then I was asked to do PJ's," she said. "My husband was already employed there for two months, and then two months after it opened, I took over the store."
In the last 10 years, the Currys have transformed PJ's from a corporate franchise to a locally-conscious staple of the community. Starting from coffee beans and pastries, the shop has now expanded to connect to the El Dorado Creamery with the Spot that sits between the shops, a place for students to study, for friends to meet or for workers to catch up on emails; a winebar for evening visitors; and a venue for local and regional bands and musicians to share their talents.
"I love it. Coffee is my passion, and so is management, so I mean, (it's) perfect," Angela Curry said. "We've grown lot. We took your normal, standard coffee shop into a winebar-slash-live music venue. We're trying to put a little bit of what New Orleans is into El Dorado."
Ten years under their belts, Anglea Curry said the next step for PJ's could be a mobile coffee bar for catering events.
"So many people ask, 'hey, can you come set up a coffee bar,' and it's like, we're not portable. So now we're looking into it," she said.
The coffee shop is also host to several annual parties, on New Years and Halloween, and that experience is part of what led the Currys to celebrate the milestone 10 year anniversary in El Dorado with the free block party last Thursday.
"It just seemed fitting. ... I didn't build PJ's; the community and I built PJ's," Angela Curry said. "We didn't charge for anything, just free fun, just to say thanks. It was a milestone, you know? We thought the customers needed to be celebrated."
Angela Curry said PJ's success wouldn't be possible without the community, and now, she's looking forward to another 10 years or more.
"Thank you for the last 10 years of support. We love El Dorado," she said. "We're in the perfect spot with coffee and small town. We're not going anywhere."