By Robert Williams

Editor

The Monarch Coffee House made a big impact from the opening of its doors in March of 2024 and has gained a loyal patronage from customers both locally and from around the region.

“It’s been a ride,” Owner Heather Perrine said.

That ride came with a steep learning curve for a first-time owner who had to make business decisions on the fly.

“Just growth and learning to change all the time,” Perrine said. “We’ve been riding those waves of unchartered waters in our community. We’ve never had one before. I’ve never owned one before. So, it’s been a lot of hit and miss and try again.”

Perrine went into her business knowing it would not be a perfect first year, but that was a challenge she accepted wholeheartedly.

“I thrive in that environment,” she said. “There’s always room for growth.”

Local support for The Monarch was evident from the grand opening on, but as word got around, Perrine found that patronage was consistently coming from outside of Frazee.

“Honestly, the biggest surprise was the support from other communities. Some of my biggest supporters are people I never knew,” she said. “I have women that come from Detroit Lakes three, sometimes four times a week. To me, that was mindblowing. I have people that come from Perham, Menahga, Moorhead, and even further.”

The Monarch has become home on Sundays for a group of three women who all travel from different parts of North Dakota.

“I kid you not,” Perrine said. “It started out as hey, there’s this new coffee shop, let’s try it out and we built this relationship and now almost every Sunday this is their little gathering place. They have no other connections to our community. To me, that’s been the biggest wow—that we can make those connections from that far and bring people here to our little community of Frazee.”

A common compliment of The Monarch is the decor with the standout orange furnishings and art to the pleasant and classy vibe of the coffee shop.

“I hear that a lot,” said Perrine. “It doesn’t matter who you are. If you’re a mom with a bunch of kids—kids love the little play center. It might be a group of grandmas coming in or I’ve got groups of men that come in. It doesn’t matter who you are or what walk of life you come from, I think everybody finds something to connect with here.”

Perrine has also made strong connections with her staff. She hired a lot of baristas in the beginning to allow her employees the freedom to decide if they wanted to be part of the team or not. First year tribulations, whether it was the business or the employees, was a personal journey for everyone and at the end of the first year Perrine has what she calls a “family” with the people who work for her.

“Serving coffees isn’t for everybody, but I have the best staff,” Perrine said. “These kids are phenomenal. There is one employee who is older than me. The rest of these girls are 16, 17 and 18. A lot of them, it was their first-time job. I was fortunate to have good mentors in my life that gave me a good work ethic. One of them in particular was at Go Putt N Bump, one of my first jobs, Tim Shaw. I spent six years working for him and he always taught me something. He always taught me something and never made me feel like I was just an employee. He always made me feel valued and my role in the job made it successful. That’s something I try to bring on my girls too. It’s truly a family. They’re just remarkable. I’m blessed.”

The majority of Perrine’s staff have been with her since day one.

“For first-time employees, to me that’s impressive and it speaks about these kids,” she said.

Perrine and her staff have strived to serve a variety of items to please first-time and repeat customers alike. Many of those decisions have come off the cuff as the store built a year full of information to use to help with those choices.

“I have made some changes and there is more to come,” said Perrine.

Perrine has used special menus, and specialty items that coincide with holidays to spice up options on the food and drink menus.

Variety has been a change that has happened all around downtown Frazee as eateries became a business trend of its own.

“That’s where Frazee was before we all came in, Alecia and Patty and CornerStone,” said Perrine. “It was the same food that we’ve been getting for how many years? We needed a variety. We needed change.”

Third Crossing has also joined in with their own weekly specials after new manager Amanda Young took over.

“That’s what Frazee needed,” Perrine said. “Change is good and I think our community can attest to that. We all put in some blood, sweat and tears into getting this.”

Perrine and her team also did an incredible job of making a big change to the most prominent downtown building and out of respect for that created a space that customers love and that vibe pays its own respects to the history of the space.”

“To keep a building that we already have and to renovate it; I love this building,” Perrine said. “This building is a special building for our community. It’s an honor to own it. It’s an honor to work out of it.”

More menu changes are coming in year two and Perrine is looking forward to building on what she learned in 2024.

“Now that we have a year under our belt I feel like we have some data to work with,” Perrine said. “I like data. I like to compare. That’s going to be my goal this year is watching that and seeing really how I can do things differently for the future and continue this growth.”