RIVER FALLS – The highly anticipated Waystone Coffee has opened its doors to the public. A life-long dream brought to reality, owners Olivia and Steve Barwick are ecstatic to see it all come together.

“We are really happy with how everything turned out and we are so thankful for the community's support,” said Olivia Barwick.

The grand opening took place on March 5, and many local coffee lovers stopped in to see the new space, located at 115 E. Walnut St. The shop was so busy that they ended up running out of ingredients, something they did not anticipate happening.

“We had planned to be able to get through the first few days that we would be open with the supplies we had; we were really happy with the outpouring of support from the community and to be honest I don’t know if we expected such a big turnout and so many people coming in to support us,” said Steve Barwick.

The local coffee shop grew immensely within just the first day of being open. Their social media following on Facebook doubled after their grand opening and many people left supportive comments and reviews.

Olivia Barwick said, “We didn’t have a ton of followers on Facebook. I think we started the day with maybe 300 people and then by the end of the day we had 700 followers and so many people were supportive.”

The couple is very appreciative of the support that the community has shown them since opening at the beginning of March. They have restocked and reopened their doors again and hope to stay open permanently.

The Waystone Coffee Co. is inspired by a book of which the two are very fond. The message in the book inspired this new project of theirs. They are very excited to share a space with the River Falls community that is inclusive and serves as a spot to relax.

In a previous interview Steve Barwick said, “The name came from a favorite author of ours based out of Stevens Point, the KingKiller Chronicles, mentions a place called the Waystone and it represents a place you can stop and rest and that really resonated with us.”

The menu features some specialty drinks: Half of them are coffee and half are teas. Many of these specialty drinks were a crowd favorite during the grand opening. According to the Barwicks, some of the most popular drinks so far are the “Ranger,” the “Paladin” and the “Barbarian.”

The couple also has their own favorite drinks. Olivia Barwick’s favorite is the “Druid.”

“It is a matcha latte with peppermint, that would have to be my favorite,” she said.

Steve Barwick’s go-to menu item is the “Ranger.”

“That would have to be my favorite, it is a white chocolate mocha with cinnamon syrup,” he said. “It kind of tastes like a cinnamon roll.”

After months of hard work, they are happy to finally be able to bring their dream to life each day. Along the way, they hit a few obstacles and challenges, but now that the shop is mostly complete, they look back on the journey with optimism.

“There were times when we questioned if we were doing the right thing and each time something would come up and there was another obstacle, we questioned whether this is really something we wanted to do, but now looking back on it, overall it feels really good to be open and everything is going really well,” said Steve Barwick.

The couple had planned to open in October, but had to delay, in part due to supply chain issues.

Inside the coffee shop, there are accents of sage green and an accent wall, painted by Olivia Barwick herself. She used her previous background as an art teacher to complete some of the techniques and really bring the vision to life.

During the grand opening, with the large number of customers that showed their support for the new coffee shop, the Barwicks realized they may need more hands on-deck going forward.

“Something we are so thankful for with the community is a community that understands and that we are learning and working it all out as we go,” said Olivia Barwick.

They are currently hiring and are excited to start expanding their staff so soon after opening.

The extra employees will be training in the coming weeks and will help with the flow of customers as they continue to get a routine down and improve the overall experience for customers.

The Barwicks want to ensure quality in their product; they craft each drink to the way they know they want it and all the ingredients are fresh and ethically sourced.

“One of our biggest focuses is using fresh ingredients as much as possible and not using older ingredients, same thing with our choice of matcha, our matcha is a ceremonial grade matcha,” said Steve Barwick.

They offer a variety of caffeinated and decaffeinated options for customers, including espresso drinks, iced and hot coffee and teas.

Now that the doors are open, they hope to continue improving and working with the local community and other local businesses in River Falls. They want to become more involved as they continue to grow their business. They hope to host events in the near future and partner with other local businesses to bring the community together this summer.

Waystone Coffee Co. is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays. To find out more information and updates about Waystone, visit their social media pages on Facebook and Instagram at Waystone Coffee Co.