Behind the Counter with Espresso Donut Co.'s Ben Miller

manager Ben Miller no longer owns the business, but he’s still the face of the coffee and doughnut shop just north of 10th Street and Helmo Avenue. Miller went to school for law enforcement, and had worked for Target Corporation for 13 years in asset protection and logistics before making a major career shift into the coffee business about two years ago. The shop has recently extended its hours, and they’re starting to offer musical entertainment some Saturday nights. Watch its Facebook page for live music dates and times. Oakdale Patch Editor Patty Busse talked with Miller about his background and life at the shop.

Oakdale Patch: When you first took over as manager of the shop, what changes did you make?

Ben Miller: Having come from Target, everything is the guest service piece. I wanted people to feel like they were walking into their house when they walked in here. You can have the greatest coffee in the world, but if someone comes in and has a bad experience, they’re not going to come back. I’m not saying that you can have the greatest service and horrible—I mean we’ve got good stuff too, and so obviously that helps, but that interaction with the customers is the No. 1 thing for me and the rest of the team. We know 75 percent of the people that come in by first name. It’s almost like when Norm walks into the bar in Cheers.

Oakdale Patch: What did you do when you worked at Target?

Miller: For the first 10 years I was in assets protection. The shoplifting cases or internal thefts, we investigated all of those. Then for the last two-and-a-half years, I went into logistics. That was a lot of unloading trucks and making sure the store was stocked full every night. I miss a lot of the people at Target, but I wouldn’t go back. I wouldn’t trade this for anything.

Oakdale Patch: After you decided to sell the store back to the previous owner, what made you want to keep working at the coffee shop?

Miller: The opportunity kind of just fell into my lap when I first took it over. I wasn’t a coffee drinker. I had never owned a business. So I had no experience and really shouldn’t have even done it, but I just thought,” I don’t want to think 10 years from now, what if I would have taken that place on? I wonder what it could have been like.” So I just thought let’s go for it. I had been sending out hundreds of resumes and not hearing anything back. I just thought, “Well let’s really give this a shot,” and I just fell in love with it. It’s just my thing. I just love making and creating things for people I love the interaction with the customers and getting to know people. I don’t know, everybody’s good at something and I just found what I’m good at. I just figured if I can’t have it, but I can find a way to stay here and continue to work and I can find a way for Espresso Donut Co. keep sales moving in the right direction and everything, that’s what I wanted to do. If you had told me five years ago that I’d be doing this, I would have said you’re nuts. I just lucked out, I think. I just fell into it and it just worked out and I love it and I’ll do it as long as I can.

Oakdale Patch: How did you fall into it? 

Miller: The owner, I had hired his niece as a seasonal person for Target, and when I was leaving she said, “What are you going to do next?” and I said, “I’m not really sure,” and she said, “Well, my aunt and uncle have several coffee shops and they’re kind of looking for somebody to be general manager,” so I just gave her my resume. A couple weeks later they called and sat down and we went and visited the shops. A couple weeks after that, it was, all right, in January come do your thing.

Oakdale Patch: Do you drink coffee now?

Miller: I don’t. My wife drinks more than enough for both of us. I’m the only one in my family that doesn’t. I drink frappes, smoothies, a lot of the cold stuff where I can throw in a ton of flavor. When I first got into this and went for some training they said, “You’ve got to taste this, just drink the espresso.” So we pull shots of the espresso and I was like, “Why would you do that to me? I’m ready to quit now, I don’t want to drink that. It’s horrible. It’s scorching hot and it doesn’t taste good.” But I’m glad people love it. I’ve just never been able to acquire a taste for it.

Editor’s Note: This article is the first in a series on locally owned, independent Oakdale businesses. We’re doing this series in conjunction with Oakdale’s , a campaign to encourage residents to choose three local businesses they’d hate to lose and pledge to spend $50 total at those businesses each month. If you have a shop you would like to see us feature, email patty.busse@patch.com.