New owners of The Corner want all to feel welcome

GREENFIELD — They serve up drinks, breakfast and lunch to customers every day, but Jesse and Talli Ramey say they’ve been served a lot of learning opportunities and new friendships since they’ve owned and operated The Corner coffee shop in Greenfield.

Jesse Ramey says that owning a restaurant of his own has always been a dream of his.

“I’ve worked in bars and grills, I’ve been a kitchen manager in a restaurant before, and I was ready to put the corporate life behind me,” Jesse Ramey said, adding he most recently worked for Microsoft.

The Rameys talked to the business’ founders, Tom and Tammy Walk, who were interested in moving to a new avenue of life.

“We started talking about it and started talking to Tom and Tammy more and more as people who were interested. We started talking about the financials to see what we could do.”

In his past, Jesse Ramey has experience in the restaurant industry. The Waukee native helped start a bar and grill chain that spans multiple states and worked in several other eateries earlier on in his career. Talli Ramey remembers working in about every restaurant there was in Greenfield when she was in high school and college.

The Rameys have come to grasp the role of a coffee shop in the life of a community. They have regular customers that they’ve met who came in when the Walks owned The Corner, and lots of people visit the shop who are not from here.

“We’re more than just the coffee. We’re one of the few sit-down restaurants in town and are the only one serving breakfast,” Talli Ramey said. “We bring a diverse community of people in between the coffee, the breakfast, and even lunch.”

The Rameys have updated the seating in the store and want all to feel welcome. Right now, they’re focusing on drinks and food, although having gift items for sale may be explored in the future. Another goal the Rameys have is for The Corner to become an even bigger presence in the community than it has been before.

“We have the tables, the couches...we want people to feel at home and welcome,” Talli Ramey said. “If they need to sit down and chat with people for a few hours to catch up with friends, or if they want to pick up a quick order to go, we’re trying to meet everyone’s needs.”