Avid customers become owners of Las Sendas coffee shop
Oct. 26—During visits from their native Michigan to their second home in Mesa, Barb and Tim Beaubine became big fans of Hava Java Coffee Shop on Power and McDowell roads.
They liked the ambience — and, of course, the coffee — at the 2-year-old Las Sendas sister of the 30-year-old Hava Java in Phoenix's Biltmore district that lays claim to being the second oldest coffee shop in Arizona, behind Macy's in Flagstaff.
But when the Beaubines read a Mesa Tribune story about Hava Java about nine months ago, their hearts were stirred by an idea that made them think of Hava Java as more than a place for a morning visit or a hangout on Friday nights when live music entertains patrons.
They had the notion they might want to own it.
Tim, a life-long worker in the tool-and-die industry, and Barb, a Realtor with a degree in retail management and marketing, approached owner Justin Shafer and asked him if he wanted to sell.
The couple had been scaling down their motorcycle shop and repair business in Michigan and were thinking they might want to stop treating Mesa as a second home and simply resettle here.
To their surprise, Tim recalled, Shafer was receptive. He said Shafer in some ways lamented opening the Mesa spinoff two years ago — just before the pandemic hit — and lamented the distance he had to drive between the two spots and how he wanted to spend more time with his kids.
The Beaubines were intrigued — but pulled back.
"I said I've got way too much on my plate right now," Tim recalled telling Shafer, reluctantly walking away from what he called "a great offer."
That reluctance didn't last long.
A few days later, they deplaned back in Michigan, Tim said, and "we stopped at one of our local restaurants, had a glass of wine and I looked at my wife and said, 'Well, either the universe is messing with us or this is good opportunity.'"
They got on the phone to Shafer, started looking at the numbers, began negotiations in earnest and, one month ago, the Hava Java Coffee House in Las Sendas became theirs.
The Beaubines are not changing the name. They are keeping "a wonderful staff" they feel blessed with. And while they might tweak the menu down the road, they're taking it slow.
"We didn't want to come in with guns blazing and make a bunch of changes," Tim said. "It would really be the kiss of death for us to come in here and just start making changes."
Besides, they had little choice but to take things slow with their new business because they were busy making Mesa their permanent home.
"We literally moved from Michigan about a week before we took possession of the shop," Tim said. "We had a full-blown house there. We have a full-blown house here. So what do you do with all that furniture? ...We ended up putting a lot in storage here but it was quite a chore getting down here — and it was a whirlwind.
"Our friends thought we were crazy because it was kind of sudden...But, you know, this is our retirement."
Obviously, the Beaubines aren't doing much retiring.
"We're on-site managers. We're getting to know our customers. We don't know all the ins and outs of the coffee business yet, so we're still in training," Tim said, explaining that Barb is licensed both in Michigan and Arizona, so she'll still be working in real estate.
On the other hand, he added, he and his wife of 42 years met with the staff and "we introduced ourselves, got their ideas about what's working, what's not working."
"We told them 'we're gonna be here every day with you guys' and they're very excited," he said, adding that he and his wife will involve the entire staff in taste-testing new menu items before they put anything new before patrons.
And they're determined to keep alive the thing about the business that led them to become owners in the first place.
"Our coffee shop has a very organic feel to it," Tim said.
"You can grab a coffee to go. Or if you want to sit at your computer and do a little work, you can do that too.
"We've got a group of older guys that come in every morning and sit around the table ...That's one of the things that we liked about it and I don't want to lose that. We certainly don't want to lose the atmosphere."
Hava Java Coffee
2849 N. Power Road, Mesa
480-912-5282
