My Biz: Coffeeshop touts its treats and a place to meet

By Rebecca Groff, correspondent

Name: Cathy Petersen

Title: Owner

Company: Witte's End Coffeehouse

Address: 630 10th St., Marion

Phone: (319)573-2277

Website: www.wittesend.com

Elevator pitch: “A delightful place to stop, sit, savor and begin again.”

Freshly ground coffee isn't the only pleasant aroma that awaits you inside Witte's End Coffeehouse on Fridays and Saturdays.

On those two days, owner Cathy Petersen bakes small batches of cinnamon rolls.

“It's first come, first serve. When they're gone, they're gone,” she said, adding that they always sell out.

Prospective customers need not worry about finding something delectable to accompany their cup of coffee, however.

“Our scones are what we are known for,” Petersen explained, noting frosted maple oat is one of the shop's specialties. “We put a little bit of maple in our frosting.”

Petersen maintains a recipe repertoire of 28 flavors that she works from, depending on the season and what she feels like baking.

Petersen runs the shop with the help of 5 part-time employees and does all the baking of the nearly 150 scones they sell every week as well as the coffee cakes.

“I've always loved to bake,” she said. “In grade school, my girlfriend and I used to get together and bake chocolate chip cookies in her mother's kitchen. I can only imagine the mess we must have left.”

The shop is open five days a week, and Petersen bakes every afternoon after they close at 2 o'clock.

A graphic artist by training, she worked at AEGON (now re-branding itself as Transamerica) for 10 years before taking a part-time position with Mount Mercy College. When a friend mentioned that a new bakery was opening in Marion, she jumped at the chance to do the thing she loved to do.

“Julie Hardin was opening Jule's Bakery, so I sent her an email,” Petersen recalled, noting she didn't even know Hardin at the time.

“I wrote her, ‘You don't know me, but I like to bake,' and soon after Hardin hired her. “I got to see everything from the ground floor up.”

She worked six years for Hardin.

She was already doing some of the baking for Witte's End owner, Deb Witte, when an offer to buy the shop fell through. Petersen said she and her husband hated to see such a successful business close.

“We prayed, crunched some numbers and prayed some more, and in January 2010 we bought the business and I assumed the role of Chief Scone-maker and Coffee Brewer,” she recalled.

On owning a business, Petersen said, “Ten to 15 years down the line, I didn't want to regret not trying it.”

Witte's End imparts a bit of that Cheers Bar atmosphere in that the customers are regulars and everyone knows the routine.

“If I get caught up in a busy rush, some of my customers will clear dishes to help out. I've even had one customer go into the kitchen and start washing them for me.”