Interesting Neighbors

A shared dream for a McClain County couple was realized in February when a long vacant coffee shop on State Highway 74 north of Washington reopened.

Alison Higgins recently shared the Trek Coffee story on Facebook

Alison was born in Norman and was 5 years old when the family “took a little adventure” and moved to Crested Butte, Colo.

There her father built custom homes and her mother was a real estate agent.

And Alison? The Rockies were her playground

That is until 2008 when the family moved back to Oklahoma. Her father wanted to open a coffee shop. He named the enterprise the Great Outdoors Coffee Company.

Alison said he wanted to have a feeling of being back in Colorado.

Other business opportunities arose for him and the Great Outdoors Coffee Company closed in 2010.

In 2014, Alison met her future husband, Addison Self.

“And we started dreaming of the life we would have together,” Alison said.

There were multiple ideas and possibilities, all discarded but one.

“For some reason the conversation always came back to coffee,” she continued.

In 2021, the couple looked at every option – coffee trailers, leases in Newcastle, Norman, Moore and elsewhere. Nothing quite fit until Alison’s father insisted they reopen his little cabin.

“We took the leap and went for it and we’re so happy we did,” Alison said.

The couple opened Trek Coffee Company two months ago. Addison is the owner and Alison is in charge of marketing and social media. She also owns a business on Instagram. Trek Coffee calls itself a café and roastery and offers a drive-through.

Addison roasts and grinds the coffee beans and utilizes coffee grounds in products such as handmade coffee soap and a coffee sugar scrub for the skin.

Business has steadily grown, including out-of-state customers who learn of the shop from Alison’s posts on Instagram.

She has a large following and Addison said travelers passing through Oklahoma make the short detour from I-35 to Trek Coffee. And there are a growing number of return customers, too.

“Our goal is to be a destination coffee shop,” Alison said. “We have great feedback and no complaints.”

That is helping to grow the business and achieve their goal of making Trek Coffee  a destination coffee shop.