Joe Kennedy

Joe Kennedy is routinely named the region's best writer by readers of The Roanoker magazine.

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When Jim Patterson and Jeanie Brownlow went to premarital counseling after knowing each other for only a few months, the counselor asked if they were sure they wanted to take on marriage again.

"He tried everything to scare us out of it," Patterson recalled.

The counselor pointed out that second marriages fail more often than first ones.

He noted that discipline often divides blended families, and he undoubtedly looked askance at the size of their brood Jim's four children and Jeanie's three.

None of that mattered to the couple. Both divorced and already acquainted through their children's softball games, they met for coffee in Salem on March 14, 2005, and immediately bonded.

They married eight months later, on November 11.

By then they and their children had gradually gotten to know one another better. Twice they traveled en masse to theme parks, and everyone got along.

It was good preparation for their ensuing ride.

On May 14, the Pattersons stepped off another cliff by opening a Daily Grind coffee shop in the West Village shopping complex in Southwest Roanoke County.

Gradual adjustment

Jim is the Allstate Insurance sales manager for basically half of Virginia. He grew up in Dublin in Pulaski County.

Jeanie was a registered nurse. She grew up in Mexico, where her parents were missionaries.

His retail experience came while he was at the University of Richmond, removing unruly patrons from off-campus bars.

Jeanie had no business experience.

Tuesday the shop had its grand opening.

Friday morning, both agreed that the swift current of their recent lives has carried them far. Business has been steady and they are learning as they go.

Neither would say it has been easy.

"Everything's hard," Jim said. "If it wasn't hard, everybody would do it."

Harking back to the theme-park story, he laughed and recalled that soon after they opened the shop, a frazzled Jeanie said, "I want off this ride."

Fortunately, they are young -- he's 44 and she is 45 -- and hardy enough to take it.

Fortunately, the long hours of the early weeks have become more manageable, thanks to their staff and their day manager, Jill Mabry.

Scheduling remains Jeanie's most onerous task, especially now that new employees are coming in because seven of their 15 to 18 existing ones are returning to school. She'd rather be up front, helping customers, than in back, acting like an owner.

Many Roanokers hear the words Daily Grind and think of an early coffee shop on Grandin Road Southwest.

The Pattersons' and the one in Salem, with different owners, are franchised out of Winchester.

The company's Web site says franchise applicants must pay a $30,000 initial fee and may expect to make a total startup investment from about $160,700 to $353,000.

The Daily Grind's menu includes sandwiches, pastries, various drinks and gelato, or Italian ice cream.

I've known Jim since the late '90s, when his daughter Chelsea and my daughter Katherine played travel soccer and, later, at Hidden Valley High School.

Four kids seemed like a lot back then. Seven would seem an impossible number, if one of my brothers didn't have nine.

When asked why they opened a small business and why they chose to do it now, Jim said Jeanie wanted to try something new, something that would involve using her brain.

I thought, "Why not crossword puzzles?"

But she is younger and braver than I am.

They believe that having a family business will educate their children as it educates them.

Jim works about 50 hours per week for Allstate and another 20 hours at the coffee shop.

Jeanie works mornings and afternoons with breaks for household chores, child transportation and the like.

Their business philosophy is one he has lived by for years: "Take your job and your role in life seriously. Do not take yourself seriously."

"It's very exciting but very hard," Jeanie said. "I have a whole new respect for small businesses."

Joe Kennedy's column runs Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.