When Kent and Velma Crane decided to open up a store nearly 19 years ago, they admit they had no idea what they were getting into.
"We were both completely different professions," Mr. Crane said. I was a mortgage banker, she was a dental hygienist. And we were just sitting around and said, 'Hey, wouldn't it be fun if we bought and sold antiques?'"
After two years of renovations — including extensive ceiling repairs and hand-cleaning of each brick — the Cranes were ready to open what they hoped would be a warm and inviting spot in Wylie, Texas. The only trouble: downtown at the time was barren.
"Oh my gosh, when we first opened on a Saturday, you could stand in the middle of the street and hold a conversation and not worry about getting hit by a car, because downtown was dead," Mr. Crane said.
Since then, downtown Wylie has become the go-to place for retail, and Shoemaker & Hardt Coffee Shop and Country Store has grown with it, becoming what many residents believe is its symbolic heart.
"There's a lot of people that came in as children, are now bringing their children in," Crane said. "We have people who've grown up with Shoemaker & Hardt. Those people feel like an ownership. They feel like this is their place. And we like that."
But it's not just coffee and a cozy environment that make this store special. The Cranes have turned their love for rare finds into a mini-museum of the weird. For customers who take the time to look around, bizarre attractions are everywhere.
"We have a stuffed baboon in the front, another baboon in the back," Mr. Crane said. He's also happy to point out Bobo the Petrified Dog, Willie the Warthog and a hairless skunk to anyone who asks.
"People love that stuff. Don't necessarily want to buy it, but people like that it's here. Although we have sold a possum before," Crane said.
It's an environment that draws inevitable comparison to its nearest competitor: a Starbucks just minutes south on Highway 78. Mr. Crane is hesitant to dismiss the national coffee chain, chalking it up to a matter of taste. But he does have one more story in his collection, if you really push him to talk about it.
"At one time we had a young man that would come in early in the morning, and get his coffee. And after a few weeks, he said he's the manager of a local Starbucks," Mr. Crane recalled. "But he just can't — he says, 'I watch you make the drinks, but I just can't make it come out the same when I get to work!' And I thought that was kind of interesting. We've had many Starbucks employees that were our customers. And you know, it may be the other way around."
