Shot of gratitude: Coffee shop damaged by truck collision reopens, celebrating with thank you event

Anchor Island is planning an official grand opening celebration and ribbon cutting ceremony Saturday, less than three months after the tropical-themed coffee shop at 41st and Troost suffered damage to its front entrance when a speeding truck careened into the building.

The crash occurred after hours, so no one was injured. However, Anchor Island was closed for two weeks and used crowdsourced funding to continue paying its employees and afford the unexpected repairs.

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Co-owners Armando Vasquez and Mike Hastings opened Anchor Island in March 2020, and the COVID-19 pandemic prevented a grand opening ceremony at that time.

Mike Hastings and Armando Vasquez, Anchor Island Coffee

Anchor Island

Given the recent remodel of the space, Vasquez said that now felt like the perfect time to celebrate with and thank the coffee shop’s customers for their support.

“It makes more sense to do it now, because now we have a bigger customer base than we did in 2020,” Vasquez said. “We went through a very hard moment with COVID, and then another moment with the crash, but now we’re finally at the point where we can afford to do something nice for our customers.”

Anchor Island will offer free drip coffee, hot chocolate, and homemade tamales to customers on Saturday, in addition to raffle prizes.

Coffee will be provided by Meta Coffee Roasting Co., a single-origin local roaster that does not typically roast for coffee shops.

Hours of operation are set for 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with the ribbon cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. Saturday. The Mid-America LGBT Chamber of Commerce and KCMO LGBT Commission will assist with the ribbon cutting.

Saturday’s event will also coincide with the first day of Anchor Island’s “15 Days of Vendmas,” in which different local craft vendors will be in-store each day displaying and selling their products. For the grand opening celebration, at least 12 vendors will be on site.

Anchor Island

Artist Kobi Nolan’s mural is expected to be revealed Saturday at the event, and three other local artists whose work is displayed inside the coffee shop are also set for a meet and greet.

The goal of “15 Days of Vendmas” — for which Anchor Island partnered with Art Garden KC — is to highlight local small businesses, makers, and entrepreneurs, Vasquez said.

“We are focusing on supporting the small businesses,” Vasquez said. “We were doing that way before the crash, and [especially] now, we wanna be able to give back to the community.”

Customer and community support has been vital to Anchor Island’s ability to reopen and remodel so quickly, Vasquez said, noting that it was customers and friends who started a GoFundMe campaign and offered their time to help with repairs.

“The community came together, and that was nice to know that even though we’ve only been open for a very short amount of time. . . they were willing to help,” Vasquez said. “It definitely felt like we weren’t alone, like we were part of the community, and that’s why we were able to reopen so fast.”

“This is kind of a way of saying thank you to our customers for being there for us,” Vasquez continued. “It doesn’t matter how many times we say it, we’re very grateful to have them.”

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This story is possible thanks to support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a private, nonpartisan foundation that works together with communities in education and entrepreneurship to create uncommon solutions and empower people to shape their futures and be successful.

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