Sep. 26—A locally owned coffee business in an extraordinary location is close to marking its one-year anniversary in Moscow.
Silos & Social occupies the ground floor of a building in a small portion of a landmark grain elevator complex that towers over downtown Moscow along U.S. Highway 95, near the intersection of South Jackson and Sixth streets.
The century-old facility hasn't been used for agricultural storage for at least 15 years. But a handful of ventures, including Silos & Social, operate on the site owned by Andrew Crapuchettes, a Moscow-area entrepreneur.
The menu features a mix of breakfast and lunch entrees, as well as more than 25 caffeinated and un-caffeinated beverages.
A seasonal breakfast sandwich with eggs, bacon and maple cream cheese that uses waffles in place of bread ($7.25) has been one of the most popular food items, said Maya Clark, who owns Silos & Social with her daughter, Danielle Clark.
On the liquid side, an espresso drink called Cafe Borgia ($4.50 for 16 ounces) has been a bestseller, she said. It's similar to a mocha, only not as sweet and flavored with orange.
They tried 60 kinds of coffee before settling on Ruby Coffee Roasters, a Wisconsin company that sells beans with such rich flavors a number of customers have told them they no longer use cream, said Maya Clark.
"It has notes of chocolate and fig," she said. "It's a smooth, pleasant blend."
Business has grown gradually, but steadily, greatly exceeding their expectations for the first year, Clark said.
That trend is expected to continue. They're adding beer and wine in the late afternoon and evenings after obtaining a license to do so.
Customers gather for business meetings and study groups at tables with hard wood tops the Clarks built themselves. Some of the tables are wrapped around cement pillars, one of the most obvious reminders of the building's previous use.
Grain used to be stored in giant bins at the site before it was loaded onto rail cars outside, she said.
The Clarks placed couches, stuffed chairs and rugs on polished cement floors to soften the atmosphere. Abundant natural light streams in from more than 10-foot-tall windows installed before the Clarks took over the space.
"(My daughter) wanted something that fit a silo, but something that would make it homey and comfortable," Maya Clark said.
In addition to being owners, each Clark oversees different parts of the business. The elder Clark is the head baker and cook who develops the menu of food that changes seasonally.
The kitchen has two ovens, but no stove, so they improvised with appliances such as InstaPots where they cook eggs, Maya Clark said.
"We try to keep everything pretty homemade," she said. "Our recipes have that feel to them."
She was a math and science teacher for junior high and high school students before the business opened, most recently at a private Christian school in the Sacramento, Calif., area.
A former barista at Starbucks, Dutch Bros and a number of independent coffee businesses, Danielle Clark is responsible for the beverages.
The Clarks moved to Moscow after Maya Clark's husband took a job at Lightcast, a company that collects and analyzes labor market data to help communities, schools and corporations make decisions.
"We want to serve the community," Maya Clark said. "That's where our heart is."
Silos & Social is open 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
What other plans there are for the grain elevator site are not clear. Crapuchettes was not immediately available for comment.
He is the founder and CEO of RedBalloon.work, which helps "non-woke businesses find the right talent to grow their organization and culture," according to Crapuchettes' LinkedIn page. A former CEO of Lightcast, Crapuchettes is listed as a parish elder on the website of Christ Church in Moscow.
Moscow's Marketime Drug closes after more than 70 years
Trends in the insurance industry helped force one of Moscow's last independently owned pharmacies out of business.
Marketime Drug at 872 Troy Road, Suite 120, closed Aug. 31. The prescriptions of customers have been transferred to Moscow's Safeway.
Two Marketime employees, a pharmacist and a pharmacy technician, took new jobs there, said Erik Nelson, the pharmacist who owned Marketime at the time it closed.
Founded in 1952, Marketime faced a number of challenges, said Nelson, who acquired the business in 2018 and moved it from downtown to Troy Road in 2020.
Reimbursement rates from insurance providers were less than acquisition costs for close to 50% of its prescriptions, Nelson said.
"When the pharmacy is getting paid below its cost to acquire the drug to the tune of up to hundreds of dollars it doesn't take too long to realize that is an unsustainable business model," Nelson said in a letter he sent to customers.
Marketime lost hundreds of customers when patients insured by Kaiser Permanente were required to fill maintenance medications through Kaiser Permanente's own mail-order pharmacy, Nelson said.
Direct and indirect remuneration fees that are "clawed back" from pharmacies as long as six months after purchases also played a role in Marketime's demise, he said.
At Marketime, those fees jumped from $50,520 in 2021 to $88,527 in 2022 and had reached $61,938 at Marketime in 2023 before the pharmacy closed, Nelson said.
"These fees are taken directly from pharmacies and go straight back to the insurance companies," according to Nelson's letter.
Nelson's three other pharmacies remain open. They are facing pressures similar to Marketime, but they are not as severe, he said.
The three pharmacies are Koru Pharmacy and Sixth Avenue Medical Pharmacy, both in Spokane, and Suncrest Pharmacy in Nine Mile Falls, Wash.
One of the few solutions, Nelson said, is for consumers to contact state and local legislators about the issues.
Spirit Halloween branch opens in Moscow
A different type of home decor is being sold in the former location of Bed Bath & Beyond at Palouse Mall in Moscow.
Spirit Halloween is a temporary tenant of the space at 1966 Pullman Road, according to the website of the national chain of seasonal stores. The retailer has also returned to a location in Lewiston it's used in recent years, at a building that once housed Kmart at 1815 21st St.
Founded in 1983, Spirit Halloween is the largest Halloween retailer in North America with more than 1,450 pop-up locations in strip malls and shopping centers that begin to open as early as July every year, according to its website.
Among a dozen categories of popular merchandise are "killer klowns decor, horror movie babies (and)...ghost face," according to the website.
The store is known for its selection of costumes for children, teenagers and adults in addition to decor and "exclusive jaw-dropping" animatronics, according to the website.
"Spirit has cemented its position as the premier destination for all things Halloween," according to the website. "Spirit knows how to have so much fun, it's scary."
Spirit Halloween's online store operates year round. It has an 866 telephone number for a "Zombie Tech Squad" that helps customers with installation and repairs of props, animatronics, fog machines and spooky lighting.
Barber opens new venture in Lewiston Orchards
LEWISTON — A barber who honed her craft at the Locker Room in Lewiston has opened her own business.
Elevated Barber Co. accepts walk-ins at 145 Thain Road, Suite G, in Lewiston near Dutch Bros and TCC, an authorized Verizon retailer.
The owner, Kara Barton, a Lewiston High School graduate, worked at the Locker Room for eight years.
She earned her credentials to be a cosmetologist at Headmasters in Lewiston and followed that with barber training at Paul Mitchell in Boise.
At Elevated Barber, she is joined by Steffanie Corder, a cosmetologist who leases a station. Corder was most recently at Hells Canyon Hair in Lewiston.
The business hours of Elevated Barber Co. are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Its telephone number is (208) 750-8249.
CHS Primeland distributes funds raised during its Harvest for Hunger campaign
LEWISTON — A $30,000 donation from CHS Primeland will allow the Idaho Foodbank's Lewiston location to provide food for as many as 120,000 meals.
The money was part of a record-breaking $62,000 that CHS Primeland raised during its annual Harvest for Hunger campaign that benefited 11 organizations that address food insecurity, according to a news release from the Idaho Foodbank.
The remainder of the $62,000 went to the following groups: Blue Mountain Action Council in Walla Walla, J-K Good Samaritan Food Bank in Juliaetta, North Palouse Community Food Bank in Fairfield, Wash., St. Mary's Catholic Church in Moscow, Asotin County Food Bank, Christian Life Fellowship in Plummer, Garfield County Food Bank, Corner Cupboard in Nezperce and Camas Prairie Food Bank in Grangeville, according to the news release.
The Idaho Foodbank is based in Meridian and has two other sites, one in Lewiston and another in Pocatello. It also has a website where people who need food can go for help at idahofoodbank.org/getfood.
Nurse practitioner joins staff of TriState Rheumatology
Julia Hypes, an advanced registered nurse practitioner, has joined TriState Rheumatology in Clarkston.
She is taking new referrals and began seeing patients this month after moving to the region from Columbus, Ohio, where she was a rheumatology nurse practitioner at Arthritis Solutions of Central Ohio.
Hypes treats osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthritis, gout, lupus, osteoporosis and other autoinflammatory disorders.
"I decided to work in rheumatology because I myself have an autoimmune disorder," she said in a news release from TriState Health. "Having my illness diagnosed and well managed changed my life, and I love having the opportunity to help my patients in the same way."
She received her bachelor's degree in nursing from Capital University in Bexley, Ohio, in 2018 and her master's degree in nursing for family nurse practitioner at Georgetown University in 2021.
The telephone number of TriState Rheumatology is (509) 780-4444.
Williams can be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.
