The Making of Forest Trail House

At it’s core Forest Trail House seeks to give our customers “oh-wow!” moments at every turn. At times we are beholden to the fact that we are in a 108 year old house but with every obstacle there is opportunity. Though we have a small kitchen we fill it with amazing food you will find nowhere else in Mint Hill. Yes, at times you’re enjoying your locally sourced latte in a room that was once a photo-studio, spa, or even a funeral parlor, but we hope to make everyone who enters our doors feel like that are at an extension of their own homes.

We moved here late 2020, Mint Hill is the first place we choose to call home as a family. This is were we choose to raise our daughter and it’s where we choose to start a business. We are incredibly proud of what we are building. As avid DIY’ers we know that we’ll never be done building it, but we’ll always be a few steps closer.

We moved from a small community in a suburb of Los Angeles and our local coffee shop meant so much to us. Colin was a comedian and writer and so often he would take to the coffee shop to toil over, what would end up being a very dumb joke, for hours. When Kristen started Sew Social she was fueled, in large part by the iced vanilla lattes from the same spot. That gathering place and the hundreds of other places became an inspiration for the shop today. We wanted a place like Forest Trail House to exist when we moved here and it didn’t, so we built it. And again…continue to build it.

Everything we do, everything we make, cook, serve, or sell has been thought over again and again. Every recipe is a living document. Every wine or beer we sell is one that we love for some reason or several. Every specialty latte, cold brew, cocktail, etc. is tested for taste and quality and then tweaked as we learn better ways.

In her book, Right Kind of Wrong, Amy Edmondson said “You cannot learn something you think you already know” and we try to embody that spirit in everything we do. We try our best and we also remain forever willing to be wrong. We don’t know everything and sometimes, especially with a toddler running around, it feels like we don’t know anything but the grace and kindness of our community keeps us forever impassioned to give our customers the very best of ourselves.