Ristretto Time: Starting (and running) your own Coffee Shop

What happens when two former corporate leaders trade boardrooms for espresso machines? On this episode of Ristretto Time: Starting and Running Your Own Coffee Shop, Gjergj Dollani sits down with Mo (Mohab) Shalash, founder of Brew Crew in New York and New Jersey. Mo spent 15 years at a global consumer goods company managing budgets in the hundreds of millions. Then he discovered that running one small coffee shop was harder than any of it.
They get candid about what the coffee shop books leave out:
The ego problem. Why big-company experience can work against you behind the counter.
Real coffee shop profit margins. Forget the 15–20% you read about. Mo explains why hitting double digits in your first three years means you’ve made it.
Labor as the make-or-break cost. Rising minimum wage, why Mo pays well above it, and why your people matter more than your menu, location, or aesthetic.
The hiring gauntlet. 120 interviews, 40 offers, and only 2 hires who lasted past two months in his first six months.
Yelp, Google reviews, and liability. One-star reviews, a surprise visit about ADA accessibility, and the legal exposure new owners never see coming.
Cash flow and growth. Why growing revenue can still drain you, and how a fast-scaling competitor nearly collapsed.
Menu simplification. Why 80% of Mo’s revenue comes from 40 of 110 items, plus what Pop Up Bagels teaches about doing less.
Food vs. beverage mix. Mo’s ideal 70/30 split and how food helps offset seasonal slumps.
This episode is for anyone thinking about opening a coffee shop, buying a café, or leaving a corporate career for small business ownership. It’s an honest, practical conversation about what it actually takes.
Connect with Mo Shalash: Find Mohab Shalash on LinkedIn.
Go deeper: Gjergj’s book Grounds: What a Coffee Shop Taught Me That a Career Never Could https://www.amazon.com/Grounds-Coffee-Taught-Career-Never/dp/B0H3PBY1D9

This week I open the Ristretto Time inbox and answer two listener questions I get versions of all the time.
Eric in Colorado is building his coffee shop business plan and asks how to estimate tickets per day and average ticket size. I walk through my foot traffic counting method: when to count, what percentage of passersby actually walk in, what average ticket to assume for a coffee and pastry shop versus one serving lunch, and a simple daily revenue target you can reverse-engineer into customer counts.
Kasim and his daughter are deciding between building a shop from scratch and buying an existing coffee business on BizBuySell. I cover the questions to ask before buying any operating café: why the owner is really selling, how to read the revenue and profit picture, the landlord relationship, what "under new ownership" does to a loyal clientele, how seller financing deals are structured, and why you shouldn't pay more than two to three times annual profit.
Also in this episode: Grounds, my book on the full story of Café Chocolat, the coffee shop I opened and closed on H Street in Washington, DC, is out now on Amazon. It launched as one of the fastest selling books in the Starting a Business category. Buy it and email me at dollani@gmail.com and I'll send you my list of the 15 things I wish I knew before I started the coffee shop.
If you're opening a coffee shop, writing a business plan, or weighing whether to buy an existing café, this episode is for you.

After some time away from regular episodes, Ristretto Time is back.

In this episode, I share the story behind Grounds — my new book about building, running, and ultimately closing Café Chocolat, an independent coffee shop in Washington, D.C.
If you've followed this podcast for a while, you know it originally started as a way for me to document the lessons, mistakes, and realities of owning a coffee shop after Café Chocolat closed. Over time, I realized there was a much bigger story to tell: not just how to open a coffee shop, but what it actually feels like to build something you care deeply about.

In this episode, I talk about:
☕ Why Ristretto Time slowed down and what’s next
☕ Why I decided to write Grounds instead of turning the podcast into a traditional “how-to” book
☕ The hidden realities of entrepreneurship, business ownership, and taking risks
☕ What I learned from building Café Chocolat in Washington, D.C.
☕ Why this story applies to more than just coffee shops
☕ A reading from Chapter One: “A Walk Through Adams Morgan”

You’ll also hear the opening pages of the book, including the story of how one evening walk through Adams Morgan turned into a decision that changed everything.

📖 Grounds launches June 1, 2026

Want to read Chapter One for free?
Visit RistrettoTime.com and sign up to receive the complimentary PDF instantly.

Whether you're thinking about opening a coffee shop, running a small business, starting something risky, or simply wondering what happens when a dream changes shape — I hope this episode feels familiar.

Topics: coffee shop business, entrepreneurship, small business ownership, opening a coffee shop, café management, Café Chocolat, Washington DC coffee shop, coffee shop memoir, startup lessons, business failure, founder story, Ristretto Time podcast.

Three years ago, Ristretto Time stopped publishing.
Not because the story ended — but because the ending still needed to be lived.
In this short return episode, host Gjergj Dollani reconnects with the original Ristretto Time community to share what happened after the microphones went silent — and why the story of Café Chocolat has now become a book.
Pouring Dreams is a candid memoir and practical guide about:
• Opening a coffee shop with nothing but optimism
• Learning small-business realities the hard way
• Navigating staff, margins, equipment, and doubt
• And ultimately facing the decision to close the doors
If you’ve ever dreamed of opening a café, run a small business, or simply love real stories about building something from scratch — this is for you.
Over the coming days, early access to the first chapter and a limited batch of signed first-edition copies will be shared with the Ristretto Time community first.
For now, consider this a familiar sound returning.
The grinder is back on.
The coffee is pouring again.
One last pour.

In this episode of Ristretto Shots I read Phil’s email to me about a coffee gig he did, describing how it went and how much fun he had going out on his own and making it happen! This is what it’s all about folks; just getting out of your comfort zone and having a blast doing it. http://www.ristrettotime.com