In a span of five years, Exit 11 has expanded from coffee-and-coworking center to three drive-thru trailers across Union and Washington, Missouri.
The brand has gone from self-serve coffee to a roastery, from one business model to another with a team of 30 employees. Exit 11’s success story, like many others, consists of trials and errors, but it begins with one woman’s decade-long pursuit of her dream.
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In 2001, Angela Garland envisioned an office–meets–coffee shop environment for professionals to connect and collaborate, a concept now more commonly known as a co-working space. At the time, Garland felt the time wasn’t quite right for her business venture. After shelving it for more than a decade, her vision came to fruition in 2015, when she opened Exit 11 Workspace in Washington, Missouri.
During the first few months, Exit 11 only offered self-serve coffee makers. It wasn’t until 2016 that the company launched a full-service coffee bar with the help of Scott Garland—Angela’s husband and the business’ co-owner and a coffee connoisseur, who taught himself how to use espresso machines and became a barista after the shop’s opening.
Exit 11 Workspace eventually rebranded as Exit 11 Workspace & Coffee House, a gathering space for people from all walks of life. “I thought the space was going to be so official, with no toddlers, no teenagers, no kid in an apron,” says Angela. “And yet five years later, here we are: one big, open community space.”
In 2018, the Garlands opened an Exit 11 coffee trailer with drive-thru windows on two sides near the coworking space, at 1403 Jefferson in Washington. With the addition, the business’ coffee component really took off, doubling in revenue. The move to a drive-thru model also proved helpful later, during the pandemic.
Last March, during a time when many brick-and-mortar businesses had to temporarily close, Exit 11 added a second trailer in Union. “We became the neighborhood’s happy place,” Angela says of the trailers in Washington and Union. “People who quarantined in their homes would go get our latte, and that was their field trip for the day.”
Then, last November, Exit 11 opened a third trailer. The new “Washington East” location, at 1900 Phoenix Center Drive in Washington, is just over a mile from the first trailer. On a recent spring day, Angela says the three trailers served 750 cars on that one day alone.
Exit 11’s success wouldn’t have been possible without its expansive menu, which includes organic potatoes, nitrate-free meat, and local eggs, as well as keto and vegetarian options. “We want our customers to be able to say, ‘Oh, I know there’s something there for me,’” says Angela. Drink menu favorites include matcha drinks (such as iced matcha frappes and hot matcha lattes) and cold brew (served with coffee cubes).
In the near future, Angela hopes to capitalize on the business’ momentum by opening a brick-and-mortar location in St. Louis and eventually expand throughout the Midwest.
