The Client
Elm Street Coffee is a specialty coffee shop and scratch bakery in the heart of NE Portland. Opened in 2019, they've built a loyal neighborhood following through handcrafted drinks, baked-from-scratch pastries, and a genuine commitment to community. Their regulars know the baristas by name, and the shop has become a gathering place for the neighborhood.
Despite a thriving in-person business, Elm Street Coffee had no real web presence. They relied on an outdated Google Business listing and an Instagram account to reach new customers. When people searched for "coffee near me" or "Portland coffee shops," Elm Street was invisible. They were losing potential customers — tourists, remote workers looking for a new spot, and event planners who wanted to book the space — to competitors with better websites.
The Brief
Elm Street chose the Launch tier ($997), which includes up to 3 custom-designed pages, mobile-responsive design, SEO fundamentals, and performance optimization. Here's what they needed:
- Homepage — Full-bleed hero photo of the shop interior, seasonal featured drinks, brand values, and a community-first feel
- Menu — Complete drink and food menu with seasonal highlights, organized by category with pricing
- About — The founders' journey and timeline, plus hours, location with embedded map, parking tips, catering info, and a contact form — all on one page with scroll-to sections
The 3-Day Build
Discovery + Wireframes
We started with a 30-minute intake call where the owners walked us through their brand: warm, artisanal, community-driven. They wanted the site to feel like stepping into the shop — the smell of fresh espresso, the warmth of natural wood, the handwritten chalkboard vibes. We reviewed their Instagram feed (their strongest visual asset) and identified photos that could anchor the design.
By end of day, we delivered wireframes for all 3 pages showing the content hierarchy, the full-bleed hero approach for the homepage, and the menu layout. We proposed combining the founders' story and location info into a single About page with scroll-to sections — keeping navigation simple while preserving all the content. The owners approved within two hours with one request: make the seasonal drinks more prominent on the homepage.
Design + Build
We designed the full visual system: a warm, organic palette built around cream (#FDF6EC), espresso brown (#3C2415), and terracotta (#D4603A) with sage green accents (#7A8B6F). The heading font — Fraunces, a variable serif with old-style character — gives the site an artisanal, hand-lettered feel without sacrificing readability. DM Sans handles body text for clean, modern legibility.
We built all 3 pages in production HTML/CSS: a full-bleed hero with a live photo of the shop interior, a three-card featured drinks section with real menu items and pricing, and a rich About page that flows from the founders' story through an illustrated timeline (2019 opening, 2020 pandemic pivot to takeaway, 2021 patio expansion, 2023 scratch bakery launch) into a Visit section with embedded Google Map, hours in a scannable format, catering info, and a contact form. One page, zero context-switching for the visitor.
Review + Launch
The owners reviewed the site on desktop, tablet, and mobile. One minor revision: they asked us to swap a photo on the Our Story page for a newer one of the expanded patio. Done in 20 minutes. We ran performance optimization (WebP image conversion, lazy loading for below-fold images), added local business schema markup, configured meta tags, and deployed to their hosting.
The site was live by 2 PM on Day 3 — two full weeks before Portland's spring festival season.
Design Decisions
Color Palette
We built the palette around the physical space: warm cream walls, espresso-stained wood countertops, and the terracotta pots lining the front window. The sage green accent — pulled from the succulent planters on each table — adds a natural, earthy touch without competing with the food photography.
Key UX Decisions
- Full-bleed hero photograph — No cropping, no overlays that hide the shop. The hero image should feel like peeking through the front door. We added a subtle warm gradient overlay for text readability while preserving the atmosphere.
- Hours visible immediately — The shop's hours appear directly in the hero section. For a local business, "are they open right now?" is the #1 question visitors are answering. We put it front and center.
- Menu with real prices — No "ask for pricing" or hidden costs. Every drink and pastry has its price listed. This matches the chalkboard transparency that Elm Street practices in-store.
- Local business schema — We added structured data for the shop's address, hours, phone number, and menu so Google can display rich results in local search.
- Photo-forward design — The owners' best asset is their space and their products. Every section leads with a photograph rather than an icon or illustration.
What's Included at the Launch Tier ($997)
- Up to 3 custom-designed, hand-coded pages
- Mobile-responsive design (tested on 5+ device sizes)
- Custom color palette and typography system derived from the brand
- SEO fundamentals: meta tags, structured data, local business schema, sitemap
- Performance optimization (WebP images, lazy loading, minified CSS)
- Full source code ownership — no lock-in, no monthly platform fees
- 72-hour delivery from intake call to live site
What's not included: online ordering or e-commerce (Elm Street uses Square for POS), custom photography (they provided their own), copywriting (we edited their existing copy for web), or ongoing maintenance (available separately via care plans starting at $97/month).
Results
Elm Street Coffee's site launched two weeks before Portland's spring festival season. Here's what happened in the first 30 days:
— Elm Street Coffee, Owners
Key Takeaways
- Local businesses can't rely on Instagram alone. Social media is great for regulars, but new customers and tourists search Google. A real website with proper local SEO is what shows up in "coffee near me" results.
- The Launch tier is designed for exactly this. Three pages, $997, 72 hours. For a local business, that's everything you need to be discoverable online — without the bloat or the cost of a full agency engagement.
- Design should mirror the physical experience. The best local business websites don't look "corporate." They feel like the place. Elm Street's site is warm, organic, and personal — because that's what the shop is.
- Speed matters for seasonal businesses. Elm Street needed to be online before tourist season. A 3-month agency timeline would have meant missing the window. The 3-day turnaround meant they were live and indexed weeks before the rush.