Serving GR since 2006

Small businesses that stand the test of time in Green River have truly proven the loyalty of its Green River patrons.

Get Real Coffee regularly brings in customers from Green River, Rock Springs, and Bridger Valley. Within the guest book, there are names written from people from across the country and back.

Get Real Coffee has been in business since 2006. It will be a complete decade on Thanksgiving of 2016. Victoria Shaw-Newsham, owner of Get Real Coffee said as a small business, you have to ride the bad times out. Above all though the key is not compromising quality.

"People know when they come in here, everything is handmade," Shaw-Newsham said.

When Shaw-Newsham says everything is handmade, she means there is nothing on their menu that is not handmade in the store, on a daily or weekly bases. Their chai tea is not bought, it is hand brewed every other day. The caramel sauce that is drizzled on top of a popular drink the Study Buddy, is also handmade. Every couple days, a new batch of sauce is made. Baked goods, pastries and other food items are made in house many mornings. They also make dog biscuits for pets who come with their owners through the drive through.

"Those extra steps are a huge benefit," she said. "We don't have the Sysco truck delivering anything here."

"It's the people representing your business that will keep it going," she said. "If we lose people (customers), we strive to get them back."

Shaw-Newsham puts as much effort into the hospitality her customers receive, as she does for all of the products she sells. However, her heart is not in the food items, it's in the coffee.

"It's a coffee house in the true sense of the word," she said.

She remembered the numerous coffee shops that spotted the west coast in the 1960s. She thought of the original coffee houses that populated Europe. They were meeting places for people to gather to discuss life and politics, she said. They were places to socialize. That is what she wanted.

"It's a place to socialize," she said.

Her business has no wireless internet, no internet at all for customers. There are board games in the corner to be played, and cards on the tables. It's a place where it's encouraged to start a conversation. It is a sanctuary for the artistic as well. Any artist is welcome to display and sell their work within the coffee house.

"It was my business plan to go simple; coffee house style for a rewarding social time. And to bring quality," she said. "We want to teach people to like coffee again."