ROAMIN’ ROAST: A COFFEE TO GO

JEREMY WALTNER – PUBLISHER

Menno’s newest family business is taking its show on the road.

Roamin’ Roast, a traveling coffee trailer, is operated by Diedra Mettler and other members of the Mettler family — the same Mettlers who have Mettler Implement.

It opened for business in Menno across the highway from Total Stop last week Wednesday, June 29, spent a couple of days at the Celebration of Freedom – Veterans Memorial Wall in Parkston over the weekend, was back in Menno for the Fourth of July celebration and made its debut in Freeman along Highway 81 on Tuesday.

A return to Parkston is on tap for Wednesday, they’ll be in Scotland on Thursday, back in Freeman on Friday and in Menno again on Saturday. Hours are always 5:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. during the workweek and 5:30 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.

“We want to be consistent — same towns, same times,” she said of the schedule going forward. “We’ll be in Menno Mondays and Saturdays and in Freeman on Tuesdays and Fridays.”

Helping Mettler in the trailer is Esther Grassmid, who is a self-described “gopher” working at Mettler Implement this summer in advance of her November wedding.

“I do whatever they need,” said Grassmid, whose parents, Travis and Charity, moved the family to Menno in 2012. “And right now they need me in the coffee trailer, so this is where I spend my days.”

Mettler, a 2008 Menno High School graduate, said the idea to open a traveling coffee stand came from her dad and her brother.

“I have eight years of Scooters experience and they thought it would be fun to put it to use and bring coffee to small towns around Hutchinson County,” she said. “We started putting the thought into action in March.”

By coffee, what she means is a variety of drinks. The Roamin’ Roast trailer is tricked out with all the equipment necessary to make drinks like hot coffee, iced coffee, blended drinks, lemonade, fruit smoothies and iced tea. The trailer is actually designed to be a drive-up, not just a walk-up like people have been doing in these early days of the new business.

“Hopefully people will eventually start using it as a drive-thru,” said Mettler, who has been pleased with the initial response. “It’s been good,” she said. “A lot of fun.”