A little shop with a
big lake view.

After graduating college in 2023, all Adam Baierl wanted to do was travel the world. But as he moved from one country to the next, he began noticing something familiar: the way people gathered around coffee. In Croatia, it was old men sitting outside their neighborhood bar with espresso, cigarettes, and a shot of rakija. In Italy, commuters stopped for a cappuccino and cornetto at the café where the person behind the counter already knew their name. In Greece, a freddo was sipped slowly by the sea. Different places and traditions, but the same underlying themes: slowing down, embracing the possibility of a new day, and belonging to a community. Those experiences became the inspiration for Sacred Bean. The original plan was simple: build a mobile coffee business, cater events during the warmer months, and spend the winters traveling. Adam purchased a small, old two-horse trailer and began converting it into a mobile coffee bar (or, rather, his dad did). But from the beginning, Sacred Bean was meant to be intentional about every detail: from the ingredients in each drink and the farms behind the coffee to the way every person was treated when they walked up to the bar. One thing was non-negotiable: every syrup would be made in-house with real ingredients, sourced locally whenever possible. No artificial flavors and no shortcuts for the sake of convenience. If Sacred Bean was going to serve something, Adam wanted to know what went into it and where it came from. Then, somewhat accidentally, Adam found the coffee that would help define Sacred Bean through its first year. While scrolling through Facebook, he came across the expat neighbors of a small family coffee farm in the Amazonian highlands of Ecuador, where Diego and his family grow coffee without synthetic chemicals and harvest each crop by hand. After visiting the farm in March 2025, Sacred Bean became the only business in the world serving their coffee. Soon after returning home, an unexpected email changed the direction of the business. Kelly from Cavelier Wine Bar in Port Washington, Wisconsin, asked whether Sacred Bean would consider setting up inside the wine bar on weekend mornings for the summer. As a Port Washington native, Adam saw the opportunity as an easy yes. Sacred Bean opened inside Cavelier on May 31, 2025. Within two weeks, growing demand led to the addition of a fourth day of service, and the original summer residency was extended for a full year. The horse trailer was sold, the plans changed, and Sacred Bean found a home. The most unexpected - and rewarding - part of the journey has been the community that formed around it. Adam and the people behind the bar (often family members and friends) have built countless friendships by seeing the same people week after week, learning their orders, hearing about their lives, and sharing a small part of their mornings. In a way, Sacred Bean had begun to create at home the very thing that first inspired it abroad: a place where coffee brings people together, where people are known by name, and where a sense of belonging grows naturally over time. What began as a way to fund travel became something much more meaningful - a neighborhood coffee shop built around intentional ingredients, meaningful relationships, and the belief that coffee can be more than a drink. It can be a reason to slow down, connect with the people around you, and start the day with a little more intention.