Service bringing daily grind out to your daily grind

For those that often find themselves jonesing for a latte but can’t get away to grab one, now that latte will come to you.

And it’s all made possible thanks to Tracy Halverson.

Halverson decided a few months ago that 27 years in the restaurant business was enough and, with help of her husband Chad, is now taking coffee and other goodies to the streets of Port Orchard in Halverson’s Coffee World.

“There was nowhere else to go as far as advancement,” Halverson said of her restaurant career. “I just thought that I could do something for myself, and this happened to fall into our laps.”

“This” would be the bobtail truck she purchased just over a month ago and, with Chad’s custom handiwork, transformed into a rolling espresso shop.

And for the last four weeks, she’s been cruising in and around Port Orchard making daily stops, selling a wide variety of coffees and snacks.

“Customer service — that’s what I do,” Halverson said while at one of her stops last Wednesday. “Customer service is what I know. I love talking to people, visiting, that kind of stuff. And this is something simple — it’s coffee.”

So far, Halverson has been making daily stops at the local schools, the South Kitsap administration building, the district’s bus barn, City Hall and many other large businesses around town.

The back of the bobtail truck is outfitted like a small kitchen, including a working sink, storage space, microwave oven and refrigerator and, of course, an espresso machine. From there, Halverson mixes and matches any flavor to fill her customers’ needs, including ice coffees and hot chocolate, to go along with a variety of pastries and muffins.

She plans to add smoothies next summer and may expand her small menu choices.

“I have all kinds of things in here,” Halverson said. “And I try to make it accessible to businesses because sometimes once they get in (to work), they can’t get out.”

So far, Halverson said she’s been concentrating on areas that lack a local espresso shop and wants to cater to those that really don’t have the option of leaving work to get a cup of joe.

That includes physically entering the work area to take orders and then hand- delivering them.

“That way, they don’t have to stop working. They don’t have to leave their desk,” Halverson said. “For the most part, I’m there for them.”

Halverson said business has been brisk during the work week. Mornings are busy and she does have regular stops in the afternoon but she always has room for more stops.

And there is no minimum number of orders needed to get her to come by — at least not now.

“Right now, I’m just hitting everybody,” Halverson said. “You never know for the future. I don’t want to leave anybody out. Right now, I’m just starting out and I don’t want to shut anybody off or have them think they’re not big enough for me.”

For now, Halverson makes stops in Port Orchard only but already is working on permits to begin selling in Bremerton. And she already sees room for growth in the future and can see herself adding a truck or two and expanding out to Silverdale and Gig harbor.

“I don’t want to go too far (at the moment) because I’m only one person,” Halverson said. “I want to stay with what I can handle myself. But eventually, we’ll see.”

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