Photo curtesy of Hermosa Coffee House’s website.
Valena Baker, owner of Hermosa Coffee House, was born and raised in Hermosa, South Dakota where she met her husband in grade school. Baker moved away from Hermosa for some time, but has since returned with her husband and children to address a need in the quickly growing town: coffee.
“By the time that I moved back, it was kind of about finding my place here where I used to live. And in my travels, coffeehouses were one of my favorite stops. So I thought Hermosa would need something like that,” said Baker.
Baker spent 10 years developing her vision for a coffee house in Hermosa, a vision which evolved from wanting a coffee shop to visit, to wanting to own a shop of her own.
“I came to find out that [opening a coffee shop] was the way that I could feel included in the community I used to live in when I was a child,” Baker said.
Not only has Baker found her place in her community, she’s also improved her cooking skills since opening the coffee house.
“I decided to be more bakery based. I try to do a lot of my own baking here, and I have family that helps with that as well,” said Baker. “For food and drinks, a lot of our lunch and breakfast is bagel based. So we have plain bagels and we fix them up in various ways.”
Some of customers’ favorite treats from Hermosa Coffee House are Baker’s giant caramel rolls.
“I do some really large rolls,” said Baker. “One of the things that I have is my specialty roll, the bacon maple caramel roll, and that one kind of stemmed from the fact that I don’t do anything fried in here. That’s just not something I want to get into. But I know they make donuts with bacon and maple, and I thought, you know, I think I can do a caramel roll with this combination.”
Baker developed her own bacon maple roll recipe, which is now a favorite on the Hermosa Coffee House menu.
In addition to their delicious baked goods, Hermosa Coffee House specializes in handcrafted drinks such as their Dalgona, a whipped coffee drink.
Hermosa Coffee House’s summer hours are 7 a.m.-2 p.m., Monday-Saturday. The shop is closed on Sundays.
For more information about Hermosa Coffee House or to view the shop’s menu, visit their website here.
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