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The Nan [Hnd Homan] Behind
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At first glance.
Hot Comer owner and local personality Ron
Shadix would appear to be the quintes
sence of the self-made man, not unlike an Athens version of Frank
"Grimey" Grimes, the Springfieldian who earned everything the hard
way and never let adversity get him down.
The presence and involvement of Ron's wife and co-owner Cathy
Kabcski (whom Ron describes as the real brains behind the shop)
serves to prove the proverb that behind every self-made man is a
self-made woman. Since opening Hot Comer early last year—as the
first tenants of the then-newly-renovated Cotton Exchange
building—Ron and Cathy have brewed and sold thousands of gallons
of legal stimulants, enjoying a degree of success not often achieved
by new businesses in this unpredictable market
Probably the only coffee shop owner anywhere with the words
'Live Free or Die' tattooed on his biceps, Ron's
a mensch. His life before Hot Comer would
make for a fascinating picaresque novel: colle
giate wrestler. Army lieutenant stand-up/
improv comedian, bartender, entrepreneur, taxi
driver. He's lived all over the world since gradu
ating from UGA, but always he'd return to
Athens, where he had owned and operated his
own cab at various times.
And the novel of Ron's life would not be
without romance: it was actually while driving
his cab that be met Cathy, who had need of a
taxi to pick her up from the grocery store. She
fortuitously spilled the contents of her shop
ping cart all over the parking lot just when Ron
pulled up, and as he helped her retrieve her
foodstuffs, the two struck up a conversation,
where it was eventually revealed that both
shared an ambition to someday open a coffee
shop. Their friendship blossomed into love and
marriage, and eventually. Hot Comer.
Flagpole recently sat down with Ron and
Cathy in Hot Comer's 'quiet room' to discuss
their lives and plans. Then they had to switch
rooms, because they were making too much
noise.
people covet it, 'cause if you go in and break that, man, the/re like
the Quiet Nazis: Ve have vays of making you not talk.
FP: So what kind of octs will you get for the stage?
RS: Just two nights a week, and probably on the weekends, we're
gonna have some jazz, some bluegrass, spoken word, book readings.
And on Sunday afternoons—I'm trying to find performers for this, so
please put this in the article—I want to have chamber music If the
quiet people just want to keep their quiet heaven, then they have
to bring more quiet people with them and buy more stuff. It ain't
cheap to rent that space.
FP: How did you decide to open the shop in Athens? It seems tike
there were already so many coffee shops here...
Ron Shadix and Cathy Kahoski
i m
Flagpole: The force of social control in that 5
room is staggering; you can feel the opprobrium f
if you start talking.
Cathy Kaboslri: Yeah, it's even worse than a library.
Ron Shadix: And it was totally an accident that it even was a
'quiet room.' I was going to run a speaker wire through the wall,
but there's a firewall between the two rooms, and in order to drill
through it I was going to have go to Planning and Review, submit a
plan, get a special caulk that costs an ungodly amount of money...
just to run some speakers. We put a radio in there, but after about
two hours, somebody turned it off. Days later, I started getting all
these people coming up to me, thanking me for having a quiet
room. There's like this whole subculture of what I like to call 'silent
punks.' And you better be quiet man, or they'll come down on you!
Now, if a cell phone goes off, that person will apologize to everyone
and run outside! I don't want that necessarily. That's why I'm trying
to mix it up a little bit with the new stage, and put in some musk
and poetry and stuff tike that But evidently* silence is at a premium
in this town: nobody has a place to go that's silent Turns out
4
RS: This was supposed to be in Statesboro, whkh is a booming
college town. I've been down there a lot When I owned a cab in
Athens, I'd meet all these kids that came up from Statesboro. They
had nothing to do there. And I thought 'Let's just give these kids a
place to be cool' People just want a place to be cooL That's all
they really want a place to be left atone... and not be left alone. A
bunch of people not noticing one another.
CK: To be seen, not just be cool
RS: Just to hang out I wanted to give that to the kids in
Statesboro, and J still want to do that
FP: So you might be franchising Hot Comer?
RS: Oh, sure. Why not? Anyway, Cathy and I had gone to
Statesboro to scout the area, to look for a place. And I found a
place, but right before I was going to sign a lease, a week eartier,
someone else had signed a lease. And what were they going to put
there? A coffee shop. So I didn't know what I was going to do; I
was real depressed. I really wanted to open a coffee Shop. So a few
months went by. and a friend found out about this place and sug
gested Athens. I thought 'Athens? No way!'
FP: Because the coffee markets so saturated?
RS: Yeah. So anyway, we were working with this guy...
CK: A coffee consultant He does site selection consulting.
RS: Right his name's Alex Fisenko. If you Google 'coffee
shops,' his name comes up. This guy knows everything. And he
advised us not to open up here, but we did anyway. God, it took
forever. We built everything. The building had been restored, but
there were no walls, no anything. We got all the furnishings and
everything off of eBay. The couches: eBay. The espresso machine:
eBay. The coffee roaster, the refrigerators, all
the coffee dispensers: eBay. And all this time,
Cathy was living in Florida, doing an intern
ship. We were engaged. I was supervising
everything. (Former Hot Comer employee) Joe
Hart was working tirelessly as well; the shop
would never have worked without him. Then
we got married in December (of 2003). Then
Hot Comer opened in February, on Valentine's
Day. There's a perception that every busi
nessman's a rich, wealthy pig-swine. And we're
not I mean, we've got huge bilb. The people
who work at Hot Comer make more money than
I do. It's true.
CK: Ron hasn't taken a paycheck since last
September. The first couple years in business
you tend to reinvest
RS: I miss the days when I used to get tips.
When we first opened, we were working shifts
* ourselves, 18-hour days. We were funding the
place ourselves. I didn't take a day off for like
six months. Then I had my heart attack in
October. Eight months after opening, I had a
heart attack.
FF: Wow, q heart attack? •
RS: Yeah, I had a stent put in; there was a
blockage.
FP: Can you still drink coffee?
RS: Shoot yeah, man. But I'm just happy I'm above ground, man.
I've been told that every day above ground is a good day. It was fun
clogging 'em up. It was a big hurt though—way up there on the
hurt scale. I didn't have the heart attack because I was working so
hard. It might seem like it but I really had the heart attack because
I like steak. And booze.
CK: And you used to smoke. That's another interesting thing: I'm
asthmatic, and Ron quit smoking six weeks before we met
RS: Yep. Haven't smoked since.
FP: But you still sell smokes here?
RS: Oh, hell yeah. Anything you can be addicted to. Don't put
that in.
(laughter]
Brian Dille
www. bobsalon. com
bob SALON
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MAY 11, 2005 • FLAGP0LE.COM 9