The Making of Forest Trail House

At it’s core Forest Trail House seeks to give our customers “oh-wow!” moments at every turn. At times we are beholden to the fact that we are in a 106 year old house but with every obstacle there is opportunity. Though we have a small kitchen we fill it with amazing food you will find nowhere else in Mint Hill. Yes, at times you’re enjoying your locally sourced latte in a room that was once a photo-studio, spa, or even a funeral parlor, but we hope to make everyone who enters our doors feel like that are at an extension of their own homes.

We moved here late 2020, Mint Hill is the first place we choose to call home as a family. This is were we choose to raise our daughter and it’s where we choose to start a business. We are incredibly proud of what we are building. As avid DIY’ers we know that we’ll never be done building it, but we’ll always be a few steps closer.

We moved from a small community in a suburb of Los Angeles and our local coffee shop meant so much to us. Colin was a comedian and writer and so often he would take to the coffee shop to toil over, what would end up being a very dumb joke, for hours. When Kristen started Sew Social she was fueled, in large part by the iced vanilla lattes from the same spot. That gathering place and the hundreds of other places became an inspiration for the shop today. We wanted a place like Forest Trail House to exist when we moved here and it didn’t, so we built it. And again…continue to build it.

Everything we do, everything we make, cook, serve, or sell has been thought over again and again. Every recipe is a living document. Every wine or beer we sell is one that we love for some reason or several. Every specialty latte, cold brew, cocktail, etc. is tested for taste and quality and then tweaked as we learn better ways.

In her book, Right Kind of Wrong, Amy Edmondson said “You cannot learn something you think you already know” and we try to embody that spirit in everything we do. We try our best and we also remain forever willing to be wrong. We don’t know everything and sometimes, especially with a toddler running around, it feels like we don’t know anything but the grace and kindness of our community keeps us forever impassioned to give our customers the very best of ourselves.

  • It’s a savory item that we back using our flaky, buttery, layered dough. Imagine if you flattened out a croissant and make it crispier but also stuffed it full of things like pepperoni or chorizo and potatoes. Now imagine eating it. Feels good right? It does.

  • No. It’s an old house and it’s not perfect. I can promise you that people will back up when you pull in. We try to enter and exit carefully and so do our customers. There have been no incidents since we opened our doors but that doesn’t mean we should treat it like a speedway.

  • Sometimes. The best way to find out is to bring a resume in and hand it to Colin directly. By it’s nature coffee shops, restaurants, bars, cafe’s all can have high turnover. Our employees tend to stay for a long time but we are always looking to grow.

  • We don’t know. And when you ask “what do you like?” We’ll tell you but one of our employees doesn’t eat a single vegetable and one of our owners favorite foods is liver. So you may not be like us.

  • Those all mean large to us.

  • Yes, we have digital gift cards.

  • It’s for customers only. Well, more specifically it’s for the kids of customers only.

  • Not at the moment. We choose to try to keep our prices reasonable for all members of our community.

  • Probably. But that doesn’t mean we can’t chat about it some more.

  • When our daughter was first learning to talk Colin would take her out to Steven’s Creek or McAlpine Creek everyday, in a backpack. He would say “Want to go on a walk?” and she would say “forest trail”