IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
A lifelong Riverside resident has received the first-ever Riverside Business Week Young Entrepreneur Award from the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce.
Steffen Sommers was recognized for helping to create Lift Coffee Roasters, a gourmet coffee shop in Riverside, according to a report in The Press-Enterprise.
Sommers, 26, opened the shop one year ago across from Riverside Plaza with the help of his friend, Allen Andra. The shop has sold more than 100,000 drinks and turns a 30 percent profit every day, according to the report.
The shop’s menu stresses quality over quantity. It serves only about 12 varieties of drink at any one time, either coffee or tea. Everything served is taste-tested first by management to make certain it meets company standards.
Sommers and Andra are also selling their products to local restaurants and bakeries at wholesale prices. That accounts for about one-third of the company’s revenue, according to the report.
