By Laine M. Rutherford
Correspondent
VIRGINIA BEACH
With its soft lights and homey aromas of freshly brewed java and just-baked muffins, Perked Up! Coffee Cafe offers an easy way for morning customers to start the day.
Owner Sandy Barlow arrives at the small shop, at 32nd Street and Pacific Avenue, early enough to grind and brew five different specialty coffees and mix up two or three types of muffins from scratch.
It's all ready when the "open" sign comes on at 7.
"I really want my customers to feel special and have a good experience when they visit," the Oceanfront resident said. "I feel like I put a lot of love in everything I do and I like to keep it simple, but offer a little bit of everything."
Barlow keeps the Perked Up! coffee carafes refilled throughout the day. Near lunchtime, she whips up a couple of specialty quiches using f resh vegetables, creates a salad of the day, makes her popular chicken salad and pops trays of cookies into the oven.
A recent weekday's specials included winterberry salad, a Tex-Mex wrap and a spinach, sun-dried tomato and mushroom quiche. Organic Peruvian and Candy Cane coffees were among the coffees featured. One-pound packages of coffee can be purchased; Williamsburg Coffee and Tea Co. roasts the blends and delivers them each week. Muffins included peaches and creme and honey raisin bran.
A former corporate sales representative originally from Colonial Heights, Barlow purchased the business - the site of three former c offee shops, most recently Red Letter Cafe - without any barista experience. Perked Up! opened in late July.
She got a crash course from her son, Jason, who worked at Ashland Coffee & Tea while attending college at Randolph-Macon.
" I had to learn quickly," Barlow admitted with a laugh. "I was looking for some kind of work that was more meaningful, where I could bring a level of customer service to people, that I think they deserve."
Chesapeake residents Bill Spaur and Ruth Bizot make it a point to stop into Perked Up! when they're at the Oceanfront. On a recent warm weekday afternoon, the pair sat outside at a bistro table, sipping coffee and sampling the day's quiches.
"It's become a tradition. After we walk on the beach we always stop here on our way back," Spaur said. "We liked that it was an independent, that it wasn't a chain."
Bizot is attracted to the shop's French decor and specialty menu, as well as Barlow's special touches.
"One of the reasons we come back is it's so clear the owner has put her heart into this," Bizot s aid. "She's just a little more thoughtful, like the coffee cups are heated, she makes fresh muffins, sometimes cookies are baking when we come in.
"It's just like being in someone's kitchen. "
Laine M. Rutherford, lmrvab@aol.com
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