Ivonne Sahner makes sandwiches for customers at Coffee Etc., which she has co-owned with her husband, Eric, right, for three years.

Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star

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Ivonne and Eric Sahner burn the candle — but never the coffee beans — at both ends.

Sahner and wife Ivonne bought the coffee roaster and the names Old Pueblo Roasters and Coffee Etc. from the previous owners of those two related businesses in the summer of 2002 and officially opened for wholesalers in April 2003.

A year later, they took on the adjoining space in the small shopping center on South Sixth Avenue and began selling coffee and food as Coffee Etc. at 4446 S. Sixth Ave.

A typical day has Eric getting to work at 6:30 a.m. to open the coffee shop by 7 a.m. An hour later, Ivonne arrives to take over barista duties and prepare a variety of dishes for the breakfast and lunch crowd when not serving customers. At 1 p.m., Eric leaves for his swing shift at FedEx, where he works as a freight driver until 10:30 or 11 p.m. Meanwhile, Ivonne closes Coffee Etc. at 4 p.m. and then makes deliveries of her husband's coffee before resuming her other full-time job as mother of a 13-year-old.

Such is life for the Sahners, who were married 14 years ago and never imagined they'd own their own business, Ivonne Sahner said.

Eric Sahner, who has always been something of a moonlighter, began at Coffee Etc. in 1995 as a weekend dishwasher, then progressed to coffee roaster. Ivonne had been a loyal Coffee Etc. customer since 1986.

"When they closed, it was pretty sudden, and they said they were selling the roaster and the names and asked if Eric wanted them," she said. "Opening a business was never even a dream or an idea. We had never even had a conversation about it, but at that moment, the opportunity was there and we took it and didn't even think about."

The key motivation to take the plunge rested on Eric's passion for roasting coffee, a passion that has yet to wane, he said.

"I just love doing it. I love roasting and blending and grinding it, and that hasn't changed," Eric Sahner said. "I hear a lot people who say things like, after so many years of baking bread they can't stand the smell of bread baking, but I still love the smell of when that coffee comes out and that smoke is rising, and you just stand there and breathe it in."

For longtime customer Holly Bell, the quality of Eric's coffee is proof of his passion.

"I've never found anybody that roasts coffee as well as Eric does," said Bell, owner and dance instructor at Dance Infusion."It's so smooth, and it's got a full flavor but with no bitter aftertaste. I'm so spoiled with it that we take it when we go on vacation. I won't drink restaurant coffee."

Though the days are long and the struggle to establish their business and add wholesale clients and customers still keeps the couple from taking salaries, they don't regret the decision to embark on the venture.

"The thought of having to close your doors is an everyday, kind of back-of-your-mind thing," Ivonne said. "You have to give up so much family life and personal time. You're working really hard and it takes a while to become an established business, but if we had the chance to make the choice tomorrow, we would."

Bell said the Sahners have the kind of local small business one can't help but root for, not just for the quality of their product, but for their commitment to customers.

"They are just the sweetest two people I know, and they work so hard to do whatever they can to take care of their customers," Bell said. "They even make home deliveries."

The Sahners have already come a long way in three years, but at this point don't have the time to look back at how they've progressed or even forward to where they plan to take the company, said Eric Sahner.

"For right now, it's really about the day-to-day immediacy of just keeping it going," he said. "It's survival at this point, and we both have pretty full schedules."

SEE coffee / D5