So I'm here in Elkhart at the Elkhart County Visitor Bureau, and I'm here with Terry.

Terry, tell me a little bit about ECCVB and all the things that you do for Elkhart County.

We promote tourism and hospitality throughout Elkhart County.

We represent small businesses, attractions, artisans, a lot of fantastic, fun things happening in our community.

And we encourage, both our residents and visitors to seek those out to come stay a night or 2 or 3 and really enjoy what the best of Elkhart County.

Sometimes when we have a show called Experience Michiana, people are like, is there stuff to do around here?

And, you know, maybe sometimes people think about Elkhart County, like, what are the big tourist attractions?

Because there are a lot of things that people from all over come here for.

So what would be like the top three that just off the top of your, top of your mind or the top three would definitely start with Amish Country.

We have, what, one of the largest Amish settlements in, the United States here in, northern Indiana between Elkhart County and Lagrange County.

So many people like to come and experience a little bit of a slice of that Amish lifestyle.

The cooking, the craftsmanship and the, just the calmer, slower pace of life.

Yeah.

And then, in the summertime, there's the quilt gardens, which are free.

They're beautiful, gigantic gardens planted in quilt patterns, and they're really fun for people to, both see them and then to try to find all 17 of them this year.

And then, the last thing is outdoor recreation.

The Pumpkin by nature trail is, hugely popular.

And connects three communities and brings a lot of, both local residents and visitors to experience that.

And I know there's lots of great museums, too, like the, you know, the RV Hall of Fame.

I like that one myself.

Like, even as someone who lives close by, I love going to that one too.

And with well crafted, I mean, you have this here as you walk in.

Why is it so important for the visitor Bureau to really focus in on the word craft and, well, craft as well?

Elkhart County has a long history of quality craftsmanship.

Entrepreneurs who started businesses here and made, high quality products, things that really are meant to, last a lifetime.

And so we wanted to highlight, that tradition of what is what is whether it's artisan crafts such as woodworking or quilting or pottery, or fine arts, down to, RVs.

Recreational vehicles are a major, major industry in this area.

So this is all kind of brings all of those ideas together under one umbrella.

But as you said, it's not just the, you know, the huge RV factories that are here.

It's also like individuals in Goshen and, and people that might be doing smaller things, but still very much adding to the well crafted scene in this community.

Yeah, very much so.

There's, many artisan guilds, many of them are based around Goshen.

There's a painter skilled, a photographers guild, a, clay artists organization.

So there's a long, deep tradition and all those, areas.

And I know that over the last couple of years, you've had this well crafted video series.

And throughout the next few months here on Experience Michiana, we're going to be showing some of them to partner with you to show some of them.

So what's the first one that we're going to be watching on this episode?

So we have, really wonderful business in Nappanee called Main Street Roasters.

It's, you know, from outside, you may think that it's, just a coffee shop, but it really goes much more beyond that.

It's really a community hub there many people who come in to enjoy their coffee, their espresso drinks and their baked goods.

So it is, a family owned, local business that has really exemplifies what, well crafted Elkhart County means.

All right.

And they're very generous, giving family as well to the community.

So let's watch that one.

The first one of Main Street Roasters in Nappanee here on Experience Michiana.

Main Street Roasters is, intended to be a place where people can gather from, you know, any demographic or any, age group or anything like that and find a place to feel community and feel at home.

That's one of the most important things for us is just a is to create an environment where people feel that and have a feeling of wanting to, wanting to be here.

This was kind of a side thing.

We started this as, as a side business, something to do in the winter when I, when my other job was slow and something for Deborah to do, after we were married, as opposed to just being a stay at home mom.

So, it started as a small side thing and kind of grew into, into what it is today.

So the atmosphere here at Main Street is very important to us.

Deborah has done, pretty much all of, the behind the scenes, in regards to the atmosphere and, and just the feeling.

And here, Main Street, there's part that Marcus does really well with, actual design, like layouts and plans and stuff like that.

That's more his strengths.

And then actually, coming alongside that and coming up with the actual feeling I like, I like doing that part of it.

So one of the things we, we thought we wanted to, to do was set ourselves apart a little bit from some of the competition.

And three years in, we decided to start roasting our own coffee.

And bringing that in-house allowed us to to have a better control over quality control, consistency and the freshness.

That's a big part in, in the good, good cup of coffee is how fresh it is after it's roasted.

The coffee roasting process, we, via coffee or green coffee from, importer in South Bend, Theta Ridge Coffee Company.

And we roast fresh, when, when we get an order, especially for the wholesale orders.

The larger orders.

When those orders come in, we roast fresh for those orders.

So the coffee going out, our door being shipped to our to our clients is hours old.

Usually, within a day, after it's roasted, it's it's in the mail and being shipped.

The coffee that we use here in, in the shop is, usually a couple days old, if that is set.

Except for our espresso.

We, like to use that when it's when it's had a little bit of time to age.

About a week.

Here at Main Street Roasters, we are known for our coffee, but we also offer fresh baked goods.

We also have fresh soups and salads and sandwiches every day.

We also serve those in the evening.

We have a fairly simple menu, but, it's well received in the area and it's usually something that works well for a light lunch or, you know, a quick dinner.

And we also offer a lot of ice drinks.

I would say in the summer that's probably over half of our sales is just iced coffees and and refreshing drinks.

We give a lot of credit to all the credit, really to God.

And, first and foremost.

But I think the community around this has made, Main Street what it is today, I guess, for myself and for Marcus, the reason why it's important, how people feel about Main Street or our other business as well, is just that.

To me, that's almost more important than the product or the different things we offer is just if a person has an experience where they feel included or invited or or at home, obviously they'll feel accepted, but then also just they'll want to experience it again.