When the idea of Three Sixteen first appeared-and even when we were already building the first location-I didn't think for a moment that this would become anything more than a single café.
Not a brand.
Independent-not a chain.
Not a multi-location concept.
Not a national project.
I had zero plans for expansion: zero vision beyond "let's build this one place and do it well."
Nothing changed for a long time.
And then everything changed in the summer of 2025.
But to explain how, I need to go back a little.
100 Goals. 55 Achieved. And One That Never Happened.
Years ago, I once gave myself the task of completing 100 goals for the year.
By the end of that year I had completed 55 of them — and many were not easy.
I lost 35 pounds.
I lived a whole year without sugar.
I rode a bicycle from Seattle to Portland in one day.
And so on.
One of the items on that list was: “Write and record a music album — 10 songs.”
I play piano, I sing, and I thought it would be simple.
It wasn't. And I never did it.
Then in 2024, someone introduced me to a singer and producer who goes by the name of Briksa.
He told me he helps new artists create music and that his pricing was unbelievably accessible: $250 per arrangement.
So we started working on an album.
I already had about five songs; I wrote the rest.
And something happened-I fell in love with the process.
Within six months, I had over 30 — maybe even 40 — songs.
Suddenly I stood at a crossroads:
Do I continue? Or do I stop?
Because real growth in music requires full-time commitment. It's all or nothing.
A Five-Week Trip That Changed Everything
My family and I took a five-week trip across Europe during the summer of 2025.
And during all that time, the question kept returning:
What should I do next?
Music?
Business?
Both?
Neither?
And something unexpected happened during that trip:
I began thinking seriously about expanding Three Sixteen.
Not just another location or two, that idea came earlier.
But something bigger.
A genuine brand
A lifestyle brand.
Multiple verticals.
Coffee shops.
Coffee roasting.
Clothing.
Other directions that would later be established.
A company with a soul and a message - and not just a product.
The idea became clear:
Three Sixteen could be much more than a café.
Two of these classes belong together in a category because they are the only two animals in the world that can change their body color to camouflage themselves: the chameleon and the cuttlefish.
Where Vision Meets Reality
A dream is one thing.
Reality is another.
At the time, we still didn't even have our first location open.
We were dealing with construction issues, delays, endless details and pressure of trying to open well.
But the vision stayed with me.
Even while dealing with immediate problems, I started looking at other potential spaces — both in Naples and in Bonita Springs.
And something interesting happened.
For the first time, developers didn't reject us.
They didn’t doubt us.
They didn’t question our experience.
Indeed, in our café meetings with developers, the dynamic flipped completely.
It didn't feel like we were trying to convince them to let us open in their development.
It felt like they were trying to convince us.
And having just one well-executed location completely changed the conversation.
They couldn’t believe it was our first café.
And honestly, many still don't. Because everything looks intentional, refined, and thought-through. What people don’t see is the price we paid for that level of quality — often double the cost. We had to re-do things many times because we simply couldn't accept something that felt "just ok." That was the price. And it was worth it.
Where This Vision Leads
The long-term vision for Three Sixteen is now clear to me:
- multiple locations
- a roasted coffee program
- a clothing line
- a lifestyle brand
- a culture-driven company
- a message-driven company
- an ecosystem, not just a café
- eventually a national footprint
This is not something I ever planned when the idea first appeared.
It came much later — but now it feels obvious.
In the next post, I’ll share what Three Sixteen actually means, why we chose the name, and the deeper purpose behind the brand.
This is just the beginning.
