Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/15710
SEPTEMBER 2010 FOOD & WINE BUILDING ON SUCCESS WRITTEN BY KEVIN HUNTER It was a day that Kerstin Kansteiner had been waiting to happen for three years. In mid- July the Portfolio Coffeehouse owner signed a lease on a new business that would be the cornerstone of her already successful coffeehouse and The Annex on 4th Street. The best part? it is all happening as she celebrates her 20th year in business in the city. Kansteiner marks her milestone anniversary as one of owners of a new business on 4th Street and Linden Avenue that can be best described as an all-purpose facility. It will be part coffeehouse, part new and used record store, part book store, and part bistro and part live entertainment center. Kansteiner said this is something that has been in the making for about three years and it is just a coincidence that all this is occurring on her 20th anniversary as owner of Portfolio. She said she never envisioned herself owning not just one successful business yet alone possibly having three successful operations in 20 years. "You know, I never dreamed I'd be in business for 20 years with Portfolio," said Kansteiner. "Taking on this has been very exciting. In the beginning this all started as a 'what if' concept with myself and [Fingerprints owner] Rand [Foster]. We talked about what if we could do something that would combine a coffeehouse/ bookstore/record store. We went to the city with the idea and they were very supportive and excited about it." The 8,000 square-foot yet-to-be-named facility is scheduled to open in October with a possible grand opening in November. The building is the former home of Lyon Art Graphic and Office supplies. Lyon recently moved into a new store just across the street. This new business will be shared with Foster, the longtime owner of the new and used record store Fingerprints, which will close its Second Street store after 18 years and move into the new facility sometime in October. Foster, 46, has known Kansteiner for just as long and said he is just as excited about the opportunity of finally sharing a business with her (which would include separate leases), and broadening the customer bases for both. "Kerstin was the first person I thought about doing this with," said Foster. "We were both thinking about this separately. The new place allows us to do more things with similar investments. I'm being very optimistic here, but I think that with its location to downtown and the Blue Line, we can get customers from all over – especially the South Bay, which I think is much underserved when it comes to places that offer what we're offering." Kansteiner has been a fixture in the city since she came to the United States from her native Bielefeld, Germany in 1989 as a business administration intern at a shipping company. She became so enamored with the city that she decided to stay. One year later as coffeehouses began to take off Kansteiner opened Portfolio. She said that with such competition, and much of it coming from Starbucks, she knew that to be successful she would have to be very different and constantly innovative. "Everything I did was a business decision," said Kansteiner. "We expanded and remodeled Portfolio in 1993 and did other things to keep it fresh. We did things like having the espresso machine face the customers so the baristas could have contact treating it like a bar. We've had local bands play, the art gallery, poetry night, open mike night, and children's story 62 BUSINESS & MONEY : HISTORIC BUSINESS