Tim Harty, The Business Times

A change in the placement of Citrolas’ sandwich shop led to the opening of another shop, this one featuring coffee.

John and Kristy Citrola opened Citrolas Coffee Co. in mid-December at 759 Horizon Drive, Unit A, where they formerly operated Cutting Board Deli. The unit anchors the end of the L-shaped strip mall that is closest to Horizon Drive.

Meanwhile, the sandwich shop moved in with Citrolas Italian restaurant on the other end of the strip mall.

Kristy Citrola said the maneuvering started with the realization the sandwich shop will be better served in the space next to the Italian restaurant.

“We just didn’t have enough seating here (in Unit A) for people, so we moved it to the restaurant,” she said. “And then (Unit A) was sitting here empty for the past five months.”

That begot the idea for the coffee shop, which made sense, because Octopus Coffee operated in Unit F of the strip mall until closing in mid-April last year.

“We decided to put in a coffee shop, since we had a lot of people asking us what happened to (Octopus Coffee),” Kristy Citrola said.

Citrolas Coffee Co. is like many coffee shops with its offerings of coffee drinks (using beans from True Brew in Rifle) and pastries, but Kristy Citrola thinks it will evolve and could be a much different iteration in time.

“I mean, this area needs more breakfast than coffee,” she said, “so we’re gonna be bringing in more food.”

For starters, Citrola said the coffee shop will bring in more Italian-based pastries, offering things such as tiramisu and cannoli and whatever else her husband comes up with, as Kristy said John is “the Italian guy.”

She also expects Citrolas Coffee Co. will offer items down the road like “build your own” breakfast burritos, burrito bowls, protein coffee and protein shakes, maybe even biscuits and gravy.

“So we’ll have all the proteins, which will be something kind of different,” she said.

Kristy added, “We kind of want to turn this more into a bakery,” but with John already time-strapped by baking sourdough bread all day for the sandwich shop, she’s not sure how they’ll make that happen.

Much remains to be seen as the coffee shop evolves, but evolution is nothing new for Citrolas.

Kristy points to the sandwich shop as a perfect example. She said Cutting Board Deli attempted to be a traditional deli when it opened in Unit A in 2020, and the idea was to provide lunch in an area where she said “everybody closed dow for lunch out here. There were no lunch spots after COVID, so that’s when we opened up and started the lunch, and that was a big hit.”

Ultimately, Cutting Board Deli changed as the Citrolas saw what was working.

“People, all they wanted was a sandwich, chips and a drink,” she said. “No one bought, touched anything else, so you kind of just see what goes, you know? So, that’s what it turns into? That’s easy, we’ll do it.”

That transformation then led to moving the sandwich shop next to the Italian restaurant, where it has its own entrance and focuses on counter service.

Kristy Citrola said they will take the same approach with Citrolas Coffee Co. and adapt as they learn what’s working. And if it changes too much, she said with a smile, “We might have to change the name.”