Over the years, the small building squeezed between Sacks Feed & Garden and McDonalds in Kingston on Highway 104 has been a burger joint, taco shack and coffee company. It’s been a long while since the original “hay day” of that little spot, but Cup & Muffin is proudly ushering that back and has become a gathering place of friendly people, great food and customer service, celebrating is first successful year in business.

When Amy and Mark Anderson purchased the business a year ago (then known as Natural Grounds), Amy had experience, Mark was handy and they had a vision for what it would take to make Cup & Muffin much more than “another coffee shop in Kingston.”

Amy’s decade managing the fast-paced Espresso by Design in Seattle taught her the ins and outs of the business, created relationships with vendors and primed her desire to run her own shop.

A construction and design consultant, Mark is credited with the new look of the business, and for taking advantage of the park-like outside for a seating area that changed the location from non-descript to a destination.

While Amy has an obvious passion for coffee, running Cup & Muffin is all about the people – both customers and employees alike.

“We are fortunate to live in a community filled with friendly people,” Amy said. “And I am thankful to be surrounded with the most devoted staff that a small business owner could ever hope for.”

In the first year, Cup & Muffin outperformed the Anderson’s business plan, thanks in part to something that took them a bit by surprise: the demand for breakfast and lunch.

“Had I known how many sandwiches we would add to the menu,” Amy said with a laugh, “we might have picked a different name.”