River Moon Cafe Opens in Library

A book and a coffee will go hand in hand at the today after the grand opening of the River Moon Café.

In addition to artisan roasted-coffee, packaged under the same name, the café features locally-sourced tea, soups, sandwiches and pastries. The café sells River Moon Coffee Roasting Company coffee. Owners Geoffrey and Juanita IkutaSchodde started the artisan coffee-roasting company in downtown Stillwater in June 2011.

"We wanted a relationship-based company in a corporate world that supported the local community at the same time," Juanita IkutaSchodde.

The couple opened the downtown roasting company about a year ago when they grew tired of the corporate world where money and greed are the center, she said. Conversely the IkutaSchoddes' non-profit foundation, The IkutaSchodde Family Foundation (IFF), will give small grants to local artists twice a year.

As a family owned company they are as "deeply passionate about supporting their family of artisan coffee growers as they are about embracing their local community.

IFF "offers nominal financial support to increase opportunity for those who create. We seek to raise a current that will help innovative artists in the St. Croix Valley community soar to new heights," according to the website.

Geoffry IkutaSchodde said a year ago when they opened the roasting company he had no interest in opening a store front. But the space and opportunity at the library "felt meant to be."

By having the café in the Stillwater Public Library they hope to be part of an amenity that really adds to people's experience at the library," according to a press release.

River Moon Café will be open before the library opens and has a separate entrance- patrons can come in through the parking garage entrance and ride the elevator.