The Story of Hatchet Coffee with Jeremy and Michelle Bollman

Jeremy and Michelle Bollman are the founders of Hatchet Coffee, a Boone, NC coffee roastery and cafe that started in a basement with a one-pound roaster and a dream to create something that mattered. Jeremy came up through the Stick Boy Bread Company as a baker, learning the craft of sourdough and production work while Michelle grew from part-time pastry prep to General Manager. Together, they built Hatchet from five pounds of wholesale coffee a day into a thriving cafe and roastery that became a community institution before being acquired by Stick Boy in a full-circle moment that speaks to the unique ecosystem of the High Country.

In this episode, Jeremy and Michelle walk us through the origin story—how Jeremy quit his job in the building materials industry after the housing market crashed, how Carson Coatney offered him a bread baking shift at Stick Boy and then got Michelle a job too, and how a trip to San Francisco for bread school unlocked Jeremy's obsession with specialty coffee. We talk about roasting one pound at a time in their basement, testing espresso blends for Stick Boy, and the leap to opening a tiny coffee bar inside Center 45 next to the climbing gym with nothing but a folding table, free coffee, and a dream.

We get into the early hustle—how Jeremy would make pour overs one at a time and pitch his vision to every single customer, how the line started growing out the door, and how a landlord named Virgil believed in them enough to rip the back off a building to move equipment in and build out the cafe and roastery that exists today. We also talk about the nitro latte bar that changed everything, the role Pop-Up Boone played in putting Hatchet on the map, and how COVID forced a complete reset that led Jeremy to realize he needed to step back so the business could grow beyond him.

Michelle shares what it was like managing Stick Boy while Jeremy was building Hatchet, how they raised three daughters in the middle of the chaos, and why the decision to sell Hatchet back to Stick Boy was the only move that made sense. Jeremy talks about his midlife crisis during COVID, his new vision centered on gratitude and presence, and why he's now focused on opening Hatchet's second location in downtown West Jefferson. From mandolins to mountain banjos, from bread baking to coffee roasting, this is a conversation about community, creativity, and building a life you don't want to escape from in the High Country of North Carolina.

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🔗 Hatchet Coffee (https://hatchetcoffee.com)

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💬 evan@realboone.com (mailto:evan@realboone.com)