PONDERAY — Two years to the day after opening Understory Coffee and Tea in downtown Sandpoint, a young couple is opening a second location in Ponderay.

Evan Metz and his fiancée, Johnelle Fifer opened the first shop downtown on Nov. 20, 2016. The second location is set to open on Tuesday.

“It all kind of fell into place,” Metz said, as he recalled how they got started in the business.

The couple met working at a coffee shop at the Moscow Food Co-op, Metz said, where Fifer worked as a head barista while attending the University of Idaho. They didn’t have much of a plan, he said, but after Fifer graduated in 2016, they had initially wanted to travel for three months. They were “loosely” planning on coming to Sandpoint after that, since Metz is from the area. When they discovered the cost of living had gone up since he was in high school, the couple realized if they wanted to come to Sandpoint, they would have to spend their road trip money on a place to live.

They both got jobs, but had tossed around the idea of someday opening a small coffee shop.

“Out of curiosity, she asked the lady at Heavenly Latte if she was ever thinking about selling,” Metz said. “She said she was just about to sell it and if we wanted to buy it, she wouldn’t even list it. We thought about it for a week and then just decided to go for it.”

It was fast, he said, and the timing put the opening of the first Understory at the onset of winter, the slowest time of year for most businesses in the area.

“We figured if we could survive a winter right off the bat, we could probably survive just about anything,” he said.

They did survive, and everything again fell into place again when they worked out a space in the northwest corner of a building in the North Idaho Medical Village to open the second location, which is somewhat distinct from the Sandpoint shop as it is not a drive-thru.

“I am definitely excited to get back to that, because that is how we started making coffee was in an indoor cafe,” Metz said before adding, “I think that’s part of the recipe that made the drive-thru work for us, is that we didn’t do the conventional drive-thru thing. We kind of brought a more classical cafe experience to the drive-thru culture.”

Understory has a full menu of traditional coffees, teas, smoothies and bagels, in addition to several original drinks, such as the “Lavender Latte” and “Harvest Moon Mocha.” Metz said that is one of the things they enjoy about running a coffee shop, is being able to “play around and have fun” with the different drinks.

“That’s what makes it worth it,” he said. “If you get too much of an algorithm going on, it kind of takes the magic out of the job.”

The new shop, located at 30544 Highway 200, will open Tuesday with hours similar to the medical building for the time being, which is typically 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Information: understorycoffee.com

Mary Malone can be reached by email at [email protected] and follow her on twitter @MaryDailyBee.