{"id":56600,"date":"2013-10-23T20:49:55","date_gmt":"2013-10-24T02:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/coffee-shop-celebrates-1-year\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T15:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T15:55:07","slug":"coffee-shop-celebrates-1-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/coffee-shop-celebrates-1-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Coffee shop celebrates 1 year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Owners
Owners of The Pony Expresso Coffee Shop Theresa Howell and Mark Looper are celebrating their one year anniversary in Dolores.<\/span>Sam Green\/Cortez Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Dolores had been sorely missing a bona fide coffee shop for years, but that all changed last autumn when Theresa Howell and husband Mark Looper came to town.<\/p>\n

One year ago, the talented couple from Phoenix opened The Pony Expresso on Railroad Avenue (Colorado Highway 145) at a small building that used to be a real-estate company.<\/p>\n

Thousands of freshly made coffees, burritos, bagels and pastries later, they are throwing an anniversary party to thank local residents for their support.<\/p>\n

On Halloween, Oct. 31, from 5 to 8 p.m. they will be having a costume contest for three different age groups. There will be candy for trick-or-treaters, and free coffee, hot chocolate, and food samples.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re throwing a big party to say thank you to the community for supporting us. We had a good first year and really love it here,\u201d Howell said.<\/p>\n

The couple remolded the brick building into a quaint and comfortable spot to enjoy homemade pastries, specialty coffee drinks, chais, hearty burritos, daily lunch specials and the real-deal, traditionally-cooked, chewy-delicious bagels made from scratch every week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw there was no fresh bagels in the area, so I learned how to make them,\u201d Howell said. \u201cMy grandmother taught me how to cook, and I learned a lot in 4-H as a kid ,also.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crush of people in the morning turns Mark into a blur, existing in two places at once as he deftly handles orders from the convenient drive-thru and walk-up counter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned the coffee trade in Europe, making thousands of cappuccinos per day at a shop on the Rhine River,\u201d Mark said. \u201cEuropeans come in all the time, and love it when I make it in their style, extra strong, half-and-half instead of milk for cappuccinos.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple has hired baristas to assist them, and ramp up staff in the summer months. The wait is not long, and worth it at any rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe probably get 70 percent of our business from the drive-thru,\u201d Looper said.<\/p>\n

Customers can text their order in and have it ready when they arrive at (970) 676-1319, or they can call orders in at 882-7950.<\/p>\n

Customers can take a break and sit down at one of the indoor tables or relax on an outdoor patio complete with newspaper racks and neighborhood regulars. The patio is dog-friendly as well.<\/p>\n

Besides being a great cook, Howell is also an excellent landscape and wildlife photographer. Her prints and postcards are available in the shop at reasonable prices.<\/p>\n

One helpful aspect of the Pony Expresso is that the shop is open seven days a week, opening at 6 a.m. on weekdays and at 7 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n

The Pony Expresso is a new Dolores experience that easily can become a regular habit.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome on in and check us out before work, or grab some food on the way to the mountains,\u201d Howell said. \u201cOur Halloween anniversary party is a good time to stop in and check us out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

On the Net<\/h4>\n

Pony Expresso: www. ThePonyExpresso.net<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Phoenix couple brew up a thriving business<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[3109,338,188,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-56600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-beverage","tag-business-enterprises","tag-dolores-star","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56600"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62626,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56600\/revisions\/62626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56600"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=56600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}