Our Staff

   Emily.

"Coffee... coffee gets the job done."

Meet Emily, the eye behind the camera. Her love for coffee deems her as a nerd but she doesn't really mind... Every drink she makes is a new learning experience, a new piece of art, another way to provide the energy needed to get someone through their day. 

Every person that comes through the door is another customer to get to know, another favorite drink to remember. If Emily were deserted on an island and could bring three things... she'd pack a bag of gardening supplies and say "heck yes." while she builds her future home. In her past she's seen mountains, oceans, cities, and railroads, but best of all she likes to come home to her crazy viking daughter, and her bizarre metal head partner. Besides her trades program at VIU and her work at Serious Coffee, Emily likes to spend her spare time reading the first 100 pages of various different books. She strives to eventually finish all the things she's started, but will always continue to start anew. 

"Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can't remember who we are or why we're here." - Sue Monk Kidd, Secret Life of Bees

Tom. 

If you've made it into our Serious Coffee, you've most likely had the pleasure of meeting Tom. Tom and his wife Starsa have been the cheery owners of this location for roughly 4 years. 

Tom has a dedication to his store like no owner I've ever met. For four days of the week he commutes from Courtenay to Nanaimo and back up to Courtenay just to do it again tomorrow. His passion to put a smile on every customers face makes it hard not to come back again in the same day. If you don't know who I'm talking about, look out for the guy with a stain on his shirt, americano in hand, talking about his farm while he crunches numbers at a desk. Tom is a hard working dad of 3, a husband to a lovely librarian, and the boss of three great employees. If you need some advice, a first hand story, or someone to cheer you up, Tom's the guy. Ask him about his honey bees or his garden, or about the farm fresh eggs he brings in for his dedicated customers, and he will certainly take the time to answer. 

"Pierre was right when he said that one must believe in the possibility of happiness in order to be happy, and now I believe in it. Let the dead bury the dead, but while I'm alive, I must live and be happy." - Leo Tolstoy

Paige.

"Coffee is like a mini therapy session in a cup"

Meet Paige. Paige has worked at The Beaufort Center's Serious Coffee for over 9 months. With resumes upon resumes of work experience Paige is happy to have settled in with Tom's coffee shop and sees herself sticking around for a while. (Thank goodness) In 60 years you might see her out walking with her grandchildren, or curled up in front of a fire. She holds an utmost patience for children and one day might find herself to be a kindergarten teacher.




"Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! How I wonder what you're at! Up above the world you fly, Like a tea tray in the sky. Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! How I wonder what you're at!" -The Dormouse

Natasha.

"Even though you'll see me sippin' back an iced coffee, it's still my sunshine on a cloudy day, it's love in a cup."

“I am incapable of conceiving infinity, and yet I do not accept finity. I want this adventure that is the context of my life to go on without end.” ― Simone de Beauvoir, La Vieillesse

If you stick around long enough, you may learn all the secrets to a perfect bath from Serious Coffee's Natasha Cross. She's been around long enough to know almost all of our regulars names, and favorite drinks. Long term goals include, being happy, drinking iced dirty chai's, and getting stuck on an island with three of her most favorite things: Theodor the dog, a dam good book, and a bathtub full of wine. You might see Natasha in her later years surfing the waves in Tofino with little Theodor puppies trailing behind her, or lost in the backwoods of her ocean front retirement cabin.