On Saturday, June 17th, Ginny’s Cupboard, located at 127 North Water Street in downtown Sparta, will be celebrating their 20th anniversary. Owner, Deb Moore, named the coffee shop after her mother, Ginny. Moore has a deep seeded appreciation and understanding of business, but even more so, a keen insight into the innerworkings of humans — the positive and negative. In her 20 years with Ginny’s, Deb has fostered the positive and dealt with the negative.
Ginny’s Cupboard is no ordinary business, and the strong energies that swirl within it brought in Tom Brokaw – who was filming an episode of his documentary: The Road to Baghdad. Kevin Moore, Deb’s husband, asked Brokaw if he wanted a bottled Coke, or one from the soda fountain. Brokaw’s eyes raised up, as he asked, “You have a fountain for Coke?! I have not had one of those since I was a kid.” Brokaw’s producer said that Deb and Kevin shouldn’t be surprised if Brokaw stops in again, as he talked about Ginny’s and the Coke, all day.
Among other notable visitors were Green Bay Packers, in 2013, who were on a bus tour. The Packers who stopped in were Santana Dotson, Randall Cobb, Jarret Bush, Alex Green, and alumni players – Aaron Taylor, Frank Winters, and CEO Mark Murphy. Santana Dotoson told Deb that he owed her a huge thank you, for the best tasting salad, that he refused to share with anyone. He also added 12 bars from the bakery case to his order. Dotson also remarked that on the tour everyone shoved burgers and fries at them, and that he was grateful for the fresh change.
The Name
As stated in the first paragraph, Ginny’s Cupboard was named after Deb Moore’s mother, Virginia, who went by Ginny. Ginny was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) as she turned 62, so Deb moved her parents from Nebraska to Sparta, and built them a home here, before Ginny’s Cupboard existed. “When she [Ginny] was in the house, she had dementia, MS, and she was wheelchair bound — who the heck ya going to meet?”
Deb had two kids still in school, two parents that she had to mind, and she still had to earn a living. “Ginny’s was the answer,” Deb said. “Although, I had always planned on doing something else.” Deb brought her mother to Ginny’s Cupboard regularly.
The stronghold is a fairytale
When pressed by the Herald on when she felt that Ginny’s Cupboard had a stronghold in downtown Sparta, Deb Moore responded, “Oh honey, I still don’t know that answer. Every time they throw a new one up in front of me, it starts all over again. I’ve watched 4 or 5 coffee shops go up and come down. There has never been a point where I have felt safe, and I think that is why I stay on the edge, and why we have been so successful.”
Moore went on to say that some businesses actually fall off in their ninth year. “They are not falling off because they are stupid, because they have made it that far already. They’re falling off because something happened that they could not forecast, and it took ‘em by surprise. So, if I ever set and feel like, ‘OK, I’ve made it,’ that’s the first indicator I’m dying.”
Prior to Ginny’s
Deb Moore did 10 years of community support work in Sparta, with the mentally ill and developmentally disabled that were trying to maintain independence. When she went to get her financing for Ginny’s Cupboard, the financier questioned her, “What are you going to do? You’re going to have all kinds of trouble with these folks.”
Moore responded, “I will be the only one who doesn’t have a problem with them.”
Applicants and Employees
On who gets to work at Ginny’s, Moore has a unique approach. She believes in making her employees independent thinkers and workers. “Everybody comes in here thinking they need a job,” Moore said. “Not one understands the priority of what they really need. I tell them ‘I am not McDonalds; I am not Culvers. I don’t have a policy on how you handle everything. What I do have, is the ability to teach you how to multitask. I teach you how to be your own advocate.’”
Moore said that it frustrates her when parents bring in their kid’s applications. “Let them stand, them let them fall, and let them stand back up again.” During the Herald interview, employees were in and out of the office, and Deb chatted with all of them as if they were her family, because to her, they are.
Nicknames and Hall of Fame
Moore gives out nicknames to her employees as well. One of her workers has the name Christian, and Deb thought that if she were to yell his name across the restaurant and coffee shop, at least 3 quarters of everyone in the building would turn their heads. Another young man’s name is Carter, and Deb calls him Sarge, a reference to an old show as well as a showing of Deb’s humor. Every aspect of Moore’s personality has depth.
Between the front dining area and the back room, Deb has a Hall of Fame for her employees and former employees. To be fair, all photos are taken from the same source, before they are blown up and framed — the Monroe County Herald graduation section. The next time you are at Ginny’s, as you head to the restrooms, look up, and you will see the Hall of Fame. Of course, Deb had a longstanding bone to pick with the Herald, who printed her son’s name as Willian, not William. So, in the Hall of Fame, Willian it is. Another testament to Deb’s strong sense of humor.
History lessons
Within the walls of Ginny’s Cupboard stand history lessons, as well as a nostalgic stroll through Sparta’s past. “We got the railroad line before Tomah did, because we were considered the healing waters of Sparta, Wisconsin, because of all of the artisanal wells,” Moore explained. “If you look on these [tea] boxes, you will see Lange Grocer Company, up on the box you will see ‘Packed in Japan for Sparta, Wisconsin. It was a big deal.”
For those who are in a rush, or do not notice the small things in life, the boxes may look like they are just being stored in the back room, but that is the impeccable, long-range vision of Deb Moore. There is nothing, not one item out of the thousands that adorn the rafters and walls of Ginny’s Cupboard, that has not been thoroughly investigated, dwelled upon, planned out, and carefully placed. It all has meaning and should be more accurately described as Deb Moore’s Opus.
41-year anniversary today
Deb and Kevin Moore are celebrating their 41st wedding anniversary today, Monday, June 12th. They met while going to college at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse. They both worked for a man that owned 250 rental properties. With her parents always remodeling, and Kevin and her always remodeling, it was not a tall ask for them to purchase the property and create Ginny’s Cupboard.
Editor’s Note
The interview with Deb Moore lasted for five hours, but it flew by. In interviewing Deb Moore, it was easy to conclude that she is a visionary, with a keen eye for creating a scene that lands softly on the heart and nestles deep in one’s soul. The creation is a blissful memory - patiently waiting to be recalled on a rainy day, over a hot latte; where the steamy caffeinated apparition swirls with the recollection of laughing patrons, giggling kids with whipped cream on their noses, and carefully placed artifacts and memorabilia that provide a nostalgic glimpse into what was once the everyday day.
On Saturday, June 17th, the masterpiece that is Ginny’s Cupboard will be celebrating twenty years in downtown Sparta. At 2 p.m., the Chamber of Commerce will be on hand, to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new side porch and bike/walk-up window. After the ceremony, an ice cream social will take place. Deb Moore says, “We are thanking the community for 20 years of patronage and support.”
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