RICHLAND, Wash. – Kagen Cox is the owner and operator of Kagen Coffee and Crepes. He opened the restaurant seven years ago after working for the BNSF railway. Cox decided that he needed a change, so he and his wife started talking about opening up a coffee shop.
Cox says the coffee business is hard to get into so he started making crepes to go along with his coffee. According to Cox, this is the first crepe place in the Tri-Cities area.
Cox says he owes all of the success that he and his business are having to his staff.
The success he is having caught the eye of celebrity chef, Gordon Ramsay.
Kagen’s Coffee and Crepes serves a variety of crepe recipes and coffee.
“I really wanted to do something that I could do with my family,” said Cox.”Something that I could work with people and then something that was community oriented.”
Cox told me one day his sister came up to him and told him about a new show called “Food Stars“, a new show hosted by Chef Gordon Ramsay. Cox thought that was cool but said he told his sister he was busy focusing on his business.
“Unbeknownst to me, my sister sent a video in talking about, just she’s a proud little sister and what we had done here with our staff,” Cox said.
Cox said the next thing he knew, he’s getting what he thinks are spam calls with the caller ID saying Hollywood. Those calls were from the Fox Network. Cox said he showed his sister one day and she said to answer it. Cox was reserved at first but trusted his sister and answered the call.
“We really like your story,” said Cox. “We like what we see online. We would really like you to consider coming down here to California and see if we want to put you on the show.”
Cox says when he got to the studio in California, there were many contestants there. Cox says he’s not sure of the number, but those contestants were narrowed down to 15 and he was one of them.
“Gordon Ramsay is a very intense dude,” Cox says.
He was the first contestant to go home but says he still made it in the top 15 in the country and wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for his staff.
“My manager, my assistant manager, my staff,” said Cox. “If it wasn’t for the work that they put in behind the scenes every day, I wouldn’t be able to do the things I do.”
Bailey Morrison is the Assistant Manager of Kagen Coffee and Crepes. She’s been working there for about two years and says Cox’s comments mean a lot to her.
She says the way Cox treats his staff is why she looks forward to going to work.
“It’s amazing,” Morrison says. “He’s amazing, the best of the best to work for.”
Cox says he is very honored to have represented the Tri-Cities and wants to make sure his staff and the community members know how much they mean to him.
“I really want to hammer home just how grateful to my staff and to the community,” says Cox. “The only reason we’ve grown and we are who we are is because of the people who have poured into working behind the counter and keeping me going.”
Cox told me with all of the success he’s had from his Richland store, he’s opening a new location in downtown Kennewick. The new location will be where the old Foodies restaurant was at. Cox says he’s hoping to open that location sometime this fall.
