Daily Grind regular customers love variety of food, coffee at local business

A young girl walks into the Daily Grind on the second floor of the Paulsen Center, grabbing an M&M cookie and ordering a breakfast burrito.

When her food is ready, Daily Grind co-owner Cody Miller passes a handful of stickers to her along with her burrito, and the girl responds with a smile.

Cody, who owns the business with his wife, Danielle, said relationships and interactions with customers are what make his job such a great experience.

“A lot of these people, we see more than our own family members,” Cody said. “You get to know everybody on a personal level. I’ve made a lot of friends over the years here and it’s been a great experience.”

Cody said the Daily Grind specializes in wraps and sandwiches, but also offer pre-packaged foods such as salads and chicken bowls.

“We try to really branch out and do something different,” he said. “We do see a lot of the same people over and over again, so we try to keep it new and fresh, so they don’t get tired of us.”

Danielle said in her 20 years working with the Daily Grind, both at a management level and an ownership level, has allowed her to meet and build relationships.

She loves making coffee, but interacting with customers help make her coffee-making experience better.

The Daily Grind is one of over 700 businesses supplied by Cravens Coffee. Founder Simon Thompson said Cody and Danielle are great to partner with and are a hard-working couple who love both businesses.

“They are right there, taking care of customers,” Thomspon said. “We look at Daily Grind, Danielle and Cody … as the face of our business.”

When Cody and Danielle took over the business 15 years ago, Cody was new to the industry, unlike Danielle.

The previous owner kept joking that Danielle would take over one day. Eventually, Danielle told the owner that she was serious about owning the business and nine years after it opened, she bought the Daily Grind.

Danielle said it was hard for her when the COVID-19 pandemic hit because she went from talking and interacting with around 200 people a day to not talking to anybody at a ll.

“It was weird. There’s only so much you can clean around your house,” she said. “I was just ready to get out.”

Cody said the Daily Grind closed for a few months because there was not enough business to sustain it.

Opening up the business after the pandemic took a lot of adjustment because they lost some catering and customers, but Danielle said they were able to bounce back easily because of the returning customers and its location.

Adam Hoover, who works on the fourth floor of the Paulsen Center, is one regular customer who loves the convenience of the Daily Grind.

Hoover goes to the Daily Grind almost every day because of how friendly Cody and Danielle are, but also because of the diversity of food they offer, especially the prepackaged food. He also said his son loves the Daily Grind’s fruit options. Hoover likes to try new items on the menu and switches up his order sometimes, but his wife usually gets the turkey bacon club.

“It’s absolutely perfect for us. It’s the best of all worlds,” Hoover said. “Part of why I love it is all of the new different stuff that (they) do every day.”