Kay Erickson: A Billings couple have made a business, moving across the street from their previous enterprise, going from eye care to eye openers. YPR’s Stella Fong, host of YPR’s Flavors Under the Big Sky, serves up the details on Poly’s Place Coffee.
Stella Fong: Happiness is being served up at Poly’s Place Coffee. Scott and Diane Morledge have converted the old Conoco Gas station to a new outlet for fuel. For Scott, this is his neighborhood.
Scott Morledge: Since the age of 6, I’ve been running around within two blocks from where we are now. I was a Rims kid. We lived up against the face of the rims, and after all of my education and training, and finding my bride, we came right back here and found our residence that we’ve been in for 20 years now.
Stella Fong: With the recent sale of their business Morledge Family Eye Clinic and Surgery Center across the street, the couple had the opportunity to pursue other endeavors.
Scott Morledge: The gas station came up for sale and I guess we wanted it to turn into what we wanted it to turn into and what didn’t want it to turn into.
Diane Morledge: There used to be a wonderful coffee shop across the street, 17th Street Station and we all miss it and so I thought we needed to bring it back.
Stella Fong: Bringing it back and launching Poly’s Place gave Diane an outlet for her love of interior and graphic design.
Diane Morledge: I think I am a little obsessed with mid century and so my friend Jerry Lyon of L Design and I started collecting things two years ago and it was just so much fun to take an old gas station and turn it into a nostalgic mid-century atmosphere.
Stella Fong: Colorful chrome plated tables and chairs, a jukebox that plays 45s, and booth seating bring nostalgia and a fun vibe.
Diane Morledge: One of our other passions since we retired and sold the Surgery Center is to go to estate and garage sales.
Stella Fong: The treasure hunt resulted in retro dishes for serving the treats offered at Poly’s Place. Operations Manager Marti Miller
Marti Miller: So, we have four bakers that come in in the evenings and on the weekends and we have two young ladies that do all of our gluten free bakery items which we always have at least two or three of those available every day so we have scones both savory and sweet so from a sweet scone standpoint we have blueberry, we have cranberry and then on the savory side we have bacon ham and cheese scone but we have protein balls. We have chocolate chip cookies. We have monster cookies. We are doing bagels that are either coming from Sourdough Bagel or Great American Bagel and delivered here daily.
Stella Fong: To accompany the baked goods, Development Staff Manager CeCe Traywick tells of where the coffee beans come from for their brews.
CeCe Traywick: They are roasted by Big Sky Coffee Roasters. They developed a roast for us that is a medium bold blend.
Stella Fong: At Poly’s Place Coffee, patrons may sip medium bold blends or take bites of pastries and,
CeCe Traywick: Our hope is that they feel like it’s a homey space with homemade food, they can linger as long as they want. I love that all generations come to Poly’s Place. We started our day with little, tiny kids dancing to the jukebox and senior citizens playing cards.
This is Stella Fong at Poly Place Coffee for YPR News.
