Chris Grekoff, Garriel Keeble -- Espresso Cart Takes Two Women Toward Their Own Cup Of Tea

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- Names: Chris Grekoff and Garriel Keeble

- Ages: Grekoff, 38; Keeble, 39

- Position: Owners of a mobile espresso cart in Queen Anne

- Goals: Both wanted to escape unsatisfying jobs with large

companies and to control their own destiny.

- Quote: Grekoff: ``I dream sometimes about expanding to other

cities, but really, when I think about it, I want to stay

small. I'm not sure I'd enjoy being a manager - I enjoy

talking to customers too much.

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Four hands work the espresso machine in a synchronized dance. One fills a stainless steel port-o-filter with coffee grounds. A second grabs the milk for latte. A third and fourth work levers to release steaming hot water through coffee grounds to produce the coffee concentrate that gives espresso its kick.

Street sounds accompany the dance: honking horns, a conversation shouted across the street, the whistle of a traffic cop immersed in her own choreography. And all the while, espresso makers Chris Grekoff and Garriel Keeble play their own instrument, a three-pump Astoria manual espresso machine.

The two are still relatively inexperienced in their roles as espresso entrepreneurs. They started their business, Counterbalance Espresso, last fall after buying the espresso cart in front of the Tower Books store on Mercer Avenue in Queen Anne.

Theirs is not the hackneyed story of a modern Horatio Alger striking it rich in some daring venture. Such stories, though rare, fuel the imaginations of wanna-be industrialists.

Instead, their motivation for taking a flier on a risky business venture - and quitting stable jobs with large companies to do it - is more pedestrian. Grekoff and Keeble disliked their jobs, which they thought were changing for the worse and taking them nowhere.

Grekoff, the quieter of the partners, said she began thinking about a new career several years ago out of unhappiness with her job as a driver for United Parcel Service.

For a time, she worked to change the company's employment practices through her union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. But she eventually decided she wanted something else: ``I realized I didn't want to be a martyr. I didn't want to sacrifice my life for this cause.''

Grekoff is a long-time espresso fan. She is enamored of its hearty, rich flavor.

Her love of espresso brought her in touch with Chuck and Susie Beek, who have operated an outdoor espresso cart in downtown Seattle since 1980. They weren't the first to come up with the idea for an outdoor cart, but they were pioneers in making the idea work.

In 1988, the Beeks were preparing to abort an attempted expansion of their espresso-cart business. With the help of a partner, they had expanded from one cart to four in early 1988, but before long they decided to return to one cart. Chuck says he found little joy in management; supervising the operations of four carts.

``Also, we were just breaking even on the additional carts,'' said Chuck Beek. ``People say these carts are money in the bank. It's not true.''

It wasn't money that persuaded Keeble, Grekoff's partner, to join in ownership of the cart.

Keeble, 39, spent 16 years at the University branch of First Interstate Bank, first as a teller and as a customer-service representative. Over the years, the parts of her job she liked best - joking and sharing stories with customers - became less possible.

``It seemed like the banking industry changed in the '80s where the emphasis was on marketing over service,'' Keeble said. ``If you weren't doing something that was directly related to turning a profit, it wasn't useful. It wasn't a good environment for me.''

Keeble, who is almost relentlessly upbeat, now says the things she likes most about running the espresso cart are the very opportunities to interact with people that kept her interested in banking.

Grekoff likens the espresso job to that of a bartender, which she was for a short time after leaving the University of Washington as a junior.

``The nice thing about this job is that you don't have to deal with drunks as often,'' she said. ``Also, I think the conversation is more stimulating.''

Grekoff and Keeble are typical of thousands of like-minded individuals over the past decade who jettisoned stable jobs with large companies to start their own businesses.

The number of mobile espresso carts and other food trucks and carts also has increased dramatically.

Jill Trohimovich, a senior environmental-health specialist with the Seattle/King County Health Department, said she approved almost three times as many plans last year as in 1987 for mobile food services, which include everything from hot dog carts to espresso carts to mini mobile restaurants that cater to businesses at lunch time.

She said almost 100 espresso carts are approved to operate in King County, most of which are in downtown Seattle.

Grekoff said she and Keeble paid $20,000 for the business, which included the espresso machine, the cart and the goodwill of customers built up over three years at the same location.

Having now operated the cart for about six months - and generally slack, winter months at that - Grekoff said she is not sure how much she will make for the year. She guesses that she and Keeble will ultimately split about $30,000 in profit for the year.

``You can earn a living doing this, but you'd better not get into it only for the money,'' said Grekoff, who made $38,000 a year as a UPS driver.

``The main thing was that Garriel and I wanted to do something that we'd enjoy and also make a living at,'' Grekoff said. ``That was our real motivation.''

Chuck Beek, grandfather of Seattle's mobile espresso-cart industry, said he thinks Grekoff and Keeble have what it takes to be successful.

``I can tell they're having a good time, which is probably the most important ingredient to being successful. You have to like it,'' he said.

Beek said they may want to avoid the trap he found himself in - expanding the business and the time he was spending on it but not getting a return in satisfaction, or money.

Beek consults with individuals who are thinking about launching their own cart or starting up in another city. It's a good way to make money with his unique expertise without giving up his own personal contacts with customers.

Beek said he has heard of espresso carts starting up in Chicago; Portland; Nashville, Tenn.; and Hartford, Conn.

Grekoff admits that, at times, she feels the entrepreneurial fever coming over her and thinks in grandiose terms.

``I dream sometimes about expanding to other cities, but really, when I think about it, I want to stay small,'' she said. ``I'm not sure I'd enjoy being a manager - I enjoy talking to customers too much.''

Profile appears weekly in the Business Monday section of The Seattle Times.