08/28/2026
Iāve heard a few comments about people coming to the shop during our normal operating hours only to find the doors locked, so I wanted to address it.
Not defensively. Not dramatically. Just honestly.
Bellator is a small business, but behind that counter is a very real family with four beautiful kids and a life that doesnāt always give a damn what our business hours say.
If weāre unexpectedly closed, thereās usually a reason. Sometimes weāre slinging coffee at an event. Sometimes weāre sitting on the sidelines of our oldest daughterās soccer game because we refuse to miss her life just to keep a register open.
But more often than not, itās medical.
Our youngest, Priscilla, is two years old and medically complex.
She came into this world a little over 26 weeks gestation and spent seven months in the NICU fighting like hell to stay here.
When she finally came home, she was completely ventilator dependent. She could not survive without that machine breathing for her. She couldnāt eat by mouth, so she had a G-tube placed to give her body the nutrition it needed.
And somehow, that tiny little badass has fought her way forward.
Today, she still has her tracheostomy, but she no longer needs a ventilator to breathe. Sheās learning to eat and drink by mouth, although much of her nutrition still comes through her G-tube. Her trach isnāt going anywhere anytime soon, and neither are the appointments, specialists, surgeries, nursing care, sicknesses, emergencies, or sleepless nights that come with loving a medically complex child.
She requires awake and alert eyes on her 24 hours a day.
Because things can change quickly.
Because sometimes medical equipment fails.
Because sometimes she gets sick.
And because apparently one of Priscillaās favorite hobbies is casually pulling out the tube she breathes through like itās no big deal.
So sometimes the coffee shop has to wait.
We love Bellator. We love the strange little community weāve built inside these walls. We care deeply about showing up for the people who continue to show up for us.
But before we are business owners, roasters and baristasāwe are Mom and Dad.
There will be days when the lights are off when theyāre normally on. There will be last-minute closures. There will be schedules that change because life changed first.
We will always do our best to communicate it. We will always do our best to show up.
We just ask for a little patience and grace when we canāt.
Bellator may run on caffeine, darkness and questionable amounts of sarcasmā¦
but we are people with complex lives.
And sometimes loving all four of our babies means putting a closed sign on the door.
Thank you to the ones who understand. š¤
