Ryan and his wife Carrie moved to Connell from Ephrata, WA in 2015. Carrie had just received a job to be an assistant principal, and Ryan was commuting to work on his family’s farm. Fed up with the hour plus commute, Ryan was faced with a choice: find a job in the neighboring Tri-Cites, or pursue a career in his newly formed passion, coffee.

Ryan’s first experience with coffee was on his grandparents’ farm where they raised cattle. He would sneak to all the half drank cups of coffee and creamer left around the breakfast table, savoring the luke-warm remnants of sweet cream and Folgers. That enjoyment lay dormant for decades until he met his wife, who reignited his love for coffee. After getting married, they bought their first espresso machine, and Ryan plunged head first into the deep rabbit hole of specialty coffee. This is what drove Ryan to start his first coffee shop in Connell, naming this shop Flying X, after the cattle brand from that same farm where his coffee journey was initiated. Learning a lot, he always dreamed of starting a shop in the neighboring Tri-Cities. Every time he would run into town for supplies, he would always stop at his favorite shop: The Local. There, Ryan found inspiration and vowed someday to have a shop just like it. Over the next 7-8 years, Flying X Coffee had its share of ups and downs, but always plowing forward, Ryan now has the opportunity to take stewardship over the same shop in which he once found admiration. Thankful to the Enslow Family and Indaba Coffee, Ryan gets to realize the dreams that he first had over the better part of a decade ago.