Meet Jennie and Bruce Caudle | Cafe Owners

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jennie and Bruce Caudle and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jennie and Bruce, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
The most important thing when it comes to business, is consistency. Always have the same hours, always make things exactly the same every time so the customer expects what they’re purchasing every time. Also continuing to play and be creative with the menu. We let the holidays, seasonal flavors and current in season produce guide our new drinks and pastry. We want to have something new for our guests to try, so we like to keep it fresh.

What should our readers know about your business?
We had a long journey, both of us worked in the food industry as well as retail. Bruce had a lot of management experience, and pushed for us to branch off and start and business. We started off as crafters, selling unique and strange steam punk art at conventions. He then pushed me into pursuing my art, I went to school for graphics and illustration. He always had a dream of wanting to own a coffee shop, and I had a natural knack for cooking. So we decided to take everything we learned and compiled our experiences into what we have today. Dragon’s Forge Cafe is a completely unique place, it’s a fully immersive fantasy cafe. Our little cafe makes you feel like you’ve stepped into your favorite fantasy novel or game. Most of our recipes are from Jennie’s family, and she helps create a lot of the menu. Our menu has lots of nods to different fantasy elements, like our health and mana potion lemonade. Each of our core house lattes are based of different dragons which Jennie designs. The cafe has become a big community safe haven for artsy, alternative, and lgbt people in town. It’s become a wonderful hub for people from all walks of life. It’s truly a warm, safe space for our community to enjoy.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
My first stop is where our cafe is located, which is at Lowe Mill Arts and Entertainment. It’s an old cotton factory that has been repurposed into a beautiful arts community, and the largest privately owned arts facility in America. I absolutely love the sense of community that Lowe Mill has, and there are so many wonderful creatives to visit! Of corse when you’re in Huntsville, the rocket city, you have to visit the space and rocket center! It’s a super fun museum to check out and you can spend a lot of time there. Downtown Huntsville is very charming and on the weekend there is always something exciting going on from markets, to live music on the street corners, to food truck festivals! It’s become quite the bustling little area.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Jennie: I’d personally like to thank my husband. He’s been my biggest cheerleader and has always pushed me to do more than I ever expected I could. He’s pushed me to take a leap when I was too scared, and never gave up on things when it got difficult.

Website: Dragonsforgecafe.com

Instagram: Dragons forge cafe