Bailey Seaton and her mom Tami Peters, set up Camp Coffee Cart at the Henderson Aquatic Center on the first day of Red Cross swimming lessons – courtesy photo
Henderson News Reprint
Written by Kerri Pankratz
Bailey Seaton embarks on a new venture
Parents, and most importantly, sleepy lifeguards, were thrilled to find a mobile coffee cart parked at the Henderson Aquatic Center on Monday, June 15… the first day of Red Cross Swimming Lessons.
Early morning swim lessons can be tough so who wouldn’t want a little extra jolt of caffeine to get them through? Enter Bailey Seaton and her mobile coffee cart.
Many of you have experienced Bailey’s work from behind the cappuccino machine at The Hatchery on Friday and Saturday mornings in downtown Henderson. Well, she’s now taken that particular skill set of hers and added wheels!
Bailey and her assistant, mom Tami Peters, had their Camp Coffee Cart set up from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. at the swimming pool selling iced or hot lattes and cappuccinos as well as steamers, and by the time I got there at 10:30 a.m. for a visit, they were all sold out!
Camp Coffee Cart has been a dream of Bailey’s for about four years now, with her goal always being quality over convenience.
Everything on the cart is made from scratch, including the cart itself! All of the syrups are homemade by Bailey, who also works as a functional nutrition coach, so you know her ingredients are carefully picked and considered as well as seasonal and fresh. The whole milk she uses comes from a Nebraska dairy and the oat milk is free of gums and funky ingredients. Her cart will also never include a sugar-free or fat-free product.
“It’s a seasonal menu for the most part,” said Bailey. “There’s a different Drink of the Month each month. June’s was Raspberry Crisp with Cream, which was a vanilla latte with a raspberry cold foam. Last month our Drink of the Month was a carrot cake latte.”
“I might do a creamsicle latte next month. We tried an orange latte when we were in Lincoln, and it was so good! I think it would be really good with like a vanilla bean orange situation. Because the espresso is very mild, it’s not bitter at all.”
When Bailey came up with the idea of Camp Coffee Cart, she possessed the barista know-how but needed an actual cart to bring her dreams to fruition. Enter her dad Jeff Peters, who not only built the cart but made it into a type of hybrid Transformer as the cart fully breaks down into five pieces and Bailey is even able to fit the entire thing in her car! It takes about 15 minutes to assemble at each venue.
At the time of our visit Bailey already had seven pop-ups under her belt. June was a very busy month.
She did a weekend Pilates event in Kearney where they got in a bit of cardio on top of their Pilates that day.
“That was the one where we had to carry the cart upstairs,” said Tami.
“Yes!” exclaimed Bailey, “Two flights of stairs! I’ll be making a change to my contract so it says there has to be an elevator… or something, so that situation doesn’t happen again.”
Yet another reason to be glad the cart breaks down into sections.
“Luckily one of the organizer’s husband was there and he carried the heaviest stuff up for us.”
At the time she hadn’t yet booked a wedding but was hoping to have that happen soon.
“I would love to do weddings! I think bridal showers would be fun to do. I did have a bride enquire for next May wanting me to be set up and serving during wedding prep the day of the ceremony. A pre-made bottle box would work really well for that type of event as well.”
Ahhh, yes. A pre-made bottle box. Camp Coffee Cart has also started taking Thursday Orders. “Campers” can now enjoy “Camp” once a week by ordering a bottled latte!
Just follow Camp Coffee Cart on Facebook and every Monday Bailey will post the week’s order form for you to fill out. Each order needs to be placed by Tuesday at midnight and paid for via Venmo at the same time.
You can order a single latte for yourself or she has 2-pack and 4-pack options either for your friends or to have some back stock on hand. All to go orders are made in 12 ounce bottles that are chilled in the fridge. You can pour them over ice or drink them straight.
During Bailey’s first few weeks of offering Thursday Orders, she made 40 drinks during her first week and 43 the second. She does cap her orders at 50 drinks a week now and has consistently hit that number.
It takes her about two hours each Thursday to get the orders done. Drinks can then be picked up at Kyra Epp’s house in Henderson or even from Bailey’s own front door. At Kyra’s it operates on the honor system. If you haven’t already paid for you order via Venmo or the like, there is a cash box inside the cooler set up outside her home and you can just pull up, grab your order and go.
I did get around to asking the most burning question, at least in my mind, why is it called Camp Coffee Cart?
“I’ve just always loved that name,” explained Bailey. “In my mind for the last four years I’ve wanted to do something like this. The name just makes sense because when we get to an event we’re “setting up camp” as a mobile coffee bar. I had also always thrown around the idea of doing “Camp Cocktail” and “Camp Coffee”… so you could do a morning and evening service. But let’s face it, I probably will never get a liquor license because I don’t even drink alcohol myself… BUT I just loved the concept. And now I have “campers” come and get coffee.”
Did you hear that “campers”? Off in the distance. It sounds like a lone bugler…. “Do doot doda loot, do doot doda loot, do doot doda loot, in the morning!” Campers! Come and get your coffee!
