Life & Work with Rachel Motley of Downtown Manhattan, ks

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Motley.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Arrow Coffee started as a 500 sq foot coffee shop near campus in 2013. In 2016, we expanded our location to include a cocktail lounge and it was a hit. We shut that part of the business down during the pandemic, but when my partner and I had the opportunity to expand even further in 2022 to the most iconic building in the city, The Wareham Hotel (formally home of Harry’s Uptown restaurant), we had to take it. That space offered us the opportunity to do two separate concepts, so we reopened the Arrow Cocktail Lounge and added a full dinner menu on one side, and a cafe/market concept on the other, which we call Arrow Cafe and Bodega. The Bodega has most of the same offerings as our original location, but with a highly curated grocery and gift section that has a heavy focus on wine, N/A spirits, and local art and goods. Being a husband and wife team gives us two unique approaches to how to operate, and I sometimes think that the Cocktail Lounge is a reflection of Ben’s brain, while the Bodega is a peak inside of mine- and the original location being some combination of both!

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
We have had the most amazing community continue to champion and support us along the way, but it has by no means been easy. Ben and I have made plenty of mistakes- financial and personal. We’ve missed important payment deadlines, made lots of silly business errors that could have been avoided, and had staff turnover that nearly broke our hearts. I was 23 when Arrow started, and since then I have grown and stretched in ways that I never thought possible. My understanding of the world has changed which has caused a lot of reflection back into how I do business.

I think most people think business owners have it easy or automatically make a ton of money. Being self employed is not for the faint of heart. There are many nights I lose sleep over how I’m going to make payroll, or if I remembered to order something for a big catering or a busy weekend. I’m often trying to regulate own stress, while holding space for my staff’s. Probably once a week I ask myself “why the heck am I doing this” and then something incredible happens and I’m so grateful to be in the thick of it again.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
We’re known for our coffee, cocktails, and locally sourced food menus, but I’m honestly most proud of the staff community culture that we have at Arrow. We are a group committed to each other above all else. Being willing to have hard conversations that require vulnerability is incredibly scary, but so worth it. We have such an amazing crew of kind, empathetic people who are interested in changing the hospitality game, and I’m forever grateful for how working alongside this team has changed me. Like many other small businesses, we’ve had to pivot a lot in the post-covid years, and our team’s willingness to remain curious and open to new ideas and ways of doing things has taught me so much and has kept us in constant forward motion.

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I curate the playlists for the Cocktail Lounge! It’s a silly hobby, but I have a ton of fun with it and think I do a pretty good job. One of the Spotify playlists is called Lowkey Love if you’d like to see for yourself 🙂

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.arrowhospitality.info
• Instagram: @arrowcocktaillounge @arrowcoffeeco @arrow_bodega