By Chad W. Thompson

David and Tricia Niven love the community of Spruce Pine. DT’s Blue Ridge Java has become famous among the people of Spruce Pine for their gourmet coffee and delicious meals. They are located on Lower (Locust) Street right in the heart of downtown Spruce Pine. “We love the people of Spruce Pine,” said David Niven, who owns DT’s (he’s the “D”) with his wife Tricia (she’s the “T”). “For Tricia and me, it’s all about the people. It always has been. If you’re in the restaurant business and you don’t like people then you may as well close your doors because you’re probably not going to succeed.”

Dave attributes the success of his restaurant, in part, to the level of involvement that he and Tricia have in the restaurant. “Eighty-percent of the time, when you walk into DT’s, either Tricia or I are there,” said David. “We could have hired someone to run the place from the start, but it wouldn’t have succeeded. The people of Spruce Pine want to see Tricia and myself when they come into the store, and we couldn’t be happier about that because we want to see them too.”

David and Tricia started DTs in 2003 when they realized that the town needed a place to eat lunch, although David’s first experience in their restaurant industry dates all the way back to 1993. He got a job working for Western Sizzling in South Port, and later transferred to a Western Sizzlin’ in Dunn. After about a year and half, David joined the management of Steak and Ale in Raleigh.

But David could only punch the clock for so long. After all he is, in his own words, an entrepreneur. “I do better when I’m working for myself,” said David. So in 1996 he started a commercial cleaning company with his brother. Based out of Charlotte, most of the company’s business was generated through a company relocation program, “but after 9-11 hit, businesses stopped re-locating so we had to do something else,” said David.

The following spring David received a call from Gary Jensen, who owns the Chalet in Little Switzerland. “Gary and I have known each other since we were kids, he’s a good friend,” said David. “He wanted to know if I’d help him open a new restaurant, Ivans, in Marion. The timing was just right so I said ‘yes’. Tricia and I already had a vacation home in Little Switzerland so it made sense on a number of levels for us to make the move. We can’t possibly thank Gary and his family enough for the way they supported us through this transition. Tricia and I simply couldn’t ask for better friends.”

Soon thereafter, in 2001, David and Tricia opened a small coffee and candy shop in Little Switzerland. Tricia worked the candy shop, which was originally called The Little Swiss Sweet Shop, while David managed the restaurant. “So the first DT’s was actually in Little Switzerland,” said David.

In 2002 David and Tricia acquired another candy shop in Downtown Spruce Pine, Wendy’s, which they turned into a coffee shop that they named DT’s. During this time, Tricia ran the coffee shop in Little Switzerland while David managed the first DT’s location that opened in Spruce Pine. “Two years later, property owner David Wylie approached me about the space we now occupy in Spruce Pine,” said David. “So in the middle of 2003 we sealed the deal with David Wylie and that’s how we obtained the space that we now occupy.”

“When we leased the space we had to determine what kind of business Spruce Pine needed,” said David. “We didn’t just decide what type of business we wanted to run and then open it, we looked at what the town needed, and the people of Spruce Pine needed a place to eat lunch.”

Actually, the people of Spruce Pine needed more than just a place to get lunch; they needed a place where they make new friends and stay acquainted with old ones. A place where they pray, or hold business meetings, or birthday parties. For some, DT’s is simply a place to sit down and relax after a long week with a hot cup of coffee in their hand.

“DT’s is truly a gift to the community of Spruce Pine,” said Sandy Hite, a regular at DT’s. “David and Tricia have created an atmosphere where friendly people naturally gravitate towards one another. It’s like Spruce Pine’s living room.”

Sandy would know, she has made a number of friends in the community through her involvement in the “lunch bunch,” a group of Spruce Pine residents who just sort of “bumped” into each other at DT’s. “We were all eating lunch at DT’s on a regular basis,” said “bunch” member Betty Brannigan. “But we were sitting at different tables, so one day Tricia decided to introduce us to each other. We’ve been meeting on a regular basis every since!” Betty emphasized that the lunch bunch is not a closed group, “Anyone who walks into DTs is welcome to sit down at our table and share their day with us!”

DT’s truly can be credited with providing a social atmosphere that has brought the town of Spruce Pine together, but let’s not forget they make some of the best tasting meals in the whole region.

“We use only the highest quality ingredients in all of our menu items,” said David. “That makes it harder to turn a profit, but we believe it’s important to serve the best meal we can possibly serve for the price that we charge.” David said his top two priorities in business are the quality of the food and the quality of the service, “We absolutely won’t compromise our food quality or our customer service. Those are our top priorities. You’ll never walk into DT’s and see 40 people waiting in line with only two people behind the counter. We always have at least 4 people behind the counter, even during the slowest part of the day. Four is our minimum.”

Maintaining the quality of their food, atmosphere, and customer service is no easy task for David and Tricia, especially in light of the challenges they’ve faced during the last few years. “In just the last few years both David and I lost our moms, said Tricia. “And then when the fires hit downtown we thought we’d lose our business too. But God had other plans.”

But more than anything else, it was their faith that sustained David and Tricia through these difficult times, and that faith impacts their business as well. “Faith is an integral part of our lives,” said David, “and if your faith is part of your life than it’s certainly going to affect your business. There’s no way Tricia and I could have opened this business without faith.”

According to Tricia, that faith affects decisions related to staffing as well. “When you hire someone that you don’t yet know very well, it requires a lot of faith,” said Tricia. “Faith that they’ll be good workers, and faith that they won’t steal from you, or say something that will alienate a customer.” Although it can be hard to trust God through many of the challenges that arise while running a successful restaurant, David and Tricia are learning to make it work. “I used to make snap decisions about business matters, but now I’ve learned to go home and take the time to pray about it, sleep on it, and discuss it with Dave. Things roll much smoother this way,” said Tricia.

The high value they place on their own Christian faith is reflected in the way they treat their employees. “One of the main reasons that we are closed on Sundays,” said Tricia, “is that we want our employees to be able to go to church. And we almost always accommodate staff who request Wednesday evenings off for church. We don’t want to discourage anyone from growing closer to the Lord, in fact many of the characteristics that we look for in hiring staff are characteristics that most of the Christian people who work for us possess. That doesn’t mean that we value our Christian staff members more than the others, it just means that we appreciate their faith.”

David and Tricia are sustained not only by their strong faith in God, but through their love for one another. “I knew I would marry David after our second date,” said Tricia. “The way we met is actually quite humorous. I worked in the apartment industry as a landlord, and Dave owned a janitorial cleaning company with his twin brother. I couldn’t tell the difference between them. In fact, I didn’t even know there were two of them!”

Tricia continued “David and his twin brother took turns cleaning my properties, so I’d start a conversation with one of them and finish it with the other, having absolutely no idea that I was dealing with two different people.It was very confusing. Then on Valentines Day of 1995 David brought me a teddy bear and asked me out. I almost said ‘no’ because I felt I needed a break from dating, but my mom convinced me. She said ‘just go on the date it’s a free meal’, so I went and by the second date I knew that I was in love.”

Love is the common thread that’s woven throughout the story of David and Tricia Niven. Love for each other, love for their creator, and of course, love for the community of Spruce Pine.

“I just want everybody to know how blessed we feel to be a part of down town Spruce Pine,” said Tricia. David agreed, “We’ve been open for six years now and we’ve done far better here than we ever expected,” said David.

“This town has been very good to us.”