Pullman Cafe Stories
Exploring Pullman one cup at a time—behind the scenes at local cafés and the stories that make them unique.
Pullman Café Staple Seeks New Ownership
After nearly 20 years of serving the Pullman community Zoe Coffee and Kitchen is now on the market as its owners search for someone to carry on its legacy.
After nearly 20 years of serving the Pullman community with their coffee, breakfasts, burgers and beer, Zoe Coffee and Kitchen is for sale. The cafe owners, Mike and Terry Wagoner are welcoming the next chapter of their life, retirement, and look to transition the restaurant to new ownership.
“It's time. Time to move on and do some things that we want to do, some things I want to do,” Mike Wagoner said.
Zoe Coffee and Kitchen has not always been the versatile food spot it is today. In fact, its origins were quite humble. Before considering opening a cafe, Mike Wagoner stopped drinking coffee for over 16 years. Until 2005 when his wife, Terry Wagoner, convinced him to try a latte. Mike Wagoner found the latte so good they began to drink one every morning. From there the couple invested in their own machine and grinder and learned the coffee making process.
In Pullman, at the Wagoner’s home, they were surrounded by students, “Pretty soon, they would start coming by looking for a latte…every morning, so I made them lattes,” said Mike Wagoner, “And one of my friends came by and said, ‘you should be getting paid for this’-- so that’s when we decided to open up.”
Zoe Coffee and Kitchen officially opened for business in 2006. The
Photo capturing the Zoe Coffee and Kitchen building sign on August 31, 2025. Photo by [Molly Zimmerman/Grounds For Gathering]
business began with coffee and pastries, but that wasn’t feasible to keep doors open. So the Wagoners expanded their food menu and later to include beer and wine as well. “Specialty shops can’t survive here,” Mike Wagoner said, “You have to appeal to the widest audience possible in order to survive.”
Soon the business opened a location close to the Washington State University campus where there would be live music, poetry slams and readings. “That took off like a firecracker,” Wagoner said, “It was a safe place…before a term like that was even coined. We had people of all kinds of makes and persuasions sitting next to each other having a good time,”
Then, in 2014, Washington State University purchased the building Zoe Coffee and Kitchen was housed in, and evicted the business in December. That is when the Wagoners moved the shop to its current location on Main Street.
Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic, prices have surged upwards and haven’t gone down. Maintaining a business without raising prices in the current economy is impossible. With climbing prices, and with Mike Wagoner turning 73 years old soon, he says it’s time to sell.
"I feel great, and I'm doing great and everything. I still love what I’m doing, but I realized that… I may only have 15 or 20 years left… so yeah, it's time.
Mike Wagoner’s second business, Cougar Country Drive In, sold in April of 2025. Wagoner expressed a bit of disappointment about the drastic menu change from the restaurant’s previous 52 years of history. Wagoner hopes that this won’t be the case for Zoe Coffee and Kitchen. “I think they would be foolish to change the menu very much," Wagoner said. “I hope it keeps the general diner vibe…we don’t really have anything like that in Pullman,” added employee Kaylin Noble.
Right now the Wagoners are still searching for their replacement, but once they sell Mike Wagoner looks forward to retirement. As for his plans, he hopes to travel, get back to fishing and take up kayaking again.
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