She’s only 19 years old, but Charli Ritter has already made some big decisions in her life.
One of them included purchasing a building and opening her own business.
Three months after she first opened the doors to Mountain Ground at 13960 State Highway 32 in Mountain, Ritter is convinced she made the right move and is looking forward to a busy summer with plenty of tourists.
The restaurant is currently open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday through Monday, but Ritter plans to have daily hours during the tourism season.
So how does a teenager go from being home-schooled to owning and running her own business in less than a year?
Ritter admitted it wasn’t easy.
“A lot of work, a lot of time and a lot of learning,” she said while taking a break at Mountain Ground, located in the same building that housed Scoopers, a popular ice cream shop, for 20 years.
Ritter’s introduction to the business world came with online entrepreneurship classes she took through Northeast Wisconsin Technical College.
“I was home-schooled my whole school years,” she said. “We bought a cottage here about 10 years ago. We kind of lived here back-and-forth, and now we live here full-time. I was born in Tigerton, and we moved to Shawano.”
A love for meeting people helped point Ritter toward the idea of opening her own restaurant.
“I love connecting with new people,” she said. “I waitressed the last two summers at a diner in town, and I love customer service a lot.”
Ritter also saw a need for a coffee shop in Mountain.
“There’s one 20 minutes that way and 20 minutes that way,” she said while pointing in opposite directions. “My mom and I kept saying, ‘Oh, we need another breakfast place and coffee shop in town. Why don’t we do it ourselves?’ Here we are.”
Scoopers was a seasonal ice cream shop open from May through October and closed in September last year after the owner retired. Ritter closed on the building Oct. 15, and Mountain Ground opened Nov. 6.
“They did ice cream, burgers and hot dogs,” Ritter said. “It was helpful that it was set up to be a restaurant. Originally, we were thinking just coffee and not food, but the place came with a grill, so we said, ‘Why not do the whole thing?’”
Family and friends helped make Ritter’s dream of owning a business come to life. Her mother, Cheryl, works at the restaurant, and they are the only permanent employees.
Ritter admitted there were times when she questioned whether everything would come together.
“I was kind of thinking about doing it this next summer once we had people in town again,” she said. “I was thinking we could get some practice in through the winter. I really didn’t know if I wanted to go to school for something. Instead of being great in debt for school, I just came great in debt for business.”
Hands-on learning is part of the job for Ritter.
“Machines crashing, technical difficulties, computer stuff, figuring out how to make customers happy,” she said.
It’s only been around for three months, but Mountain Ground is a hit in the community, according to Ritter.
“Everything that I’ve heard has been great,” she said. “I’ve heard a lot of good things about us even when I’m overhearing people. That’s been really exciting and it’s a confidence-booster.”
Unlike many of customers, Ritter doesn’t need a cup of Joe to get her day started.
“Actually, before I started working here, I hated coffee,” she said. “I love coffee shops and some drinks that didn’t involve caffeine. I did not like coffee, but now, having to try all the monthly specials, I’m starting to really enjoy it.”
Mountain Ground’s coffee menu includes several options, including iced coffee, mocha, latte and frappe.
Breakfast and lunch meals are also available.
The breakfast menu has several choices, including avocado or banana toast; yogurt bowl; New York bagel; and the MG Special, which includes two eggs, bacon or ham, hash browns and sourdough toast.
The lunch menu consists of items named after local landmarks, including the Fire Lookout Tower, Cathedral Woods, Hagar Mountain and Trail wraps.
“For the wraps, we chose a lot of cool local public spaces,” Ritter said. “When people come in here, maybe they’re locals and they’ve never heard of a location that we have on our menu. We want to highlight some places in the area and get people to know the area more. A lot of people drive through Mountain and don’t even realize they went through it because it’s so small.”
Ritter’s plan is to eventually expand the menu, adding more sandwiches for lunch.
“We’re hoping to add more sandwiches to the lunch menu, but we still want to keep it small to make sure everything is fresh and at a higher standard.”
Besides serving food and coffee, Ritter also plans to use her business to connect with the Mountain community.
“We’re starting crafts every month, so I’ve been able to partner with some people,” she said. “Mary Kendall, one of the locals, is doing a card event and we’re doing that tomorrow. We have 11 people signed up for 9 o’clock and 22 signed up for 11 o’clock. It’ll be while we’re in business. Last month, we did a candle-making event, and it was fun. I like having such a small building where you have to share a table with other people and you get to know other people.”
