Over the past four years, Flying Squirrel Coffee Company has become Mansfield’s favorite spot for comfort and coffee.
Tucked into a small shop in Mansfield’s historic downtown, the Flying Squirrel emits a warm, homey feel as soon as you walk in the door. Small tables are slipped into the corners, while long tables give patrons a chance to work, visit, or get to know new people sharing their space. A big comfy couch and chairs in the back offer a relaxing spot.
Baristas bustle efficiently behind a counter constructed of airplane parts, delivering paper cups of coffee to go or in chunky mugs for those who have time to sit a spell.
“It’s like ‘Cheers,’” said Scot Bowman, a frequent flyer at Flying Squirrel, likening the coffee shop to the saloon from the popular ’80s sitcom. “Everybody knows somebody. When I walk in, it’s like ‘Norm!’ I think I know a third of the people that walked in here today.”
Behind the counter, owner Amy Ryan is indistinguishable from the other baristas, quickly pouring coffee or warming up a homemade muffin to deliver to the next customer. Like the other baristas, she knows the majority of the customers who come in the door, calling them by name and offering a smile to all.
Like Bowman, she likens the atmosphere to “Cheers,” where everybody knows your name.
“I think people come for the relationships behind the counter,” she said. “It’s small and cozy. The good coffee is a bonus.”
And the coffee is good, made from beans roasted by Flying Squirrel at a local spot. In addition to cups of coffee, the shop offers bags of their fresh coffee for sale. The Flying Squirrel has monthly specialty coffees, coffee flights so patrons can try a variety of flavors, homemade pastries and sandwiches made by a local mother-and-daughter team, and a coffee trailer so they can take the show on the road.
Ryan also expresses her creativity by changing the shop’s décor every month to reflect the season, with paper Valentines in February and shamrocks in March. Always on display are military patches, airplane parts (including a booth made of chrome), and squirrels, which pay tribute to her father and herself.
“My dad was a pilot in the Air Force, he flew in ’Nam and then for American Airlines,” she said. “The squirrel is a nice way to embrace my ADD. On Thursdays, my dad and I would have coffee dates.”
Ryan said Mansfield was ready for a local coffee shop.
“I think it was the perfect time for a specialty coffee shop to come back to the community,” Ryan said. “They want a place where they feel welcome. Humans desire companionship.”
But November 2019 was a tough time to start a new business. The Flying Squirrel had only been open for 90 days before it had to close for the COVID pandemic.
“If it hadn’t been for the community supporting us, we wouldn’t have made it,” Ryan said. “We opened an espresso bar outside and decided to do Door Dash, which we hadn’t done before.”
Ryan and her husband, Daryle, who is the chief of police in Cockrell Hill, knew they wanted to give back to the community, starting their charity, Quarter Mile.
“We started by going a quarter mile to the left and a quarter mile to the right,” she said. “One Saturday of the month, Daryle is out doing yard work, helping build ramps or leaving quarters and detergent at the laundromat.
“Daryle started Quarter Mile in 2019,” Ryan said. “Daryle makes it happen. I write the checks.”
Last summer, the couple branched out, partnering with House for a Home, a charity organized by Realtor Bryson Swiggart, who pays to build a home in Africa each time he closes on a house. Ryan and her husband traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, with their church, TCAL, and have since paid for three wells in Kenya, costing $5,000-$7,000 each.
The couple also paid for three sewing machines so that one of the Kenyan pastors’ wives could hire locals and start and a sewing business. Ryan offers skirts and aprons created by the seamstresses in the Flying Squirrel.
“You are in the community to help others,” she said. “It starts here and goes as far as we can make it.”
The Flying Squirrel, 110 N. Main St. in Mansfield, is open from 6 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays, 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m.-2 p.m. Sunday. For more information, go to flyingsquirrelcoffeeco.com.
