Horror-themed coffee shop coming to DeKalb

DeKALB – Wally and Annie Porter have been pouring over the idea of what it would mean to open their own coffee shop.

It will be no ordinary venue for brewing up drinks, however.

The Malta couple said they’re envisioning something larger in a space of its own bringing a share of haunts and frights to DeKalb.

“The concept is a blend of Blockbuster, Starbucks and an art gallery,” Wally said. “It’s all going to be horror-themed.”

The coffee shop is dubbed “I Know What You Rented Last Summer.”

The name is a play on the name of the 1997 classic horror film “I Know What You Did Last Summer.”

As the first of its kind in town, the shop will provide a space where patrons can browse horror films for rent or purchase, shop from local horror artists, enjoy the fright-filled café and attend spooky-themed events throughout the year.

The location for the shop has not yet been settled on.

Wally said they have some ideas of where they could potentially set up shop in town.

“We want to be downtown DeKalb, so it’s more walkable for everybody in the community, but we’re also looking maybe a little further up toward Malta on [Lincoln] Highway, but it’d still be in DeKalb,” he said.

Annie said she and Wally are hoping to fill the demand of what they believe is an underserved market.

“We’re really honing in on college-age students to millennial age,” Annie said. “I feel like especially with the millennial generation, we’re really in the search for that nostalgic appeal. By offering video sales, rentals and all horror movie-like themes, we’re appealing to that need in the market that I feel like a lot of businesses aren’t targeting with millennials.”

Wally chimed in, saying Generation Z is another target audience.

“And Gen Z is,” Wally said. “We want to let Gen Z know what they missed out on.”

Annie said she and Wally want to be big on community outreach.

“An important thing, too, that we wanted to make sure this business had was community outreach because DeKalb is a college town,” Annie said. “There’s a lot of a younger audience, so I feel like it’s not being catered to in terms of the places they have to study or hang out unless it’s on campus. DeKalb itself does not have a local coffee shop. They only have the corporate brands, like Starbucks or Dunkin’.”

This is where the Porters hope to enter the frame. The Malta couple said they are excited to embark on a new business venture together.

Annie is a freelance illustrator, and Wally is a freelance digital marketer.

“When you’re freelancing, you’re usually working under someone else’s creative vision, but with this, it’s kind of a free for all for us,” Annie said. “We get to direct it how we want it to go. We really wanted to be intentional about incorporating both of our creative styles in the business. It worked out, me being an illustrator and then him being a marketer. It’s like a good combo.”

Wally agreed.

“I really like being able to create the videos,” Wally said. “We want to create the ads. We want to create the website. Like everything you see is what we saw in our heads and what we actually wanted to do.”

The Porters said they are eyeing a September grand opening for the shop.

In the meantime, the Malta couple said they are raising money through a GoFundMe campaign to help offset some of the initial costs of getting their business started.