Fresh coffee and community advocacy brewing in Lansing

If you were to ask Dan Stoughtenger what his mornings look like, he would tell you he is busy serving up smiles to the people of Lansing. The Syracuse native, who has owned and operated The Great Start Coffee Cart since last September, sets up shop every morning, Monday through Friday at the parking lot on 3120 N. Triphammer Rd.

“Part of the experience of being here is that you get an amazing product that you’re happy with, and that you leave with a smile,” he said. “That is super important to me.”

Prior to bringing new coffee options to the area, Stoughtenger worked as a warehouse manager for 14 years.

“It never really fed my soul,” he said. “I have this deep need to connect with other people and to build community. My kids are super important to me, and the community that they grow up in is super important to me.”

While serving and helping others isn’t new for Stoughtenger, his passion for coffee is. 

“As far back as even a few years ago, I didn’t even drink coffee,” he said. 

As Stoughtenger contemplated what he wanted to do next after he moved on from his job, he thought of opening up a coffee shop. At first, he was mostly interested in the possibilities the space could bring to local residents.

“The idea behind The Great Start Coffee Cart was always that a great coffee shop would be a great place for the community to come together and spend time together,” he added. “It was really like ‘I see a need for this thing. I think I can do it really well. I think I can make a big difference in the space that I’m in, so let’s do it.’”

Then, he had to think about the coffee.

“It wasn’t coffee that I didn’t like, it was the coffee I was drinking that I didn’t like,” he said. “I went to pick up a grinder that I found on Facebook Marketplace. The person who was selling the coffee grinder ended up being a coffee roaster, and they sent me home with a bunch of coffee.”

When he tried the coffee, sourced from Syracuse roastery The Cracked Bean, he said he realized the difference good coffee can make.

“I started this really amazing relationship with the coffee roasters at Cracked Bean, just talking about the fact that their product would make my shop amazing because their product is amazing,” Stoughtenger said.

Now, Stoughtenger serves up a variety of traditional coffee options from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., anything from a standard cup of joe to a complexly layered latte made with a sophisticated espresso machine. 

His favorite? An iced coffee with a caramel syrup drizzle. But at his shop, it is all about the preparation.

“You go to a coffee shop, and the first thing that they do is pour in the caramel before they pour in the coffee. Then, it’s almost guaranteed that your first few sips or your straw are going to be all caramel and you’re going to have very plain coffee,” he said. 

At The Great Start, Stoughtenger slides the ice in the cup first, then he pours in the java. He then finishes off the drink with creamer and the caramel syrup. 

“I am super intentional about the way that I build my coffees because it just makes a difference,” he added. “Paying attention to the details that you know are gonna matter to someone when they experience the coffee — it may seem silly, but those details really make a huge difference.”

While the coffee is important to Stoughtenger, participating in community events and raising funds for local causes are at the top of his list.

“I tend to do a lot of things like fundraiser events and stuff like that because I really have a connection with helping and supporting people,” he said.

An example of a recent act of service was Stoughtenger’s partnership with the Cornell Elves, an organization that has been providing school supplies and toys to thousands of students in area schools since 1989.

The Elves program was founded in 1989 to benefit children in great need in Tompkins County and the surrounding area. Thanks to hundreds of volunteers, the program has provided clothing, school supplies and toys to thousands of students from dozens of area schools.

“We raised about $1,600 to be able to support local kids in our community so they could have Christmas gifts,” Stoughtenger said.

His next big goal is to open The Lindy Black Studio for the Arts in Genoa. The studio, named after his grandmother, will primarily support children from traditionally marginalized communities.

“There’s a real lack of having safe spaces,” he said. “We all have differing abilities, and some may need things like accessible equipment or ramps to be able to get in accommodating bathrooms. I want everyone to come to this space and be able to just use it and feel safe.”

In a recent Facebook update, Stoughtenger shared some of the work he is doing to rehab a building in Genoa to make room for his art studio.

“This is another amazing opportunity to share inspiration through [my grandmother’s] memory,” he wrote in a recent post. “She was a creator until the very end, not just of beautiful things but also, she was a cultivator of beautiful memories!”

Lansing at Large appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com. Contact Eddie Velazquez at edvel37@gmail.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @ezvelazquez.