Kevin Klingele said he is not afraid to experiment—be it opening up one of the first coffee shops of its kind in Denton back in 2011, or expanding his business into a Highland Village shopping center that industry experts said would be a lost cause.

“We really felt like a lot of our guests were coming from the Highland Village, Flower Mound, Lewisville area,” Klingele said. “We felt like there would be a … need that we could fill just by getting down to that area.”

But business is booming in that Highland Village location nearly five years after first opening—so much so that Klingele and his wife, Josi, have since opened another location in Keller and plan to open a local headquarters in the near future.

Klingele credits Seven Mile Cafe’s name recognition for some of the success each location had when first opening up. That, and their willingness to try new concepts.

“We’re not afraid to test new menu items, try things that are different and see how it works,” Klingele said. “I think that a lot of our guests kind of expect that from us. So sometimes we make some mistakes. … But it has been through all that trial and error that I think we find the majority of our success.”

Other than Seven Mile Cafe’s extensive breakfast menu, which includes an entire section devoted exclusively to eggs Benedict, Klingele wanted to make sure he offered a robust coffee menu inspired by his California roots.

“We initially wanted to do a coffee shop; however, we couldn’t find a breakfast place that was similar to what we experienced in California where we’re originally from,” Klingele said. “We decided to leap into the restaurant world and bring great coffee, because coffee has always been a part of what Seven Mile is about.”

With plans for the headquarters in the works, Klingele hopes he can use the new space to share some of the industry knowledge he has gleaned in the six years he has been in business.

“It’s going to have a training center, and were going to start to become a restaurant teaching and consulting business more than a restaurant business,” Klingele said.