By Brenna R. Kelly
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Audrey Kidder (left) and her sister Lydia are reflected in an espresso machine as their mother, Robin Kidder (right), a laid-off airline pilot who is opening a coffee shop in Hebron, trains her employees , including Elizabeth Wielgus (second from right). The Cincinnati Enquirer/PATRICK REDDY

HEBRON - After working out at Curves, Robin Kidder and her friends longed for somewhere to sit, relax and have a cup of coffee.

Gym owner Julie Rath often heard women saying the same thing.

"But on this side of town there isn't a good coffee shop," Rath said.

When the talk surfaced again at Rath's Christmas party last December, Kidder decided she would do something about it.

On Wednesday, just six months after that party, Kidder will open The Coffee Blend, two doors down from Curves on Hebron Park Drive.

"I like good coffee and I am picky about good coffee," said Kidder as she readied the store for opening. "That's one of the reasons I recognized the need. I am a person that if I wanted good coffee, I would drive to Starbucks.

"I have friends that drive to Starbucks and live in Hebron. They don't have to now."

Hebron is one of the fastest-growing areas in Boone County, the 80th fastest-growing county in the nation, but grocery stores and restaurants haven't opened there yet.

"There is a need here," said Rath. "More than one person talked about" opening a coffee shop.

The small, gold airplane dangling from Kidder's neck is the only hint of her other life. Kidder, a 50-year-old mother of two, is also a pilot for Northwest Airlines. She's been laid off for almost a year but could be called back at any time.

"I've done a lot of things knowing I'm going to go back to work," Kidder said. She's hired a manager and installed a Web cam, so she can check in on the shop while she's on the road.

But until then, Kidder plans to spend a lot of time tending to the espresso machine, making lattes and blending smoothies.

In addition to traditional coffee drinks, the shop will offer low-carb mochas, sugar-free syrups and specialty chocolate drinks.

The cafe will also have Internet hookups, wireless Internet access and a computer where patrons can rent time.

There will be muffins from the County Seat Restaurant in Burlington. Coffee made in Cincinnati. The art on the walls, depicting Big Bone Lick, is from an Edgewood artist.

"I've tried to keep everything I could in the community," she said.

Community groups, book clubs and church groups are welcome to meet at the shop on the cozy floral couch and large leather chairs that Kidder found at local flea market.

"I am very much hoping this will settle in and be part of the community," she said.

It's a way to give back to the community that helped her open the shop, she said.

At the Small Business Owner's Association of Northern Kentucky, a program of the Boone County Cooperative Extension Service, she found an insurance agent, lawyer, accountant, a credit-card processor and a restaurant equipment dealer.

"Because all that was in front of me it made it easier to go, without knowing how to go," Kidder said. At SCORE, a nonprofit association that provides entrepreneurs with free business counseling, she found a volunteer to help her write a business plan. She learned about demographics, traffic counts (19,200 cars a day pass in front of the shop) and bank loans.

"I wasn't going to mortgage my whole life," she said. She got a $50,000 Small Business Administration-backed loan from Huntington Bank.

"We didn't want to mortgage our house, because that gets scary," she said. So she mortgaged a portion of the 20 acres in Burlington were she lives with her husband, Bob, also a pilot, and two daughters.

She's also hoping to have a business to come back to in 10 years when she hits mandatory retirement age for pilots.

"By that time, I'll just take it over and I'll have a business to run, and it'll help pay for college and health insurance," Kidder said. "That's the plan."

Opening the shop has also been a labor of love for her daughters, 10-year-old Audrey and 13-year-old Lydia. They helped sponge-paint the yellow walls but "got tired in about an hour," she said.

Even the fifth-graders at her daughter's school, Goodridge Elementary, were in on helping start the business. Kidder taught Junior Achievement to five fifth-grade classes. For their last assignment, they made advertisements for the coffee store. As a reward she gave every student - 125 of them - a certificate for a free drink.

Her adviser reminded her that fifth-graders would have to get their parents to bring them to the shop.

"I may give away one," she said, "but hopefully I'll sell two or three, and I didn't even plan it that way."

E-mail bkelly@enquirer.com