An Interview with Elle Jarvis of H Cole (Creativity Over Coffee)
It’s time for another installment of Creativity Over Coffee – you know what that means! So grab your coffee (or tea) and join us!
Creativity Over Coffee
Meet my friend Elle, she is the founder of H COLE – an immersive catering and concierge company shining a light on creativity and a delicious life by the sea! Elle is the hostess with the mostest! She has really fun ideas from fishing charters, crabbing and then enjoying steaming ramen, or simple picnic boxes of cold chicken or falafel. I grew up in my parent’s restaurant and I know how hard the world of party planning and restaurants can be, but also how invigorating and life changing it is. Elle’s events are truly magical one-of-a-kind experiences and am so excited to share her story with you guys!
So grab your coffee and join us for a fun chat!
An Interview with Elle Jarvis founder of H COLE
Many people believe they are not creative. I hear this all the time. It is my hope with these conversations with my talented friends that I hope to inspire my readers to believe that they truly are creative. That creativity is just sitting inside of them waiting to bubble over.
Hi Elle, I’m so excited to be chatting with you about H COLE. Can you tell my readers more about your background and H COLE?
Elle – Thank you so much for having me, Danielle! I’m humbled to be here. I grew up on the South Shore straddled between Marshfield and Scituate in the village of Humarock. When I turned 18, I very much wanted to “get out of this stupid little town” and did exactly that. While I boomeranged back a few times, the pandemic really pushed me home and I’m so grateful to be back in the village and to build this business here. My career has been largely charmed in the hospitality space. While H COLE is a homage to my great uncle Howard “Mecca” Cole, it is the culmination of working in restaurants, high-end hospitality consulting, brand activations, and inspired by many international travels with clients. Our logo is actually lifted from the likeness of Mecca’s lobster buoy branding iron that we joke was an extension of himself. Mecca captained the F/V Ocean Spray off of the Scituate pier, was a Scituate Firefighter, and a farmer in Norwell. He was most importantly, a very gentle and kind human and a mentor to many in his community. You’ll find Mecca on the walls of the Irish Mossing Museum, posing with the Chartreuse Fire Engine that many forgot about, and his last name on the parkway in the harbor. It’s a wonderful privilege to be attached to the heritage of our coastal community. My company, H COLE, in essence is a lifestyle concierge company wearing a catering company’s cape. We offer curated catering to our clients in their homes and various venues around the south shore, lobster + green crab harvesting charters on the F/V Kestrel, beach picnics with The Collective Co under the nomenclature Coastal Commons, and collaborate with other small business owners to create extremely unique experiences in their spaces to foster connection and create joy.
There’s lots of exciting things happening right now with your company and you’ve been approved for a grant with the state of Massachusetts, provided you can fund part of it yourself. Can you tell my readers more about this opportunity and how they can help with this dream?
Elle – H COLE is certainly going through a growth spurt. What started as a means to an end during the pandemic, has really bloomed where it was planted. I have put a lot of thought, intention + care into investing in the brand, aligning ourselves with like minded humans, and our growth strategy. I was thrilled when I learned about the Biz-M-Power grant that we qualified for and ecstatic when we were conditionally approved! The Biz-M-Power Grant program is supported by the Mass Growth Capital Corporation in which they allow us to raise capital through crowdfunding supported by our friends, family, and community up to $20,000 and then match what we raise 2:1. This opportunity will allow us to put a van on the road, upgrade the engine on our picnic boat, and purchase a double wide reach-in-refrigerator for our kitchen. Having this infrastructure in place will create more space for us to create joy, continue to grow and care for our community. While crowdfunding isn’t for everyone, I look at this opportunity not as a hand out but a hand up. Every level of support that we have put together has incredible incentives for people who haven’t experienced H COLE to be able to do so at a discount of our traditional offerings and support other creative small businesses like Finding Silver Pennies in the process. The best part? In supporting our crowdfunding campaign at any level, patrons will receive tickets to our IT’S A VIBE End of Summer Party at Mullaney’s Harborside Fish Market in Scituate on September 21st.
That’s really so exciting and I’m so happy I can be a small part of helping your campaign with my lifesaver cards. The party at Mullaney’s is gonna be AMAZING! When do you feel most creative or happy?
Elle – I feel most creative and happy when I’m well hydrated, rested, and full of local vegetables. I truly believe that we can not pour from an empty cup. When I care for myself, it means that my tribe is cared for, my clients are cared for, and my community is cared for which allows more space to create new little moments of joy through food and beverage for everyone in my orbit.
That’s a really important point. Many creatives do it all and then get burnt out. Great reminder! Who or what inspires you?
Elle – Kindness inspires me. I’m the type of empath that will weep a little in the grocery store when I see a teenager help an elderly person with their cart. Coming home and building this brand after a 20 year absence was certainly not without a dose of imposter syndrome. I have been inspired tide and tide again by the kindness of the new friends I have made here as an adult. Mecca’s kindness will always be the north star for H COLE which is pretty inspiring in and of itself.
My readers love entertaining. Do you have one special tip or trick for a successful party?
Elle – Put your things in place. We have a term in the restaurant industry Mise en Place which sort of translates to me as “get your shit together”. I find that the most successful parties that we throw are typically built and prepped the day before. This creates a lot more space to breath and be present with your guests. I like to look at it as I can “shop and prep” or “prep and party” but can never “shop, prep, and party” in the same day.
Do you have a funny story about an event or party you’d like to share?
Elle – Party Planners never tell.
What struggles have you found running your own business? What are the highlights or perks of being your own boss?
Elle – I’ve certainly struggled with asking for help until it’s too late and have found myself in major fire drills. I’ve been working on that a lot this season. I have an incredible and kind CPA who is actually a homie from high school that really has helped me get my shit together to be able to apply for things like the Biz-M-Power grant. The perks of being my own boss is there is literally no one that can tell me no. All of my kooky ideas either fester inside of me until I figure out how to make them a reality or leave me when they no longer serve me. It is very challenging to go through that creative process when your job is to make someone else’s day dreams come true.
My readers also love to cook. Is there an easy summer recipe you’d like to share?
Elle – Summer is the BEST time to cook because you don’t really have to cook much in order to savor the season! My go to is to head to my local farmers market (Cohasset Farmers Market on Thursdays is like a technicolor dream – Holly Hill Farms really does justice to the produce that they grow) and just choose fruits and vegetables that don’t need to be adultered much. This time of year for me is largely filled with Heirloom Tomatoes and Stone Fruits gently tossed in really great olive oil, lots of herbs from my garden and topped with Narragansett Creamery Burrata served with a crusty bread. Summer Salads are my favorite because there really are no rules. I made a version of a steakhouse “wedge” last summer that is now a family and client staple. It’s built with Little Leaf lettuces which are hydroponically grown here in Massachusetts that are SUPER crunchy and just layered with slab bacon, little toms, cukes, garden herbs, buttermilk ranch, and Great Hill Blue cheese. Sometimes we make the salad into a meal and throw on some pickled shrimp which is recipe I stole from a chef that I once worked for in Charleston, SC. The best recipe for me I suppose is no recipe at all. Cooking is a creative process, let yourself make mistakes and enjoy the experience!
Ooooh, your burrata salad is so good. What advice would you give someone who wants to follow in your footsteps or who would like to start a creative business?
Elle – Mise en Place your life before you quit your day job. Make sure that before you give up the steady paycheck, that you have your physical, financial + mental health in order. If you are going to side hustle until you feel confident, invest in yourself first, your tribe second, and your business last. If your cups are full, you’ll experience less painful profits. We can’t YouTube how to start a creative business and having the support around you when it’s time to go under the barrel will be instrumental to ride the wave to a successful life.
Growing up I was a huge follower of INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO. At the end of the program, they would ask the interviewee these questions:
- What is your favorite word? Dope
- What is your least favorite word? I cringe at any word that people use as a negative connotation that marginalizes humans that walk this planet with us. Things like “that’s so gay” or “retarted” it just makes me want to explode.
- What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? Kindness
- What turns you off? Competition. There is space for everyone.
- What is your favorite curse word? I’m from Massachusetts where we use fuck as a verb, noun, and adjective!
- What sound or noise do you love? The ocean waves at night and all my little birds who wake me up in the crooked cottage.
- What sound or noise do you hate? Car horns at the rotary, like we’re all going to the same place people, chill out.
- What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? City Planning, I’m obsessed with how municipalities put infrastructure in place on roads and buildings to be efficient and keep people safe.
- What profession would you not like to do? Anything that requires me to be stuck in a building for 40 hours a week.
- If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? Let’s Party!
I really enjoyed this chat with Elle! She is so refreshing and I love her outlook on self-care, entertaining, and creativity! I hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as I did! Truly so inspiring.
Be sure to follow along with Elle and H COLE:
If you’d like more Creativity Over Coffee you can read the full series here.
Photos courtesy of Elle Jarvis – H COLE. Profile image and Coastal Commons photos by Christina Runnals Photography!
