Kara Vogt can’t stay put for long — not then, not now.

“I don’t sit still well,” the Kennewick entrepreneur said with a laugh. “Maybe 45 minutes — then I’m up and moving.”

That nonstop energy took root back in high school, when she juggled four sports, two summer jobs, jazz band and drill team — and it hasn’t slowed since.

Today, that same drive fuels all four of her businesses, plus a house flipping side hustle.

Vogt owns the Village Bistro in Kennewick’s Marineland Village. Next door to the bistro, she runs a clothing store called d’lynne’s boutique, named for her oldest daughter.

Last year, she bought Eatz Pizzeria in Pasco.

This year she became a partner in the revival of the Barracuda Coffee Co. in Richland.

With a widely-shared social media post in early July and a new banner above its Van Giesen Street storefront, Barracuda Coffee Co. announced its return after previously being acquired by a Pasco-based coffee roaster at the end of 2024.

| Photo by Ty Beaver

“I love to be out. I love people. I love to be productive,” Vogt said. “My brain is just going. I have an internal drive, and it hasn’t stopped. I enjoy what I do. I get to watch people smile, knowing they’ve been fed and cared for.”

Heart for hospitality

Over the last two decades, Vogt and her husband, Ryan, also fed and cared for their four children – as well as fostering 22 children. Wait. What?

“(Fostering) was something I felt strongly about for a long time,” Vogt said. 

The Vogts stopped fostering kids nine years ago, but not before they adopted three of them.

Vogt worked doing home mortgage loans for a few companies in the Tri-Cities.

But she said her heart has always been in hospitality.

As a young person, she worked at Red Robin restaurants in Olympia and Salem.

“They were meticulous with everything – out front with greeting customers and seating them. And they ran the kitchen with everything being specific,” Vogt said. “The customer knows what they’re getting when they come in. It’s constant communication with the customer.”

But it wasn’t until 2016 that Vogt jumped back into the hospitality business.

That’s when she bought the Village Deli, which she renamed the Village Bistro.

“Ryan found it,” Vogt said. “At the time, I really loved lending. He told me I had to see it, and I didn’t want to because I knew I’d probably like it and want to do it.”

He convinced her to take a look.

“It was perfect. It was the right size. With 20 tables and a patio,” she said. “It wasn’t too big, wasn’t too small.”

The transition went smoothly.

“The previous owners finished on a Saturday (in 2016). It was closed on a Sunday. And on Monday we opened,” Vogt said. “All of the staff stayed on, which was great. The main client base had their servers.”

Vogt stayed with her mortgage lending job until closing her last loan in 2022.

Vogt said, in a way, she had been preparing for 19 years for this move back into hospitality.

She spent a lot of time making meals and tweaking recipes, many of which came from her grandmother and mother, for her family.

“It was really, really important for my grandma and grandpa – when they had everyone over – that the food was really good,” Vogt said. “I think my love for hospitality came from when we were kids at those gatherings at grandma’s and grandpa’s.”

Vogt kept the restaurant’s original menu for the first couple of months.

“I wanted to see what was selling,” she said. “But slowly, I began to tweak it. Now, just 15% of the original menu remains.”

The bistro relies on a bistro bible, with everything written down on how to make each recipe, including the sauces.

“It comes down to systems and people,” Vogt said. “But you’ve still got to take care of the customer. Check on them. My waiters are on the floor all the time. And my team knows they have the ability to make a decision without having to ask me. It’s all about making the customers happy.”

The restaurant business can be a grind though, she admitted.

“You have to love it. You have to have the right people – have the aces in their places,” she said.

Surviving shutdowns

D.lynne’s boutique opened in 2019, just before the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown began.

“I did that one backwards,” Vogt said. “They say you should have a website before you open the store. We did it the other way around. You need to have a strong social media presence nowadays, doing constant posting and some lives.”

Sometimes her bistro wait staff from next door can be found manning the boutique’s register.

Running a restaurant during the pandemic wasn’t easy either.

“We could do takeout and have outdoor seats,” she said. “We set up an 800-square-foot tent in the parking lot and heated it. I bought some Costco tables and got the chairs with cushions. We had a whole dining room out there. It saved the restaurant to a point. All people wanted to see was other people.”

Pizza and coffee

Vogt decided to buy Pasco’s Eatz Pizzeria last year but she didn’t intend to keep it at first.

“I knew the previous (Eatz Pizzeria) owner, who wanted to put it up for sale,” Vogt said. “This was easy to get into. It’s small. Not a lot of overhead.”

But Vogt’s intention was to hand it over to a local nonprofit she worked with.

“(The nonprofit) was considering getting into a for-profit business,” she said. “But the nonprofit board voted it down, so I ended up having it. But it’s going in the right way. The landlord is super great. The neighbors are great. I’ve got a third party doing the delivering.”

As for Barracuda Coffee, original owners Jake and Michelle Shupe sold the company to new owners in 2024. 

“My son worked there for a few years,” she said. “Then it was sold. He started to panic and asked me to buy it. I told him it would be OK, things will work out.”

But things didn’t work out for the new owners, and the business fell back into the hands of the Shupes.

Vogt had some interest in the company. “I have experience working as a barista,” she said. “But I felt I was stretching myself out. I needed a partner on this.

Vogt and the Shupes agreed to partner on the company.

“People are so happy that it’s back,” she said. “I run more of the scheduling, the inventory and the finances. The team is happy. We brought back a lot of the staff. They know what they’re doing.”

No normal schedule

Vogt employs 29 workers over her four companies.

As a hands-on owner, she’s found there is no typical work week.

But there is one constant: Nothing is open for her on Sundays. That’s family day, especially with three kids still at home.

“I don’t ever finish my list on any day,” she said. “I have to be OK to let things go.”

Vogt is usually up and moving each day by 5 a.m. She has morning time with her younger twins before taking them to school.

“I’ll usually check on the numbers at the coffee shop, then check in at the restaurant,” she said. “If I have to run to the US Foods CHEF’STORE to get supplies, I will. Get the restaurant opened and started.”

By Wednesday of that week, she starts processing payroll.

“By Thursday and Friday, I start the scheduling for the four stores for the next week,” she said. “And I’ll help determine what the next week’s coffee deal is – although my son is helping me with that more.”

She also oversees catering events through the Village Bistro, “but we’ll only take them if we have the capacity and staff to do it.”

Since she’s doubled the number of businesses she owns in the past 11 months, will she keep adding to the list?

“I don’t want anything more at this point,” she said. “But I could see another Eatz Pizzeria at another location. Same with Barracuda.

“I’ve been asked to start another Village Bistro in Wenatchee and Spokane. That might be too much.”

The secret sauce

For the first time, Vogt hired an assistant.

The assistant also helps her with her latest project, flipping properties.

“I like to flip properties,” she said. “I did one earlier this year. I’m in a partnership with my parents.”

Being successful in the business world takes a lot. Vogt seems to have found the answer.

“I don’t know what the secret is. But it takes a few things: systems and it takes really good teams. And that’s teams within work and (outside of) work,” she said. “I have my accounting and bookkeeping people. A business lawyer that draws up the contracts. And support at home is important.”

It also helps to have passion for what you do.

“You’ve got to love people,” Vogt said. “You have to love the people you are serving. My 29 staff members – I spend more time with the staff than the customers. Basically, we’re taking care of the community. Because people have to eat.

“I tell my staff that these people are choosing to come here. Our job is to let them know we’re happy they came here. Take care of them.”

That’s Vogt’s recipe for success.