HANSVILLE — Lois Jarnagin tried for a country theme with her new coffee stand, Lone Star Espresso, which she based on her favorite country band, but it just didn’t fit with the beach theme in Hansville.

So, she went with a starfish theme, creating a brightly colored orange starfish that adorns the outside of the stand, as well as the sweatshirts she sells.

With the business open just over a month, Jarnagin was going to try and put the store inside one of the Texaco gas stations and play off the companies’ star icon, but that fell through, she said.

Jarnagin lived in Hansville for about a decade before moving south last year, near the Kingston Albertson’s and onto property that allows her to raise horses. But when she opened her business, it was like coming home again.

“I wanted to have a business where I was part of the community,” Jarnagin said as she sat outside the stand at one of two refinished-umbrella adorned picnic tables. “Being down here, it’s like being home. People are so friendly.”

After working as a flight attendant for Alaska Airlines for 17 years, she wanted to get back in a business where she could make someone’s day with simple excellent service and a good cup of coffee.

The previous owner of the stand was there for six years, before shutting down in the past year. But Jarnagin decided Hansville needed another espresso stand.

So, she gave it a shot.

“I thought, ‘I can do this, I can make it go,’” she said, adding that it’s been really successful and owing part of it to her experience with the airline service industry.

Besides serving Dillano’s coffee, a bean roaster out of Sumner, Jarnagin and her two employees, Ashley Daniels and Jarnagin’s stepdaughter, Christina, serve up the mochas, lattes, americanos, Italian sodas, chais, hot chocolate, cappuccinos, breves and espressos with a variety of flavors from favorite almond vanilla to kahlua to lime. Sugar free flavors are available, as well as Ghirardelli flavors of white chocolate, caramel and chocolate. Pastries from Farm Kitchen and smoothies are extra additions to make it a treat to visit her stand.

“I’d like to expand… I would like to have a whole sandwich thing going on,” she mentioned, noting that in the meantime she is just trying to figure out how to get the regulars come out in the winter.

Meaning, work on the regulars she already has. To her benefit, when Little Boston Road closed at the Hansville/Eglon intersection, the residents of Driftwood Keys and Shorewood have been coming through Hansville to get to work — just within the time period when she opened her stand. The rerouted traffic helped business but she also gets the regulars that come to just sit and enjoy the atmosphere.

“I have a great couple that sits down here, one or both of them, come down and read the paper and wait for the king fisher,” she explained.

That king fisher is pretty popular, as her husband, Deryl showed up and asked about the bird too. Deryl is a well known face around the stand and serves as its the maintenance chief and “voice.”

“He loves sitting out here, just talking to everyone,” his wife said, noting he’s the only one who doesn’t make the coffee but drinks it.

“Public Relations!” Deryl proclaimed. “I buy cookies for the young kids!”

Besides providing a friendly face and a hot cup of joe, Jarnagin uses her stand to help the community.

She donates 10 percent of her sales on Sunday to the Hansville Youth Center, Ground Zero, which is located across the street from her stand.

She will also be recognizing Sept. 11 by offering free drinks to police and fire personnel and half-price for their families, as she noted the Hansville area is scattered with the rescue and service employees.

Overall, life’s pretty good down Hansville’s newest the starfish-and-beach-themed espresso stand.

“It really caught on,” Jarnagin said. “We’re here to have a good time with people. Sure, we like to be profitable, but I just get a kick out of talking with everyone.”