How it started
by Adrian (he/him)
It all started with a Facebook comment:
A couple of hours later, a friend replied “I would start a coffee shop with you.” Like myself, this person has extensive coffee shop and management experience. So naturally when I read their reply my eyes lit up and I texted them: 👀👀👀 (which is millennial for I SEE YOU). Seconds later they responded: 👀👀👀, and it was on. Within two months we had recruited two more members to our co-op. Two months after that, we were joined by my good friend America (to my right in the header photo - which I think was taken in 2017). America trained me at the coffee shop where we both worked when I first moved to Louisville, and they’ve been in my chosen family ever since..
In the name of sustainability (and our extremely tight budget), we’d spend months hunting for supplies and furniture and stalking Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace for equipment. We dumpster dove and upcycled. On New Years Eve I made a spontaneous overnight road trip to Chicago to buy a beautiful La Marzocco espresso machine that a former boba tea shop owner was selling way below market value. The kind hotel receptionist helped me unload the 150 lb machine from my car onto the luggage cart. It spent the night in my room with me, so that the water in the boiler wouldn’t freeze.
This machine has seen things.
It rode in the back of my car on the drive back to Louisville. When I got here, a couple of other co-op folks helped me move the machine into my 700 foot condo, which now holds a shop’s worth of equipment, supplies, and furniture. Poppy, my cat, has adjusted. (NOTE: all equipment has been washed and sanitized since this photo was taken.)
Our little bodega cat.
In between our day jobs we did market research, sampled coffees and teas, wrote recipes, worked on menu pricing, tweaked our business plan, met with our attorney (Ryan Fenwick) to work on our articles and bylaws, built a website and Kickstarter, met with our realtor (Angela Turner), worked on our logo, emailed with vendors (Three Keys Coffee!!! West Lou Coffee!!! Sis Got Tea!!! Kizito!!!), designed our point of sale system, and made countless more trips to Craigslist pickup locations and thrift stores.
Just a day in the life.
I submitted my letter of resignation at work in early January. Mid January I got Covid, and was forced to quarantine for the last couple weeks of my notice. Quitting was a leap of faith, since we hadn’t yet secured a location for the shop yet, but the universe provided. Early February we heard back from an off-market commercial space we’d been eyeing, located just a block from the new LGBTQ community center, it’s a beautiful space with a large café area, plenty of windows, and a patio veiled with trees. Stay tuned for updates. ;)
As a worker co-op, every person who works at our shop is either a member-owner, or prospective member-owner completing their candidacy. All profits we make go back into the co-op, are distributed to members, and/or get donated to our communities. The worker-owned structure instills a literal sense of ownership in co-op members, and ensures that workers are not exploited. The principle of “one member, one vote” fosters a deep sense of responsibility and teamwork, as every decision we make is a team decision.
Our daily bread.
We have twenty-some years of combined barista experience, and we take pride in our work. Every drink is made to order with perfectly pulled shots, expertly steamed milk, finished with latte art and served in a mug for here. But for us, our work is about more than just coffee. It’s about making a community space, and a workspace, where every person feels welcomed and seen. And we are SO excited to be doing this here, in Old Louisville.