Throughgood Coffee returns to neighborhood rhythms
Throughgood Coffee’s popculture currency may be tied its owner’s longtime relationship with Beyonce’s family, but it’s another Texas music legend that came to mind when one regular talked about why he’s a frequent customer.
“There was some Stevie Ray Vaughan song (playing on the shop’s sound system), I believe it was ‘Lenny,’ and it created an environment that was soothing and relaxing,” said Marc Thomas, adding that the shop’s eclectic musical playlist is one of the draws that brings him to the shop three or four times a week. “It’s like an extension of home.”
Having served neighborhood caffeine seekers for the past three years, Throughgood Coffee had to adhere to Harris County’s mid-March orders by restricting service to takeout only and reducing its hours. After temporarily putting its tables and chairs in storage, the shop, which seats about 60 guests each indoors and outdoors, reopened its on-site service in mid-May with about 18 seats inside and another 30 outside. As result, the shop, which employs about eight people and served between 300 and 400 people a day prior to the stay-at-home orders, serves about half that number now.
“It’s a valuable outlet for people who live alone, live in a small space, or don’t have an outdoor space to sit,” said Pastor Rudy Rasmus, who owns both the shop and its building. “The shortfall, right now, I am covering personally.”
Rasmus, who opened Throughgood Coffee and its Soul Taco trailer in the shop’s parking lot in 2017, is hoping that the shop’s reemergence from the pandemic represents a relatively humble symbol of community bonding that’s been part of his broader efforts to help those in need.
As longtime co-pastor with his wife, Juanita Rasmus, of St. John’s Downtown Church, Rasmus has known Tina and Mathew Knowles, Beyonce’s parents, for almost three decades (Beyonce sang in the church’s choir as a teenager) and, with their help, built three housing developments totaling 140 units for the formerly homeless during the past 12 years. Rasmus added that Destiny’s Child, Beyonce’s former group, helped fund the construction of the church’s gym in 1999.
Rasmus now helps coordinate the delivery of about 20 tons of food and produce to COVID-impacted families each week and helps administer free COVID-19 testing.
“Basically, we stand in the gap for folks during times like these,” he said.
Throughgood Coffee grew out of Rasmus’ love of working from coffee shops — “I always officed at coffee shops, I always met creative, artistic young people in these shops and became like their uncle/pastor/ prophet” — and has provided him a way to employ people from the community while supporting local purveyors such as Xela Coffee Roasters and Hugs & Donuts.
Rasmus is planning to open a second coffee shop — called Sanctuary Coffee — on the St. John’s campus, and wants to start construction on that project next year. Using London’s Host Café as a model (it opened in 2012 inside a 17th century church), Rasmus has also set a longer-term goal of training former foster children to work at his shops. For now, the church, which has about 2,000 regular congregants, is closed.
Both Rasmus and Thomas, who is a clinical engineer, acknowledged the post-COVID risks of working at and frequenting a food and beverage establishment. Thomas said he spends shorter amounts of time at the coffee shop than he did before COVID-19, while Rasmus noted that he furloughed three employees who weren’t yet comfortable returning to work.
“A real reality point is that we’re going to have to enhance takeout even more, and expand our outdoor seating,” Rasmus said. “I believe the landscape for how we consume will shift in the same way 9-11 changed the way we get on planes.”
Still, both were hopeful the shop’s reputation would speed business back toward preMarch levels. Rasmus said his hope is warranted by the fact that, while the shop was operating at reduced hours and offered takeout only, guests tipped baristas “more than ever before.”
“I’ve seen the coffee experience all over the world, and the one thing I gleaned is that it’s universally communal and it levels all of the playing fields,” Rasmus added. “If people can get their coffee, they will be OK.”