The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Coffee shops are selling comfort and community
Of all the flavors of coffee, chocolatey, spicy, floral, caramelly, or fruity to name a few, local coffee shops with open dining rooms are selling more than just coffee, they are selling comfort and community.
Couchland Coffee House in Wickliffe that opened in May 2019, was created by owners George Butiri and Courtney Porter as a place of comfort for people.
“It’s Cheers, but with coffee, where everybody knows your name,” Butiri said. “We also wanted that ‘Central Perk from Friends’ atmosphere. It matches this community where people are excited to just come here to hang out or study. We don’t want that corporate feel where people might feel like they need to grab a coffee and leave.”
Butiri remembers having an appreciation for coffee starting at a young age. Growing up in Romania, he said his parents would let him take sips of their coffee which was from Turkey.
He explained that flavors of coffee beans, actually the seed of fruit from flowering coffee plants, depend on the climate and soil conditions where they grow.
“Hot, humid climates, like in a jungle in South America, have better conditions to grow better beans,” he said. “In Africa where there is less humidity in the air, the plants suck up more minerals from the ground. They are pulling the water source from the ground and less from the atmosphere which gives you that more earthy, robust taste versus plants in the jungle where you get that fruitier taste.”
He explained the arabica beans they purchase from their distributor, Stumptown Coffee Roasters, are purposefully grown among other fruit-bearing plants because coffee beans can “soak up” the flavors around it.
“Coffee acts like a sponge,” he said. “If it’s around orange trees, they’ll pick up that nuance and have that orange flavor.”
Originally from Oregon, Stumptown sends their taste-testing team out to travel around the world with a mini roaster. They visit farmers growing arabica coffee beans, roast the beans quickly, grind and brew them and serve it right there on the spot to get the best flavor possible.
“Stumptown creates their coffee blends by gathering from multiple regions of the world,” he said. “They don’t build farms, instead they hire farmers that pick their beans arabica style among jungle forest-type fruity trees, not in massive farms where machines pick the beans and there is no quality control.”
Couchland co owner Courtney Porter understands the journey to a great cup of coffee continues in how you grind it and how you brew it. She explained water goes through coarsely ground coffee quickly and extracts flavors right away making it not as potent. Flavor in finely ground beans does not take as long to extract because of the surface area being smaller giving the finished brew a more concentrated flavor.
Porter observes that the pandemic has changed a lot of things at Couchland.
“Now we are mostly drive-thru,” she said,” but before (the pandemic) we had mostly customers that would eat inside with very little drive through service.”
Porter and Butiri are satisfied with still being able to sell comfort and coffee even if for now, it is through a drive-through window.
“We started off with a concept of comfort then built on it and added a few food items,” Butiri said. “We’re going to stick to coffee, and yes it’s personal. We’re not selling coffee, we’re selling comfort, coffee just happens to come along with it.”
Nearby in Painesville Township, another local coffee shop provides a place where the community can feel a connection to something that is “theirs.”
“People really want to connect with something,” said 1922 Coffee & Brew owner Lori Richards. “They want to feel like it’s their place. They want to be the person that brings someone new. It’s about your hometown, how people work, and what is going on there.”
Richards and her husband, Brian, who owns the tattoo parlor next door called Catch 22 Tattoo, organize events throughout the year to keep that community connection, she explained.
“I just feel with anything that’s privately owned people feel like they want to help it succeed,” she said. “We do a lot of events to help people, like hang banners on our wall to help other small businesses. We have bike nights revolving around benefits, like for Officer Mazany a couple years ago. We have Sub Zero Mission events, where we collect items for the homeless. These events require a large gathering of people so we chose to cancel them all last year.”
During the pandemic shut downs, Richards felt a deepened sense of the need for community.
“Our goal was just to keep the lights on,” she said. “I didn’t lay anyone off. We had an opportunity to rethink how we were doing things as a business and our customers gained a new appreciation for small businesses.”
Having built the coffee shop brand new in June 2018 stemming from the tattoo parlor next door, Richards saw an opportunity to provide a place where people could grab a quick cup of coffee, especially if they brought a friend with them for moral support when getting a tattoo.
Carrying an exclusive three-bean blend made just for 1922 Coffee & Brew by Caruso’s Coffee, Inc. in Brecksville, the coffee flavors can be found nowhere else, especially since the blend will remain secret.
“I do not share our threebean blend,” she said. “Our blend is more earthy and it’s a very bold flavor. The beans come from three different countries.”
Caruso’s Coffee works alongside Richards to create ideas for seasonal drink recipes keeping the menu new and exciting for the community, often taking ideas from the community itself, too.
“With each season, we come up with new drink ideas, for summer we are going to introduce some new teas,” she said. “Coming this spring, we are creating a s’mores frappe and our annual shamrock frappe with Lucky Charms sprinkled on top. Lavender seems to be a new trend. I had it in an iced coffee and I loved it. We might try to introduce a dark chocolate and lavender drink soon.”
Both 1922 Coffee & Brew in Painesville Township and Couchland Coffee House in Wickliffe have open dining room seating and follow safety guidelines to ensure they can remain open during the pandemic.