The coffee is on! After months of planning, we were excited to open Holy Grounds, our new coffee shop in our Mission 27 Resale store (Shelby Street) earlier this month. Now visitors can enjoy a cup of java and some retail therapy at the same time. Or they can just pop in for a reprieve and sit in the café by themselves, with a friend or a good book.
Retail Operations Director Mark While has had the coffee shop in mind for some time. The Shelby Street building was a former print shop, with lots of space to grow and use in multiple ways. With the neighborhood experiencing a resurgence—thanks to the arrival of the Red Line, Mission 27 and several Two Chicks and a Hammer projects and a resale shop in the area—Mark felt it was time to bring the vision to brew.
“I wanted a way to help people feel welcome and create a sense of community,” he says.
He got to planning and integrated a place for a small coffee shop and gathering space. The result is a great community spot to get some “holy grounds,” catch your breath or meet friends, and engage in some retail therapy if desired.
Mark was able to secure a top-notch Italian cappuccino machine—the La Marzocco—for the café, with the guidance of coffee aficionado, Jeff Litsey, who runs Calvin Fletcher’s Coffee Company, and a special donor gift.
As we grow the coffee shop, we intend for it to become a place where we can employ graduates from SVdP’s Changing Lives Forever program, which teaches people how to become economically self-sufficient so they can break generational cycles of poverty.
