Avenue Coffee to celebrate 15th birthday with specials, open mic night, coffee flights
By Christopher Miller
Local coffee shop and hang-out spot Avenue Coffee is getting ready to celebrate its 15th birthday on Valentine’s Day next week.
“I am a big fan of the atmosphere here, this is like my living room,” said Avenue Coffee Manager Jared Conti. “We have a great bunch of people I enjoy doing life with, I honestly don’t know what else I would want to do with my life honestly.”
But Avenue Coffee wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for an idea and vision that Common Places Pastor and founder Josh Grimes and his small congregation had in 2006.
“That year I had gotten married and became the pastor of Fairview Community Church out on South Fairview Street,” Grimes said. “After a year of being a pastor there we ended up having a vision for something else, and the realization that we didn’t seem to be effective at reaching our community and we wanted to be better at it.”
Josh had a strong interest in business which was evident in his early pursuit of fixing bicycles, a hobby of his. He also thought about opening a coffee shop at one point in his early 20s.
“In my mind then it was either go into business, or go into ministry and I did not know how to marry the two together,” Josh said.
It was later that year that the wise leaders of the church at that time had an idea where God could do both of those things for Josh, the church, and the local community.
The idea was to start a coffee business to provide a new environment and a church in.
“We observed 15 years ago that people were interested and curious about Jesus, or they liked Jesus but not the church they were going to, so they had some misconceptions about “church,”” Josh said. “So we thought, what would “church” look like?”
Josh and the early crew drew up ideas and plans where they did not want the physical building to sit vacant for a few days a week, rather, for the space to be open to the community all the time, a place for the arts, and music, and a meeting space.
“Church is the body of Christians, not the place that they meet,” said Grimes.
So Jared Conti and Josh attended a coffee school to learn the basics of operating a coffee-based business, they wrote up a business plan, and created a plan to restart the congregation in a new church setting, and in a new way.
“We wanted to be close to the university, find a good place for a business that could accommodate a community and be like a living room,” and to be a place where people could gather,” Josh explained.
In the very beginning, Josh was the manager and was starting the church but it was apparent that he could not accomplish both things very well combined. “It had to be either one of the other, so I stepped away from running the coffee shop to focus on the church more,” Josh said.
Over the next 10 years it was hard to keep the coffee shop afloat and there were times where it was not flourishing at all, and times that the church had to infuse money into the shop just to keep the doors open.
It wasn’t after a chance purchase of their own coffee roaster that Avenue Coffee started to really turn a profit.
“When we bought the roaster we were able to move the coffee roasting in-house instead of renting time from our friends in Williamsport,” said Josh. “When we bought our own roaster, we started to become more profitable, and then the church community started to grow bigger to where our little shop was almost bursting at the seams with people on Sunday’s…we almost considered building a bigger coffee shop but those plans fell through.”
Buying their own roaster was a big step for Avenue Coffee, who now roasts beans for other businesses and plans to roll out a coffee sales fundraising option in the very near future.
Common Places Church was going from one gathering to two, to now three, but back then the coffee shop was beginning to get uncomfortable for the masses of people showing up to hear the word of God.
“Maybe Jesus wasn’t calling us to create a bigger coffee shop, but instead to start some smaller churches and begin church planting,” Josh described. “People enjoy being together with 50-70 other people; you are well known, loved, and you’re not lost in a crowd then and it turns into something special.
Common Places, the “church in a coffee shop,” then became church in a movie theatre, and then church in a museum.
“We moved to The Roxy Theatre during COVID so we could spread out and distance ourselves which worked at first, but it didn’t pan out to be as community-oriented as church in the coffee shop since we could spread out throughout the whole theater,” Josh said.
Now, there is a Common Places Church service at the Piper Museum in the 3rd floor Community Room. “It’s been very helpful to have that there,” Josh said.
Throughout the years, there had been multiple pastors associated with Josh at Common Places Church. There was Sam Waldron, the pastor for the college students, and now there is Bill Corbin, in Sam’s position.
“This is the best shop in the world, not only for the great coffee, but the people here are so friendly and nice, it’s more of a community than just a business,” Corbin said.
Reaching out to Sam who now lives and ministers in southern Ohio, he stopped to reminisce about his time in Lock Haven, ministering, and starting a family there.
“When my wife Kayla and I moved to Lock Haven to do college ministry, we found ourselves hundreds of miles from our families and homesickness was looming,” Sam said. “That didn’t last too long though. After our first visit to Avenue 209 coffeeshop, we met several lovely people who would become pillars of friendship during our time in town (dare I say family!) Working in the coffee shop I learned from Dave Lombard and Jared Conti the joy of hospitality and the thrill of slowing down and listening to their stories. Looking back we were the lucky beneficiaries of a church community led by Josh and Sarah Grimes who took a risk at cultivating a home for hundreds of townies and students. While a college ministry job brought us to town, the warmth of the community sustained us to thriving. We’ve relocated (twice) since our time in Lock Haven, but the love we experienced at Common Place Church and Avenue Coffee has shaped us and we draw from that well daily!”
There is also a familiar face in Chad Long, who also preaches on Sunday’s.
“My favorite thing about the shop is that it does not appeal to a certain demographic,” said pastor Chad Long.
“We appeal to a wide variety of people whether it is the church or the coffee shop.”
“We have people from all walks of life, from all around the world who walk through our doors daily, I certainly enjoy the non-traditional nature of Common Places at Avenue Coffee, so much so that I have been here for six years, and pastoring for 2.5,” said Chad.
“Last year we brought on a “resident intern” Gerry, who is working to plant a church this fall in the Newberry neighborhood of Williamsport,” Josh said.
A familiar face, but more so recently on a daily-basis, is Josh’s wife Sarah Grimes, Avenue Coffee’s Operations Manager.
“I do a lot of custom roasting for other businesses and for our own,” Sarah said. “We can roast eight pounds of green coffee beans at a time with light, medium, or dark roasts.” According to coffee science, the darker the roast, the less moisture there is in the bean.
We roast our coffee between 430 and 460 degrees, depending if it is a light or dark roast,” Sarah said. “We buy our beans from the typical coffee growing regions around the equator such as South America and Africa, but more specifically Indonesia, Tanzania, Sumatra, Peru, and Brazil.”
What the people of the area don’t realize, according to Sarah, is that they have access to really good, fresh roasted coffee that is not as astronomically priced as they think.
“The quality of coffee is superior, and it being fresh roasted locally, getting it to market quick is such an idea way to get your coffee,” said Sarah, “but please do not store it in the refrigerator, or in the freezer where moisture is added to it, airtight and dry is the most idea for the freshest cup of coffee.”
For Sarah, it is the patrons and the staff that make Avenue Coffee such an awesome and wonderful place to be.
“I appreciate Jared so much, the people just gravitate toward him, he is so friendly and welcoming, he cares and knows his customers which is such a gift to us and the community, but I also am so grateful for our patrons who have become family for us here at the shop,” Sarah said
Those who frequent Avenue Coffee, or even just stop once and happen to speak with a jolly man (who looks a bit like Santa Claus) in a big black chair, never forget their conversation with coffee shop regular customer Bill Hanlon.
“A little silliness is necessary to keep one’s sanity,” says Bill. “I believe the success of the coffee house is the acceptability of all people who walk in here, like me, I am fully retired so it’s too easy to become part of the furniture where you live, that’s why I come here for, well, going on 14 years now.”
So what does the future hold for Avenue Coffee? According to Josh, some very bright and beautiful things.
“I’d love to continue starting new churches in the Susquehanna region and to grow our wholesale coffee end of the business,” said Josh. “We are about to launch a mobile coffee cart this year as a dual-purpose food trailer for events, and we are outfitting it for the church to host things in city parks, block parties, and those sorts of things.”
With Avenue Coffee’s 15th birthday approaching on Valentine’s Day next Wednesday, specials are planned including coffee flights (small samples of a few drinks), music, an open mic night, a Valentine gift card deal where for the price of a small coffee, latte, or hot chocolate the recipient receives a medium sized drink, and the all-day, everyday special of 20% off your drink as long as you bring your own travel container.
As for their favorite drinks…
Josh Grimes – “Just black coffee, nothing too fancy.”
Chad Long – “I’m a straight black coffee kind of guy.”
Jared Conti – “It depends on my mood, I like the standard regular coffee, but I can be tempted with a good Chai
Latte, or a London Fog, or when it’s in-season the Peppermint Mocha.”
Bill Corbin – “Black coffee, I’m happy with that.”
Sam Waldron – “A cup of Josh’s freshly-roasted, Ethiopian black coffee.”
Avenue customer Bill Hanlon – “A coffee with cream, Splenda’s, and a fully-burnt bagel for coffee dipping.”
Christopher Miller – “A good cup of regular brewed coffee with enough cream to turn it light brown.”
So with between 75 and 100 total staff who are working, or have ever worked at Avenue Coffee, including the author of this piece, we all wish Avenue Coffee well on its 15th birthday, with many, many more to come!
