Rise and Grind Coffee has been a part of the Athens coffee scene for a couple of years, and with the start of the new year, it has expanded to a permanent store location, according to a previous report by The Post.
Food prices at the new store range from $1.50 for some pastries to $12.00 for a cafe salad. Lattes and drinks range from $5 to $6.75, with an added cost for alternative milks. During study hours every Sunday-Thursday from 5-7 p.m., large drinks are $4.50, excluding Red Bulls.
The new store, located at 23 E. Stimson Ave., welcomes students and Athens residents. It opened in just six weeks.
Brandon Buckley, owner of Rise and Grind, said he was picking up his signs for the holiday menu when he heard the previous coffee shop had closed and the space was vacant. After that, the pieces quickly fell into place.
The biggest piece of the puzzle was Jackie O’s owner, Art Oestrike, who showed Buckley the vacant shop location.
“Part of it is that he offered that Jackie O’s bakeshop could provide all the food for us so we don’t have to worry about that,” Buckley said. “We’re not in business together. It's kind of two running in the same spot essentially,” Buckley said.
Buckley said the new coffee shop provides a space for both students and locals to go without worrying about finding parking and can sit and stay for as long as they like.
“I’ve had the coffee truck for over four years, and then the time we’ve been uptown when we do events, I get so many people say ‘I love your coffee, I want to come, but it’s so hard to come uptown and get parking,’” Buckley said. “I think here we have 23 parking spots, and it's so much easier to get in.”
Although in a new permanent location, Buckley said the menu is staying relatively the same, with the small exception of expanding on a few new drinks Rise and Grind could not offer in mobile form.
“So right now, with a truck, due to the generator capacity, we have to limit what we do,” Buckley said. “But here we’re going to add frappes, different types of drip coffees for different roasts, we’re going to do some tea infusions along with our lemonade infusions.”
Along with cultivating more drinks, Rise and Grind was able to take its branding to the next level.
“There’s a couple things I definitely want to talk about, and it's the people that’s really helped me out the most,” Buckley said. “I talked about Tim Martin. He owns Ohio is Home and Red Tail Design. He designed my logo, all my cups, my menus, my tables out there. If it wasn’t for him, there's no way I would have got open as fast.”
Martin started working with Buckley a couple of years ago, designing logos for the truck when it first opened. Martin also designed new branding elements for the permanent location.
“We made all the tables, and we have a full wood shop that's actually in Nelsonville,” Martin said. “So we made all the tables from scratch, from rough cut lumber, then we engraved them here in our shop, finished them and assembled them. We did all the tables, all the signage, we did the menu boards.”
Martin said crafting designs for other businesses is an opportunity for mutual growth.
“One of the things about our retail businesses, I say ‘our business is your business,’ so when other businesses are successful from stuff we help them with, that’s good for us too,” Martin said.
Buckley said one of the walls in the store is painted blue as an homage to the coffee truck, and shouted out the artist who contributed to the darker focal wall in the shop.
“I wanted something kind of unique there,” Buckley said. “And so the artist, he's an OU student, and he has been one of my most loyal customers from the day I opened, before I even parked uptown, he's been coming to me almost every day. And I found out he does galactic photography. So I was like, ‘I think something could be really neat with that.’”
Someone else Buckley said he is grateful for in this endeavor is his wife.
“Every crazy business idea, she has supported me through it all, and doesn't blink an eye, and tells me to go after my dream,” Buckley said. “You know, I went to school for entrepreneurship for a reason, and now I own several businesses.”
Buckley said Rise and Grind has solely used Dirty Girl Coffee, located in Glouster, since the truck opened. He said he is excited to put their products on display in the new store.
“I think their product is amazing,” Buckley said. “They're great to work for. We have a full display of different flavors and different roasts they have out there that we just got set up.”
Current Rise and Grind baristas are now alternating which location they work at.
Fran Gatica, a sophomore studying nursing, is a barista at Rise and Grind and said working at the new store has been a good experience.
“I will be working at the new location,” Gatica said. “We’re all trying to split our time between (the truck) and here. And it’s honestly been so fun, switching it up, it’s been really fun.”
Gatica said the new store location creates an environment where baristas are able to build stronger relationships with the customers.
“I just like how cozy it is in there, and I want to be able to see everyone come in and study and get to make deeper connections with customers by having them sitting there for a while,” Gatica said.
Open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day, Rise and Grind might have officially made its mark as a local gem with the opening of its new location.
