The City Coffeehouse | Photo by Jessica Fugett | The Wright State Guardian
The City Coffeehouse may be a new name to the Huber Heights area, but the house has been around since the 1850s.
A not-so-new place in town
City Coffeehouse opened its doors in Dec. 2019 in an old farmhouse located in Huber Heights.
The house was home to politician Clara Weisenborn.
Weisenborn raised her two sons in the home and embarked on her political journey upon her children’s growth into adulthood. Clara was a member of Ohio’s House of Representatives and later achieved a spot on Ohio Senate, according to The City Coffeehouse’s magazine, The Journey.
Weisenborn identified as a Republican and focused her service on health and education.
Whitney Caudill and Danius Williams purchased the home in Oct. 2018. Both owners have their own nonprofits that they own and operate on top of City Coffeehouse.
“You try to become a trade of all things,” said Williams.
Williams and Caudill were inspired by Weisenborn’s history and the impact she made while living in the home.
“Our expectation is to bring the community together.”
“It’s meant to be a reflection of the city. We want it to be diverse and inclusive, hopefully that’s what people are sensing,” said Williams.
City Coffeehouse works with the roaster, Coava Coffee, based out of Portland, Ore.
“Coava has been incredibly supportive. Their products are top-notch and they are actually making a difference in the lives of the farmers that they work with,” said Williams. “We love that component of raw authenticity of really partnering with communities that we’re doing business in.”
Coava Coffee is an ethically-sourced roaster that was started in 2008, according to Coava’s webpage.
“We’ve seen some really cool relationships flourish just from people coming in,” said Williams. “We fell in love with coffee because of what it does. It’s a conversation starter, it’s soothing, it allows people to come together.”
The team behind the scenes
City Coffeehouse includes a diverse group of employees that Williams and Caudill carefully handpicked.
“As we were looking through candidates, we were looking for candidates who would value our core values and were passionate about bringing people together and could benefit from the work we’re trying to do.”
All employees were hired before opening with enough time to train and fully get to know one another before the coffee shop was open to the public.
“Each barista has their own named drink that they were able to decide would be on the menu,” said Williams.
The menu rotates the staff’s favorites.
Andrew Bautista, WSU graduate was hired at City Coffeehouse as a manager.
“No job has made me feel as fulfilled as working here, managing a team and working with coffee,” said Bautista.
Bautista’s staff pick is a popular menu item, the VTC, a vanilla toasted caramel latte with caramel topping.
“During my interview, they asked me to become a manager and after working here I decided that I wanted to open my roaster instead of going into advertising which was my original plan,” said Bautista.
Events to look out for
Williams and Caudill share a non-profit called The City Impact.
“The City Impact is focused on being a support system for those who care for and support those who are hurting,” said Williams. “Social workers, first responders, people in nonprofit space, so we do a special discount for those folks.”
Some of the City Coffeehouse events will be geared towards them specifically while others will be interactive events to teach the community about coffee.
There are plans to use the space outside during the spring and summer months for community and music events outdoors.
City Coffeehouse is located at 4940 Chambersburg Road, Huber Heights, OH 45424.
