By Andrea Six
Photos by Andrea Six
Bull Street has a new coffee shop and it’s specialty is waffles.
Blue Door Coffee joined the company of Arnold Hall, Foxy Loxy and Butterhead Greens Cafe last week when they opened on Oct. 17. The new shop is actually a replacement of City Coffee, a nonprofit coffee shop run by the staff of City Church. It used to be located on Martin Luther King and Broughton streets before it shut down about three months ago.
Customers buy coffee at Blue Door Coffee. Photos by Andrea Six
“Our rent was more than doubling so we had to shut the coffee house down for three months until we could find a new place,” said Erik Carpenter, one of the partners of Blue Door Coffee and pastor at City Church.
Instead of tearing down walls and gutting the space, which was previously a law office, junk shop and living quarters, they decided to paint, add a study space and some outdoor seating. They opened even though they are still in the process of installing a deck, a walk-up window and stocking up their shop.
“They really did open without having acquired stuff they needed for business,” said Julia Hartless, a fourth-year writing major from Dahlonega, Georgia. “It’s like they were so excited that they had to open right then.”
Hartless stopped by the shop after tasting samples they were passing out to students going to and from class and returned to buy a waffle.
“Honestly, it was great,” said Hartless. She described it as “an excellent lunch” despite her inability to find butter.
However, she still enjoyed her meal topped with Nutella and strawberries.
“They’re interesting – on one hand they don’t have much of a selection but on the other, their prices are really reasonable, especially when you compare it to Butterhead Greens,” said Hartless.
Blue Door Coffee’s speciality is their waffles.
Photo by Andrea Six
Blue Door Coffee’s menu isn’t very expansive – they kept the same drink menu as City Coffee, but drastically changed their food menu, shifting the focus to waffles. Instead of choosing from sandwiches, customers get to pick their waffle – traditional, Belgium or sweet potato – and add on free toppings, including syrup, powdered sugar and cinnamon or chocolate ganache, Nutella, pecans and fresh fruit for an extra dollar.
“We searched high and low for the best recipe,” said Carpenter.
And they found the perfect match – Carbon’s Golden Malted Pancake Waffle and Flour, a mix they ship in to make fresh waffles every day.
“In the next week we’ll have a gluten-free waffle and we’re working on a savory recipe, which would be like a corn meal based waffle with cheese and bacon and jalapeños,” said Carpenter. “We’re also talking to someone locally about doing a chicken and waffle.”
They make all of their syrups in-house for of their waffles, as well as their drinks, which are made with Counter Culture Coffee, unlike their neighbors who sell PERC Coffee.
“It’s all organic and they work with very small farms in the regions that they are in, such as Ethiopia, Guatemala and Peru,” said Carpenter.
They use this coffee to make signature drinks like their Brown Durby, which is a cold brew with half and half and brown sugar.
“Our cold brew is on point,” said Ryan Landers, the youth director at City Church. “It is almost steeped for about 24 hours in room temperature water, so it brings out all the flavor of the bean without any of that bitterness. It’s very smooth – it’s one of my favorite ways to drink coffee.”
All the profits they make from selling these drinks and waffles go to different outreach programs, including Project Kenya and Life for the Innocent, an organization that seeks to put an end to human trafficking
According to Carpenter, their business is not just about the money or even their fun waffles, but instead the community. It is why they chose the location in the first place.
“Being in a residential area gives us the opportunity to have not just students but people who live in the area,” said Grayson Carpenter, Erik’s son, part-time barista and the music director at City Church.
Blue Door Coffee is open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and Saturday until 3 p.m.