Disclosure: This is a sponsored post, but all opinions are my own.
Whether I’m meeting with clients to help them with their blogs or working on a blog post of my own, I spend a lot of time in coffee shops. Sometimes I even host See Jane Write events in local coffeehouses
Back in April I hosted the first See Jane Write Roundtable at Revelator Coffee Company and it proved to be a perfect place for such an event. The women who attended used words like “spiritual” and “magical” to describe the evening and new friendships were born. I really believe the venue had something to do with it. Even the barista who took care of us that evening used similar words when describing what it’s like to work at Revelator Coffee. From the shop’s chic, modern design to the interesting people who walk through the door, she said something at Revelator inspires her each day.
The shop has plenty to inspire writers and bloggers, too. The place is filled with natural light and beautiful flowers. There’s plenty of space to spread out and work. I got the idea for the See Jane Write Roundtable event the moment I laid my eyes on the large communal table located at the front of the store as it’s perfect for group writing, editing, or brainstorming sessions. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to gather a dozen or so See Jane Write members at a time to discuss matters regarding writing, blogging, or business.
The Birmingham location of Revelator, located on 3rd Avenue North just across the street from the Alabama Theatre, opened in October of 2014.
“It’s our flagship store, so we want to make sure we do it right,” said Meredith Singer, who handles communications and marketing for the shop. “Following this Birmingham location, we have a store open in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and we’ll be opening others in New Orleans, Atlanta, Nashville, and Charleston this year.”
Singer is originally from upstate New York but has been living in Alabama for the past eight years. “The founding team brought me on in December of last year, following the store opening, to help build out their communications and marketing strategy,” Singer explained. “As a company, we are very attracted to Birmingham’s burgeoning downtown, rich food and beverage tradition, and central position within the Greater Southeast. We roast our own coffee and have from the beginning — and are excited at the opportunity to have a large retail and wholesale footprint in the Southeast. Birmingham is the right mix of everything we’re looking for from both a strategic and community-focused angle.”
Singer knows that to succeed she and the founding team must find ways to make Revelator stand out from other popular coffee shops in downtown Birmingham.
“Our coffee shop is, by design, a very minimal approach to what is — inherently — a very complex product,” Singer said. “We want to strip all the barriers and BS out of your usual coffee experience. Instead of the fancy Italian language we’re all used to in coffee shops (lattes, cappuccino, etc) we’ve opted for a very straight-forward menu. Coffee. Tea. Espresso. Espresso with milk. Espresso with chocolate. Our baristas are there to guide you on size and what varieties of coffee we are offering. And our coffees change regularly. It’s an agricultural product, so it’s seasonal and we try to bring it to the customer when its at its best. We’re also in the process of building out a roasting facility on 1st Avenue North. The facility won’t be open to the public, but we will be employing people for production and creating a much wider community of partners, suppliers, and secondary vendors around specialty coffee — something that hasn’t really been done to scale here in Alabama. At the company-level, we’re committed to working with Southern makers and businesses that have a similar attention to detail. We want to grow with our community and share resources, when it makes sense. For the Birmingham store, that means we are retailing Single Lock Records (a fantastic record label out of Shoals that carries a number of Birmingham-based bands), Great Bear Wax Co. candles and Freedom Soap Company (both great Birmingham-based makers). Our food service is done by Continental Bakery and we’re always thinking about other potential collaborations.”
And I’m eager to collaborate with Revelator Coffee Co. for future See Jane Write events.
What topics would you like covered in future See Jane Write Roundtable events?
Church Street Coffee and Books is providing coffee for the Morning Mingle at this year’s conference, but as the name suggests, Church Street not only sells great coffee, but also great books. Church Street is up for best local bookstore.
