Tate Street Coffee House is heavy on my rotation of coffee shops—it’s where I go when I need to put my head down and focus.
It’s a popular spot for others, too, mainly students from UNCG’s campus right around the corner. Sometimes the line trails out the door. The atmosphere buzzes.
This time of year, TSCH’s tables are full of stressed college kids as the end of the semester draws near. Studying, chatting, patting away furiously at their keyboards.
I order my usual, an egg and cheese on one of the bagels still left at 11 a.m.—this time it’s everything—and an iced black and tan with an extra shot of espresso.
The barista writes down my request on a small, butter-yellow Post-it note in a secret code: “EC EV.” That’s how it’s been done since TSCH opened in 1993.
When ready, the food and beverage are presented on a white plate and accompanied by a paper-thin napkin that’s surprisingly sturdy.
The two dozen tables in the dining room are each accompanied by barrel-backed chairs, which can be joined together for a big study session, or one can sit solo. The tables have character—weathered and sometimes wobbly. But nothing that stuffing a few of those napkins under a leg can’t solve.
The walls are covered with old concert posters. An autographed Frisbee hangs from the ceiling. A painted landscape and the words “Friar’s Cellar” surrounded by grapes hint at what the space used to be: A convenience store that sold wine, cheese, and more. On the right, ever-changing art pieces are on display.
On a typical morning, nearly every chair is filled with the shop’s essential ingredient—people.
So who is behind the wheel?
“I think coffee stimulates or enhances creativity,” Matt Russ, TSCH’s owner, said. That’s why art is a constant at the shop. Submissions just closed for their annual community art show.
Over the years, not much about TSCH’s physical space has changed. There’s a reason for that, Russ said.
“I didn’t want it to look contemporary. I didn’t want it to look trendy,” Russ said. “I wanted it to look like you couldn’t tell when this place opened.”
Over the years, customers’ tastes have changed, Russ said. People used to drink more drip coffee, but iced coffee gained popularity in the 1990s with the explosion of Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts coffee chains. Today, most order espresso-based drinks. A laminated poster of specialty drinks hangs to the left of the register, with titles like the “Perelli,” full of caramel, coconut, and chocolate, or the “Capt. Karl” with chocolate and cinnamon.
Now, Russ has noticed that more people order iced coffee even when it’s freezing out—that’s a development. But to each their own, he acknowledged.
“On the hottest day of the year, I’ll still drink black coffee,” Russ said. “You like what you like, and you like it year-round, I guess.”
Russ says the coffee house itself has also evolved over the years.
“It all changes over time,” he said of the coffee house. “It’s like an organic thing. It grows. It has a problem, things break, they have to be fixed and replaced—constantly breathing new life into it.”
One thing is constant, Russ said. It’s the college kids who walk through the doors, and their energy as they venture into figuring out the world.
“You see their hopes and dreams and what they’re excited about,” he said. “Seeing people at that time in their life, and trying to help them self-actualize, is a fun part of the experience on Tate Street.”
