Following the recent business trend in Starkville to open new restaurants, the town will experience a new place to sit back, have a cup of joe and talk up a storm. The Coffee District, Starkville’s new coffee and beignet bar will open for business soon at 701 University Drive.
Owner Tony Thompson calls the caf?’s new environment small and cozy.
“It will feel like the neighborhood coffee shop should,” he said.
Thompson added that the location is convenient for MSU students.
“It’s within walking distance for most students,” he said.
Thompson is also opening the Gour Mae Grocery on Maxwell Street later this year.
On the first floor of the Coffee District building will be the business. Rented apartments will sit on the second and third floor. Mayor and local real estate pioneer Dan Camp owns the property.
“I’m the architect and the builder,” Camp said.
Co-owner of The Coffee District Brian Kelly said that although the space will be small, they will hang local artists’ work on their walls.
“Tony found a place in New Orleans that inspired him,” Kelly said. “He’s picking out the color scheme.”
Something else The Coffee District will offer unique to Starkville is beignets. Kelly said that along with traditional beignets, the restaurant will offer blueberry and chocolate stuffed beignets.
“For the more health conscious, we’ll sell homemade granola,” Kelly said. “Salads and sandwiches will be made each morning, along with our soup of the day.”
The bar will serve several cakes including cheesecake.
Kelly said their coffee will be shipped daily from Portland, Ore.
Kelly said the coffee shop will have special offerings to its customers.
“Every day we’ll choose a drink to be sold for half price,” Kelly said.
The bar will not serve any alcoholic beverages.
The restaurant’s menu will be posted soon on the company’s Web site, www.thecoffeedistrict.com. For now, both the building and the Web site are under construction.
“We’ll be open from 6 a.m. to midnight,” Kelly said. “During finals we’ll be open until 2 a.m.”
To add further convenience for student customers, The Coffee District will have a free wireless Internet connection installed throughout the building.
As for the date, neither Thompson or Kelly are certain when the coffee bar will open.
“We’re thinking mid-October,” Kelly said, “But we still don’t know.”
Camp said that his two new buildings on University Drive have taken a long time to finish because his designs require more time and expenditure of effort than most projects.
“There’s a lot that goes into building these designs,” Camp said. “Intricate detail is key; though they are small, they take time to deliver what I had in mind.”
Camp said he has plans to design more buildings of the New Orleans type next to The Coffee District and the tamale and margarita bar Up Your Alley.