As you step across the gravel parking lot of Cypress & Grove Brewing Co., the smell of hops brewing will transform into the smell of coffee beans.
This is the aroma of Morning Brew, the brewery’s new coffee venture that soft-launched earlier last month. Its grand opening is set to take place Aug. 8 as the brewery celebrates its ninth anniversary. The soft launch provides a window for the brewery to fine-tune the cafe, train the staff and smooth out any wrinkles in their systems.
The main purpose of the cafe is to bring in more traffic to the brewery during its daytime hours, according to 60-year-old co-founder Patrick Burger. The idea came about as he enjoyed his morning pot of coffee before the day’s brewing.
“We like our coffee in the morning and then beer in the evening, so it just seemed like a natural extension,” Burger said. “We felt like it would be great to use our space more during the day, and the lights are always on, the ACs are running. Why not include this in the morning?”
Looking out the windows of the new cafe, you can find Cypress & Grove’s brewers hard at work making the next batch of beer as hops are malted, milled, boiled and fermented.
Partnering with his brother-in-law Ward Huntley — who owns Jacksonville-based bakery Village Bread and Bagel, as well as Jacksonville roastery Condaxis Coffee — Burger was able to get the side-project up and running.
He hopes in the future to source from more Gainesville roasteries, keeping local businesses at the heart of the operation. He’s already partnered with Afternoon Coffee and is working toward collaborations with other local roasteries like Sweetwater and Resident.
One thing separating Morning Brew from the rest of the Gainesville coffee scene is its unique location. Cypress & Grove is built from a transformed historic icehouse, where water sourced from the Floridian aquifer beneath was frozen and sold. The very same water is used in both Cypress & Grove’s coffee and beers.
The icehouse functioned as a sort of resting place for travelers as they stocked up on ice for a trip to surf at Crescent Beach or fish at Cedar Key. People from all places and going to all places would stop at the icehouse to gather, 55-year-old co-founder Sally Adkins said.
Cypress & Grove is dedicated to continuing this tradition of community gathering, and Morning Brew is the next step in its development as a community hub. This is accomplished through thorough event planning — one glance at the brewery’s calendar reveals a plethora of events to convene around.
But Adkins has found a lot of gatherings seem to organize themselves. From birthdays to baby showers and even weddings, residents of the Grove Street neighborhood seem drawn to gathering in the local brewery.
“It's been really fun to see the entire Grove Street neighborhood transform,” Adkins said. “I feel like we put a lot of energy, and that energy just started multiplying in many different spaces around here.”
Cypress & Grove regular Ruth McIlhenny, an administrator at UF’s Levin College of Law, has already been to the new coffee shop three times. She appreciates the early opening hours of the cafe, allowing her to pop in right before work for a morning brew.
Being able to support a local business while getting her caffeine fix is an added bonus, she said.
“This brewery is kind of like home for my husband and I,” McIlhenny said. “We are friends with the owners, and we really like to support them and other local businesses. We would much rather choose a local restaurant, local coffee shop over the big corporate world.”
Contact Christopher Rodriguez at crodriguez@alligator.org. Follow him on X @ChrisRodri29386.
