Sponsor love letter: Dear Church Street Coffee Company

Dear Church Street Coffee,

We love you for the way you keep our hands warm as we listen to poetry.

We love your story of origins and the family that created it:

In January, 2011, Cal Morris called Carrie Rollwagen with a wild idea — he wanted to open an independent coffee shop and bookstore in a space where a Starbucks had stood for the past 10 years. After months of planning, they opened their shop, fulfilling a long dream of opening a shop that would serve Mountain Brook, a community they’d come to love over the past several years. Cal has over 10 years experience in coffee, ranging from O’Henry’s to Highland Coffee Company to Starbucks, where he managed a store for seven years. He loves vanilla cappuccinos, Wendell Berry and spending time with his three kids: Bain, Coulter and Mattie. Cal’s wife, Heather, is an amazing baker — she created our menu at Church Street, and she trains our baking staff.

We love you for stocking your shelves with good books so that we can be sure of something to read when we stop in.

We are so grateful for the way you support local writing events with fabulous Break-Up Cookies and Tree Huggers and coffee. We read and taste those poems all the better for the TLC you bring to the table.

We love you for the quiet upstairs room filled with tables and windows. If there is a room for writers, this is it. And those of us who write notice these things.

Thank you so much for being our go-to coffee and book respite in the community.