B E H I N D / T H E / B A R

We love Coffee!  We love people too!  That’s really the “why” behind the story of Cadence. Somedays I love just sitting in our shop and watching people sip on an americano or a cappuccino while they engage in sincere conversation with a friend.  Sometimes its business, sometimes its strengthening friendships, sometimes its starting new friendships. My favorites are the people who come in, looking for a place of respite for a little while, a place to read, to pray, to journal, or to realign their lives.  Something about a coffee shop, makes conversations, chill sessions, and calibration so much easier.

When Brian, my business partner asked me to join him and his wife in opening Cadence almost four years ago, I was ecstatic.  I had secretly dreamed of a coffee shop that would provide a great cup of coffee and would improve the lives of others, simultaneously.

Today, that dream is a reality.  When people come in to Cadence our team treats them like friends from the get go.  They go above and beyond to make sure that a person feels valued and at home inside our doors.  Cadence is a place of goodness.  When you walk in, you just feel good.  You’re around good people.  The atmosphere is good.  Its a good place to be.

Our house blend of coffee from Land of A Thousand Hills, is the Do Good Blend.  We believe you can do more when you buy a cup of coffee than just caffeinate yourself.  We believe you can do good for others.  That’s why Cadence is building strategic relationships with people in our community that are doing good.  We’ve devoted one entire store front window as our “Do Good” window, featuring somebody else that’s working hard to improve the lives of someone else in our community.    This month its the Nehemiah Project, a group of people caring for kids in Title 1, low income schools in Hamilton County.  This month we are teaming up with Nehemiah to provide under wear for kids who don’t even have such a basic necessity through their “Drop Your Drawers” campaign.

We’ve teamed up with Second Life of Chattanooga to help fight human trafficking in our city, state, and nation.  We’re partnering with Youth For Christ to reach teens that aren’t the rebel rousers of the crowd, but not the ivy league, silver spoon in the mouth kids either.  These kids are the ones that could easily get lost in the crowd, and left to their own devices could make some really poor choices, YFC is looking to help them make good choices.

These partnerships are strategic because we believe that with every cup of coffee someone drinks form Cadence, together we are able to do good for someone else.  Land of a Thousand Hills says it best – “drink coffee, do good.”

I haven’t even begun to tell you about the direct access we have with farmers in Rwanda who provide the coffee we drink.  We recently hosted Manu, an Agronomist for Land of A Thousand Hills, who told us how we were directly helping him and other farmers provide for their kids offering them better futures.

The story of Cadence is probably one of the best kept secrets in our city.  But we want more people to know our story.  We want our customers to know that when they come in to buy a latte, they are buying into something bigger than themselves.

Our story isn’t just about coffee, its about coffee –  with a cause.

Help us share our story.  Come in and have a cup with us, invite someone to come with you, Let’s tell this story together.