At Third Street Stuff & Coffee

Can creativity generate business? Does creativity affect our public spaces? For answers, take a look at one coffee shop that embraces creativity’s true potential.

Before I knew my neighborhood, I met its coffeehouse.  To me, it was an oasis–a pulsating beacon of color and life calling me away from the desert of academia.  Still vibrant and vivacious as ever, Third Street Stuff & Coffee is a major part of day-to-day life in Lexington’s East End.  Not merely a thriving business, it serves as a shared community dwelling for artists, students, retirees, and children alike.  As a thread in the community tapestry, this little coffee shop has become something more than a local food spot.  It is interwoven in the cultural fabric of our neighborhood as a gathering place with creativity at its heart.

Third Street Stuff & Coffee is a hybrid–a mix of craft boutique and cozy coffeehouse–born of the heart of an artist.  Its owner, Pat Gerhard, had a swiftly growing craft business that emerged from her apartment in the 80’s and then grew into a shop in 1994.  When the time came for her business to expand further, Pat aimed for the urban core of the city and took on the huge task of reinventing a ramshackle store front near the intersection of 3rd and Limestone.  At the time, she was neighboring a dilapidated bus station and a drive thru liquor store.  Although Pat’s shop brought a new feel to this edge of town, she began to ponder how to bring more life to her space.  Inspiration stuck, and in 2004 she took a leap and expanded her space into a coffeehouse.  The place became full of life, and business blossomed.

Location has played an important role in the development of Third Street, as its known by regulars, but the unique feel and design of the space has an equally important part in its appeal.  Hendrick Floyd, one of the coffeehouse’s beloved baristas, explained, “Pat has created a visual space that makes people happy.  You can’t come into a place with this color and not feel lifted.”  From the metal walls covered in magnetic poetry to the ever-chaging kaleid0scope on the community bulletin board, Third Street is designed for interaction.  “I wanted people to be able to play,” Pat shared.  “I would love to have more walls; a wall covered in changing graffiti.  I love to see things expressed.”  The creativity of the space’s design is an element that generates both appeal and inspiration for both customers and the neighborhood at large.

Though Gerhard acknowledges her contributions to the style of space, she is quick to give credit to community members and young people who have influenced the direction of her business.  She embraces a business model that involves the changing needs and ideas of her community, so Third Street has taken on the characteristics of a shared work of art.  One major example from early on is the switch she made from disposable to reusable dishes.  As customers explained a need for a more sustainable style of kitchen, Pat began to grow in her environmental awareness and quickly got on board.  Although her business model is quite progressive, Pat simply states, “I learn so much from the people who come in here.  I do a lot of listening.  Young people are wonderful teachers.”  A space so defined by conversation and collaboration is capable of generating a great deal of connectivity within the community.

The space itself and its placement at a major crossroads are enough to bring people from the neighborhoods in droves, but something else  seems to generate a steady stream of committed customers.  I asked Hendrick if it was the caffeinated drinks, but he quickly identified an even deeper pull:  “The drink is an afterthought because it’s really about the community, the relationships you have with a person.”  Pat explained this dynamic as a simple solution to a common problem, “People need a place to meet when they’re out.  So, people meet each other here.  Connections happen because they came into a space they share.”  Third Street provides people with a place to cross paths.  “We might have 10 lawyers or 10 kids and they can all use the place.  It contains a lot of energy and is still effective,” Hendrick shares.  Age, race, profession, and socio-economic status are not a part of the equation and, as a result, each person can utilize Third Street according to their own style.

The approach Third Street Stuff & Coffee has to integrating creativity, business, and shared space is contagious.  I’m quick to agree with Hendrick when he cites that, in recent history, “It’s sort of a ground zero for the changes in this place.”  It has a style that generates relationships, and it’s situated at the heart of a neighborhood in need of fresh ideas.  Third Street is moving forward in a creative way, but it is tied to a long past.  “This place has soul,” Pat describes, “I like that it’s old and mixed up.  I do a lot of collage work and this place is like a collage.”  Spend some time people-watching in Third Street Stuff & Coffee, and you will see an incredibly wide range of people wander in the door.  They, too, bear resemblance to a collage.  Together, this quirky combination of people and place make up my creative neighborhood coffeehouse.