By: Emily Scaff
The former Lexington Coffee Shop will be reopening as Lex Co Coffees under new ownership. But it’s not clear when.
Lexington Coffee Shop closed abruptly at the end of February after the building it occupied was sold to new owners, according to a recent press release. The building will be closed for renovations until further notice.
“I saw the signs on the door, and I walked by the building and everything was just cleared out”
Rachael Rooney, the former manager of Lexington Coffee Shop, will be opening Lex Co Coffees in the renovated building, according to the press release, which was put out by a company renovating the space.
Some regular customers of Lexington Coffee Shop were surprised to see that the shop closed, as the management did not publicly announce the change in ownership beforehand.
Customers react to sudden closure
“I saw the signs on the door, and I walked by the building and everything was just cleared out,” said Alyssa Sanchez-Sine, a Washington and Lee sophomore who has been a regular customer of Lexington coffee shop for the past two years. “I just thought, ‘Wow, this is actually real.’”
Other customers say that Lexington Coffee Shop was an integral part of downtown Lexington.
“When I think of local shops coffee in Lexington, there’s a trinity: Lex Co, Season’s Yield, and Pronto,” said Grace Rustay, a student at Washington and Lee. “Now, there’s an element missing.”
Sanchez-Sine said she bought coffee at Lexington Coffee Shop two to three times per week before it shut down. She hopes that the renovation won’t affect the atmosphere of the coffee shop.
“It’s kind of weird not having them because it was becoming a part of my routine, and now it’s gone,” she said. “I hope with the renovation that they don’t change the old-school vibe, because that’s kind of why I like it more than Pronto, which is very modern.”
Sanchez-Sine said she’s been buying her coffee on campus since Lexington Coffee Shop closed.
Many regulars said they chose Lexington Coffee Shop because of its unique traditions and environment.
An Shelmire, a regular of Lexington Coffee Shop for the past four years, said she chose the shop because it offered a different experience than other downtown coffee shops such as Pronto or Season’s Yield.
“I feel like it was one of the few coffee shops that was very traditional and old fashioned,” Shelmire said. “These new coffee shops that are commercialized are too modern.”
The building at 9 W. Washington St. was purchased by Karen and Jon Landis at the end of February, according to the Lexington Office of Revenue. The Landises are working with Curated Interiors, a Lexington design company, to renovate the building.
The Landises declined to take any direct questions, according to an email from the Curated Interiors team.
“There is a lot our client is still learning and planning as we prepare to move building renovations forward,” Helen Bisset, the owner of Curated Interiors, wrote in an email. “Those renovations are focused strictly on getting Lex Co Coffees reopened to the public.”
Impact on the Lexington coffee scene
One of the other coffee shops downtown, Pronto Café, has seen a significantly larger number of customers on Sundays since Lexington Coffee Shop closed, said Meridith Benincasa, the shop’s co-owner.
“The only coffee places open on Sunday were us and Lexington Coffee,” Benincasa said. “So, I do think there’s an increase definitely from their closure, especially on Sundays.”
However, Benincasa says she isn’t sure that Lexington Coffee shop’s closure has had a big impact on Pronto’s weekday sales. Lexington Coffee Shop closed around the same time that their busy season begins, she said.
“Things just kind of naturally pick up around this time of year when the weather warms up,” she said. “Students get back from break, there’s more conferences, more athletic events happening. It literally coincided with when we would always see an uptick.”
Pronto Café serves a customer base different from regulars at Lexington Coffee Shop, Benincasa said. Pronto was opened as an alternative to other coffee shops in Lexington, such as Lexington Coffee Shop.
“I grew up going to Lex Co, and we opened Pronto to be something really different,” she said. “With that in mind, it’s like a whole different vibe in here. If you love Lexington Coffee Shop, this would be an adjustment.