‘The only acceptable buzz left’: What were ’90s coffeehouses like in Charlotte?

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the coffeehouses with poetry readings, late nights and staff who knew your order were the reliable shoulder-drops and deep exhales to get you through the day.

Walking into one, you’d find plush, center-of-the-room couches (like the orange one from “Friends”), books abound, a loud rug, the hum of strangers and tight-knit groups.

However, this specific imagery is something of the past, especially here in Charlotte, where today we’re brimming with sleek third-wave coffee shops and where one of the area’s longest running coffeehouses, Summit Coffee’s original location in Davidson, opened in 1998.

Other vintage spots include Crossroads Coffee House, which opened in Waxhaw in 1999 and Smelly Cat Coffee House and Roastery, which opened in 2000 in NoDa with its name a nod to “Friends,” of course.

And there’s the tucked-away church coffee shop in Pineville called The Well that’s been around since 2003, a striking number of years for Charlotte’s coffee scene. There’s often a church service on Sundays.

But what about coffeehouses older than that in the Charlotte area? Most of them closed long ago.

They aren’t just gone from Charlotte: Some food writers, like Keith Pandolfi, think we’ve undergone the death of the American coffeehouse. He wrote a piece for Taste all about the demise.

He described these early coffee joints as “the dive bars of youth … where you went to think … where you could lose yourself in a novel or a Spin magazine article, places where you could ponder a Morrissey lyric or an overheard conversation.”

He contrasts that reality to his observations of a third-wave coffee shop today: “The most prevalent sound you’ll hear is the soft patter of your fingertips on a MacBook Air. The din of conversation is a mere distraction, one that can be remedied only by noise-canceling headphones.”

Over the last few decades, we’ve traded eclectic, mismatched mugs and conversation for clean, crisp, transactional consistency. What happened?

Charlotte coffeehouses

Jerry Kirk, an artist and NoDa historian, noted similar observations about Charlotte’s third-wave shops. “Coffee shops now are more about … people finding their own separate space and being separate from one another,” he said. “Everybody’s in their own little world.”

That’s a stark contrast to the coffee shops that defined and molded NoDa in the mid ’90s, like St. Ruby’s Java Joint, which offered “an atmosphere of warmth and kindness” in the “wild West” that was NoDa during that era.

As Kirk and his art friends brought this rundown area to life with galleries and music venues, St. Ruby’s stood as a reliable gathering place.

“When you stepped inside, it was like you were stepping into someone’s house,” with a living room, couches and warm pictures on the wall. The servers would bring out the coffee to you on the couch, and not just call your name at the counter.

On art gallery crawl nights — which were all the rage in NoDa at that time — St. Ruby’s would stay open late, hosting live music sets in the backyard. (Read this poem written by Kirk about the magic of gallery crawls.)

The joint housed a mini women-owned bookstore annex, Rising Moon Books, and a tiny art gallery called Millennium. And the staff was the backbone. “Everybody who worked there was extremely friendly … it was a fun, welcoming, inviting place.”

[REMINISCE ON AN OLDER, ARTSIER CHARLOTTE: What was Charlotte like in the ’90s?]

Owner Betsy Bilger, an artist and professor, loved the neighborhood and was a pivotal part of the community for years, not just an outside developer rolling some dice and plopping something into Charlotte’s food and beverage culture, as we’ve seen a lot of today. Bilger came from the culture, and she built it, too.

“It was only there for three years … it wasn’t very long, but it left a huge impact,” Kirk said. “It shouldn’t be forgotten because these are the things that can give Charlotte heart and soul.”

Spots around town

While Ruby’s was sorely missed, other spots came along to take the place of a casual coffee joint, like Fat City, which served coffee, food and music by night. In East Charlotte, Kirk said he’d sit at the bar counter at Knife & Fork restaurant for a cup of joe. The legendary Coffee Cup, opened in 1947, was still a big part of Charlotte’s coffee culture in the 1990s, as well. The restaurant, which long served as a local symbol of racial integration, closed in 2008.

In 1996, Charlotte saw its first two standalone Starbucks. In a Charlotte Observer article about Starbucks’ arrival, Tawn Nhan writes, “Starbucks will duke it out against rival Minneapolis-based Caribou Coffee Co … It faces a slew of other competitors including Peabody’s, Jeremiah’s, Brenner’s, Jackson’s Java and Dilworth Coffee House.”

Before Starbucks arrived, there was the original location Dilworth Coffee House on East Boulevard circa 1989 — which was the trendsetter of the Charlotte coffee scene, according to Ricki Morrell in a 1994 Observer article.

Dilworth Coffee opened a second location in Latta Arcade in 1992, and more locations followed throughout the years. Many of these spots (including the original) are now gone, but you can still visit the coffee shop at its Matthews location when it moves into a new space across the street. And in the meantime, go ahead and place an order for some freshly-roasted beans.

In that same 1994 article, Morrell writes, “Call it the cult of coffee — the only acceptable buzz left in the tapped out ‘90s. Charlotte is joining the West Coast, East Coast and the rest of America in its obsession with the little brown bean. Where there were no coffeehouses five years ago, now there are dozens; no gourmet coffee roasters, now there are four or more.”

While that number has changed drastically, almost humorously, over the past few decades, one sentiment remains as strong as ever: “We’ve got to be addicted to something,” Julia Carney was quoted in the article.

Then and now, the concern of addiction has not stopped “the addicted and the trendy from turning the dirty brown dishwater of the past into the elixir of a generation,” Morrell wrote.

One coffee drinker, Hedy Haynes, said in a 1994 article: “It’s like smoking … I’ll pay anything to get it. I know I need it, so I don’t bargain shop.” The article was about the increase in the price of coffee beans, stating the price of a 2-pound, 7-ounce can of coffee on local grocery shelves had shot up 150 percent — from $3.99 to $9.99 for many major brands. With the threat of a cup of coffee also increasing in price, Haynes said at the time: “Guess I’ll have to drink it at work. It’s free.”

Even then, customers saw the immense value in the small, local coffee shop, aside from just the buzz boost. “With everything being standardized, predictable and mass produced … the alternatives are little croissant, coffee and gourmet specialty-oriented shops, small indulgences for the middle-class,” sociologist Angela O’Rand said in the article.

One specialty-oriented shop was the first cybercafe in the area, which popped up in 1995 in Matthews. It crossbred “caffeine and computer addicts … a new twist on the old coffeehouse.”

Where did they go?

The owner of one of Charlotte’s two-decades-running traditional coffee houses might have an answer as to why many of the old favorites are now gone.

Although there’s a pride about Smelly Cat’s long tenure, owner Cathy Tuman is all about pushing forward, not necessarily striving to emulate something of the past.

“If you’re going to survive, you gotta change,” she said.

That’s why she started roasting her own coffee in 2013 at Smelly Cat, moving away from a partnership with Dilworth Coffee — yes, the same Dilworth Coffee that started this whole trend.

She introduced changes including breakfast food and iPad ordering, sensing that was what her community wanted.

Alongside meeting consumer preferences, the need for financial stability from a business standpoint necessitated this type of gradual change at Smelly Cat, she said.

Tuman is well-aware of the late-night fun of a coffeehouse. “While that type of coffeehouse is very romantic … it’s for the birds,” she said. That comes from her point of view as the solo woman owner operating this coffee shop and employing staff, all while raising two children.

The shop was open until midnight in its beginning stages, then 10 p.m. under previous ownership, and then shop’s hours were truncated again early at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to mitigate financial losses.

With newer bars opening up in NoDa to go to after a show at the Neighborhood Theatre or the Evening Muse, guests simply weren’t drinking coffee at 11 p.m. anymore.

It’s not all loss; there’s been gain, too

Despite closing earlier, modern coffee shops have still brought about positive change, prioritizing a culture that has elevated coffee’s taste, quality and ethical sourcing. Questions about the balance and the wash of beans and words like percolating, pour over and extraction are exchanged at the cash register.

Charlotte’s own Hex Coffee is a prime example of smart third-wave coffee, and was just recognized as the 29th best roastery in the world. Yes, world.

[I’M NOT OLD, JUST RETRO: How to spend a weekend like it’s 1990-something.]

Recreating the magic

Some might say the late 1990s and early 2000s coffeehouse is dead, but in Charlotte, we can still find the elements that made these coffeehouses so compelling.

“I think people want to feel like they’re part of a neighborhood, and that’s the way we do it ... by having communal spots to meet and gather and hang out,” Kirk said. Many of the newer shops have still managed to cultivate that sense of community.

• Archive CLT, a West Charlotte coffee shop and bookstore, showcases printed collectibles such as Black magazines and memorabilia in a space open for book club meetings and other gatherings.

• Giddy Goat in Plaza Midwood is a venue for improv classes, morning yoga and even the start and finish line for a run club. Its upstairs bar is a bit of a late-night spot itself, with acoustic shows every now and then and casual bartenders slinging drinks until 10 p.m. on weekends.

• Crown Station Coffee House and Pub in NoDa hosts music jams on Tuesdays, open mic comedy nights on Wednesdays and karaoke on Thursdays. While it transitions into more of a casual bar atmosphere at night, it still honors all the late-night coffee and tea needs. Before its NoDa tenure, Crown Station got its start in 2011, in a former building in Elizabeth with the type of late-night, open-mic vibes of a ’90s coffeehouse.

• Undercurrent in Plaza Midwood hosts silent reading nights.

• Hex Coffee, Kitchen and Natural Wines in Camp North End offers boozy journaling nights.

• Not Just Coffee on Jay Street organizes an occasional jazzy live music set-up, while the Not Just Coffee on Providence Road shares space with SOCO art gallery, fit for a stroll through the gallery, coffee in hand, reminiscent of St. Ruby’s dreamy coffee-meets-art-gallery dynamic.

• Artisan’s Palate restaurant and bar also welcomes the art community, not only doubling as an art gallery but also hosting monthly drag brunches to raise money for local organizations.

• Higher Grounds by Manolo’s opened this year inside Myers Park United Methodist Church, also working toward a community-centered space as a nonprofit, mission-focused cafe.

• Mugs Coffee has book club every Thursday from 6-9 p.m., and game nights and writer meetups on Fridays.

• Queen City Grounds hosts trivia from 7-9 p.m. every Tuesday.

• Lottie’s recently opened at Queen City Quarter, touting a family-owned and family-centered atmosphere. Grow Cafe also focuses on welcoming families, offering a space where children can play.

• The Summit Coffee in Davidson and Sorella in Monroe both have a Main-Street feel, where no one is a stranger.

Coffee shop culture is now tinkering on the precipice of fourth-wave, moving toward spaces that are less serious, less pretentious but still keeping values of sustainability and quality in mind. Like a modern-day ’90s coffeehouse, maybe?

While these joints may not have wonky mugs and $2 coffee anymore, they have that rare, intoxicating ability to pull people together. Whether one is going to specific spots simply for the aesthetic or to try a warm drink reminiscent of a blueberry muffin, these venues do more than just pour coffee. These coffee shops are truly safe spaces.

In fact, the former 24-hour Amelie’s in NoDa was this writer’s safe space at age 14 — an escape for high school girl hangs, heartbreaks and first dates. And today, Giddy Goat serves as a safe space to conduct interviews and meet new friends as she builds a new, adult life for herself in this city.

The coffeehouse isn’t dead, it’s just reincarnate.

Uniquely Charlotte: Uniquely Charlotte is an Observer subscriber collection of moments, landmarks and personalities that define the uniqueness (and pride) of why we live in the Charlotte region.