Calvin the Rancher's Neighborhood Coffee OR This Coffee Shop Looks Rather Fletching!

Indie Indy Coffee Shops Series #1

Before we start, let me explain the secondary title above. Being a writer, a lover of hot drinks with caffeine, and an avid people watcher, I've always enjoyed writing in coffee shops.

When I moved outside Indianapolis and found out there's a wealth of independent coffee shops, well, the combination of wordplay and a subject near to my heart was too good to pass up.

Originally this was going to be a single post of four different shops in the Indie area. But then I actually WENT to said shops, and, well, they really were fascinating!

But enough explanation. Let's jump to the actual fascinating thing. Or, as the sign says:

Get Your Culture On.

Also: Custom things!

First, something about Calvin Fletcher:

He was an influential citizen, lawyer, banker, rancher, etc. back when Indianapolis was just getting going. (1820-something through a few decades later. What? I'm not a history book!) 

He owned a fair bit of land (over 200 acres) outside of Indianapolis, which soon became surrounded by Indianapolis, and long story short eventually became a neighborhood known as Fletcher Place. Which is now a historic district.

...Which when we were there was under some beautification.

Behold the new traditional-style sidewalks! No, wait...

This. This is what they'll look like.

And off to the side of the sidewalk was Calvin Fletcher's Coffee Company.

Not affiliated with Calvin Fletcher, only his neighborhood.
Hence the history lesson.

Inside we were greeted by a large, comfortable place with art on the walls.

Spacious coming...

...And going!

But let's dig into why this place warrants a full post by itself.

First off is Doug. I don't have a picture of Doug, but he's the owner and was incredibly nice. He knew his coffee, and gave a great recommendation explaining the difference between his house blend and the other blends. (The house blend was quite tasty.)

And the was before I asked permission to take pictures for this blog. (Which he gladly gave.)

So I looked around, took a few pictures, and stumbled upon this:

That's not Doug. That's Jeff. But he was also there and also nice.
And has a cool ponytail.

For those of you who don't have incredibly huge screens with incredible resolution, let me sum up the article: (Incidentally, those of you WITH huge screens: Do you really need that much screen?)

The article tells how Doug served his community for 25 years as a minister (he might still be ministering, actually), and opened the coffeeshop as a not-for-profit coffeeshop. Kind like Newman's Own if Paul Newman was a minister and if his salad dressing was a dark roast.

Every month they take the profits and give them to a charity like Second Helpings, Bread for the World, etc. Which is pretty cool. Almost as cool as Jeff's ponytail (but not quite).

This community philosophy was everywhere here. Local artists displayed their art on the walls, and in a couple cases on the tables.

There was an awesome little library/book corner.

Awe. Some.

While we were there, half the customers that came in were greeted by name, AND they made the appropriate Cheers comments. (If you don't get that joke, I am sad.)

But what we really loved, given that my better half designs knitting patterns and I recently tried my hand at hand-dyeing yarn, was this:

Because knitters are awesome.

Donated by the local yarn shop Mass Ave Knit Shop (it's a great shop, but I digress), these needles and scarves are meant to be knitted by the community, and when finished given to the needy for the cold Indiana winters. Which can be very cold indeed.

We really liked that idea a lot. And of course, knitting was done:

To overuse the word: This my awesome wife knitting...

...in EXTREME CLOSE UP.
(Wow. Cheers and Wayne's World in one post...)

But to sum up: We loved this shop, and even though it's a good 45 minutes away from us, we will definitely revisit for some tasty coffee, friendly knitting, and community spirit.

...Oh, and really good pastries. My pumpkin chocolate chip muffin was, to run the word into the ground, awesome.