Quills Coffee

Quills Coffee Opens New Cafe In Groundbreaking Louisville Library

January 16, 2020 By Michael Leave a Comment

Kentuckiana roaster/retailer Quills Coffee first opened in 2007 under the name “Quills Coffee and Books.” The original Kentucky St. location in Louisville’s Paristown neighborhood– long since closed — featured an entire wall of new and used books. It’s where I bought my first Dave Eggers novel, years before I would work at Quills, first as a barista and later as the company trainer.

Perhaps it’s fitting that Quills’s seventh café also has books. Actually, it has over 100,000 of them, only they’re not for sale….

Oddly Specific Valentines From Quills Coffee

February 4, 2019 By Michael Leave a Comment

Sometimes, checking up on an old workplace feels a little bit like running into an ex. In my case, Quills Coffee is the ex you’ll always have a special place in your heart for and would consider hooking up with again if your spouse died in a fiery plane crash. Perhaps it’s fitting that this Valentines Day Quills has a variety of oddly specific Valentine messages, which somehow feel universally relatable in our modern times….

Retrograde Coffee Moves Nashville’s Coffee Scene Forward

August 7, 2018 By Kathleen Hartsfield Spicer Leave a Comment

Retrograde Coffee

Driving along Dickerson Pike in East Nashville, you can’t miss the brightly colored mural that has been added to the landscape. Take a closer look, and you’ll see the gold lettering and green interior of Retrograde Coffee. After a swift ninety day building period, the café opened on July 14. Before Retrograde’s opening, there wasn’t a cafe in the neighborhood. The community’s response has been positive– in the short time since they’ve been open, they’ve already established a base of regulars….

Coffee a Fine Art at Collective Espresso CAC

September 21, 2015 By Michael 1 Comment

DSCF3396

We’ve been big fans of Collective Espresso since they opened their first location in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood almost three years ago. Since then we’ve seen them open what could be the perfect neighborhood coffee shop on the Northside of town. Their newest café in the heart of Downtown Cincinnati is their most refined and ambitious project yet….

Louisville to Host US Aeropress Championship Eastern Regional

December 23, 2014 By Michael 2 Comments

The Eastern Regional of the US Aeropress Championship will take place in Louisville, KY on January 31, 2015. Louisville-based micro roaster Quills Coffee will host the event, in partnership with sponsors Prima Coffee, Mahlkönig USA, and The Coffee Compass. In each round of the bracket style tournament competitors will have eight minutes to make a single cup of coffee with an Aeropress. A panel of judges select the best cup to advance in a blind tasting.

Competitors will have access to a Mahlkönig EK-43, a Bonavita Variable Temperature kettle, and have the option of using their own coffee or a coffee provided by Quills. The top 3 contestants will automatically earn a spot at the US Aeropress Championship. Prizes include a free trip to the national competition for the winner. Individuals interested in competing in the competition can register at easternaeropress.tumblr.com.

Quills Coffee Indianapolis Is Now Open

December 15, 2014 By Michael 4 Comments

The Crossroads of America

Some would say it’s long overdue, others would say it’s long been underrated. Either way, Indianapolis’s food and beverage scene is gaining some serious momentum. Recent openings like Thunderbird and Milktooth prove that Hoosiers have a growing appetite for craft drinks. And as one of the Heartland’s largest cities, it’s not surprising that Indiana’s capital has attracted outside interest. It just so happens one of those companies is my other place of employment, Quills Coffee. …

Coil: A Misc. Goods Co. Coffee Brew Method

November 25, 2014 By Darren 1 Comment

Any entrepreneur will agree that steady growth in innovating new products is hard to maintain. Tyler Deeb could have easily walked away from one of the most successful playing cards Kickstarters of all time to return to a safe desk job. But he decided he was all in, and has returned to Kickstarter with an innovative coffee brew method. SAY WHAT?!? That’s right. Misc Goods Co. has partnered with Quills Coffee consultant, home roaster extraordinaire, and Coffee Compass guest blogger Chris Heiniger to bring you Coil, a cold brew coffee maker.

Misc. Goods Co. Coil Cold Brew

Coil is the first brew method of its kind, and can cool freshly brewed coffee from essentially boiling temperatures to near 48° in under 4 minutes without ever touching ice. Deeb explains…

The Coffee Compass is in Fresh Cup Magazine

June 10, 2014 By Michael Leave a Comment

We’re beyond chuffed to announce we wrote an article about the Louisville coffee community for Fresh Cup Magazine, which was published in their June issue. The article’s title, “The Kentucky Coffee Scene is Decadent and Delicious”, is an allusion to Louisville native Hunter S. Thompson’s famous essay about the 1970 Kentucky Derby. We shared some of the background behind Louisville’s burgeoning craft coffee culture and the shops that make it what it is today, including Sunergos, Quills, Argos Sons, and Gralehaus. Ben Willis of Firm Anchor Photography supplied the photos, which are gorgeous as always. You can read the story online or most likely in your local coffee shop.

These 3 Bands Love Coffee

March 14, 2014 By Michael Leave a Comment

Craft coffee is slowly but surely creeping its way into mainstream culture. Whether it be Jerry Seinfield visiting Handsome Coffee, or Kuerig’s need to lampoon artisanal shops in a recent add, the public is starting to notice a growing demographic wants a higher quality cup. Not surprisingly, some of specialty coffee’s earliest adapters have been creative types, and musicians are no exception. In particular, these three bands love coffee more than the average musician.

Arcade Fire

An entire decade later, Arcade Fire’s debut release Funeral remains the album most likely to be playing in your local coffee shop. It’s only fitting, because the band members are avid coffee fanatics. The Montreal-based group is known …

Barista Interview: Tooill, Myers, Miller, and Butterworth

February 13, 2014 By Guest Leave a Comment

Interview by Mikey Rinaldo

2014 has already turned out to be a very exciting year for Louisville’s coffee scene. Four Louisville baristas competed this past January at the Big Eastern Barista Competition (one of the regional competitions preceding the US Coffee Championships). Houston Miller and Jesse Myers from Quills Coffee and James Tooill from Argo Sons Coffee took part in the Brewers Cup portion while Michael Butterworth competed in the Barista Competition. Jesse, Houston, and James all placed in the top seven, and James’s third place finished earned him an invitation to nationals. Michael placed fifth and will move on to the US Barista Championship. James and Michael will be the first baristas from Kentucky to compete at nationals. As a Louisville resident and coffee enthusiast, I wanted to hear first hand about their experiences, so the the five of us sat down together to have this discussion….