How this shop’s coffee and plants are helping a Richmond community sip and grow
A new Central Kentucky coffee shop is not just giving locals their caffeine fix, but it’s also transporting them to a tropical oasis every time they visit.
Brewtanicals Coffee House & Plant Lounge, located in Richmond next to the Peddler’s Mall, opened in August by Stephen Greasor, an Indiana native who previously worked for the Bluegrass Army Depot’s chemical demilitarization program . After that job ended, he opted to stay in Richmond with his girlfriend at the time while contemplating what his next move would be.
“I’ve got a background in robotic programming and startup engineering and could easily get a job nearby at a place like Toyota,” Greasor said. “But I was tired of working for someone else. Then one morning I was making coffee and it hit me — why don’t I start my own coffee shop?”
As for how his passion for coffee married his fondness for flora, Greasor said that side of Brewtanicals’ personality developed from years of traveling when he sought out various plant-based attractions to explore.
“Whenever we traveled, the first thing we’d do is look to see if the place we’re going had a botanical garden nearby,” recalls Greasor, whose favorite plants are ficus, philodendron, hibiscus and monstera. “Then after doing that we’d go explore the local coffee scenes. Through that, I noticed a lot of improvement that could be made in what places are putting out due to using excessive sugar and other flavorings. The art and taste of a good cup of coffee gets lost when you do that.”
What is on Brewtanicals’ menu?
While Brewtanicals serves all types of coffee from drip to cold brew, cafe au lait, frappes and espressos, it specializes in pour overs with eight flavors available including Columbia Huila, Tanzania Peaberry and Java. A personal favorite of Greasor’s, he said he’s developed a special method with pour overs for extracting more sweetness using his light and medium roasts.
“It all has to do with how the heat absorbs into the coffee beans and opens up the grind for more flavor to be drawn out,” he says. “Once the bean has soaked up the water and let those compounds out, the sweetness starts to peak within a certain time frame, then after that is where a lot of the coffee’s bitterness begins to kick in. Based on those variables, we’re able to manipulate the entire operation to engineer a one in a kind cup of Joe.”
In addition to its regular menu, the shop also serves a variety of specialty and house drinks like the Apple Streusel Macchiato Latte, Teddy Graham Latte and Rosie Latte (lavender, rose, and cardamom topped with creamy vanilla steamed milk or cold foam) as well as baked goods. While the latter are not produced from in house, they’re almost all from fellow Madison County-based businesses like Richmond’s Golden Leaves (tea) and Bespoke Bakery (breakfast sandwiches, muffins, cinnamon rolls) and Berea based Brandi’s Bakery (other sweets) and Honey’s Homestead (sourdough bread).
According to Greasor, plans are to continue expanding the menu to include more lunch and dinner options along with introducing different drinks to keep people stopping by into the evening.
“My overall goal is to get to the point where I can stay open to 9 or 10 p.m. at night Thursday through Saturday serving things like wine and mocktails,” Greasor said. “We want to bring some different, fun things to Madison County that the area doesn’t already offer.”
Sip connection, grow community
Staying open later would also allow Greasor to host events inside the space, from book clubs and game nights to open mics, live music and more. Greasor wants Brewtanicals to feel like a home away from home, and with comfy couches and a barrage of plants both big and small, he’s done just that.
But it’s more than just a vibe. The shop is taking action to have a positive impact in the community, toom, including by making everyone from EKU students to Bluegrass Army Depot workers feel welcome.
This manifests itself not only in the events Brewtanicals plans to offer or the local partners they work with, but also in how they donate leftover food to nearby homeless shelters and offer regular discounts to EKU students, educators, military and first responders — a practice the team there describes as “Sip connection. Grow community.”
“Similar to how we nurture and look after the plants we cherish, we want to do the same for our community here in Richmond,” Greasor explained. “The more we feed back into it, the more we’ll grow together.”
Brewtanicals Coffee House and Plant Lounge
Where: 459 Eastern Bypass, Richmond
Hours: 6 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday
Online: BrewtanicalsKy.com
