After a successful Kickstarter and plenty of community support, the Old Louisville Coffee Co-Op opened at 8 a.m. this morning — with eager customers already waiting outside.

The Old Louisville Coffee Co-op, a worker-owned coffee shop and bakery, was created to give the Old Louisville neighborhood a sober, LGBT-friendly, racially-inclusive venue with late hours. The five worker-owners themselves are all ex-baristas at other coffee shops. (Read more at LEO's story about the venue at this link.)

In the co-op's first 40 minutes today, it had already gotten nearly 20 orders. (The first of the day: a large coffee and a bagel with peanut butter and jelly.) Many customers offered workers their congratulations that the venue was finally open.

The venue sits at 316 West Ormsby Avenue, where Amici Cafe used to be, though you enter through the side, next to the patio that the business shares with its neighbors. Ironically, given that the venue is explicitly sober, you can find it by looking for the wine glass etched into the brick fence outside. (There will be a sign painted on the glass in the near future, an employee told LEO.)

As of this writing, the space is open 8 a.m. - 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday and "24 hours" on Friday and Saturday (specifically, 8 a.m. Friday to 11 p.m. Sunday.)

Check out LEO's photos of the opening in the photo gallery above.

06/29/2022 | Photos by Carolyn Brown • [email protected] • @cebrownphoto