What do a Greenwood church, an audio and video company and a love of coffee have in common?
Jerry Elvis, for one. The Greenville native has owned his own sound and video company for 25 years. He shifted his energy to Greenwood in 2011 to reinvigorate Life Church on Highway 82.
Soon, he’ll further tie himself into the Greenwood community with the opening of Bittersweet Coffee Company at 309 Howard St.
“When we started the church a year ago, we didn’t really think about coffee,” he said. “But when you’re going to make an area your home, you want to settle in. With our church, we’re all in. We’ve made the commitment.”
Elvis is quick to point out, though, that his pursuits are not related to one another. “The coffee shop is completely separate from the church,” he said.
Elvis hopes to create a community-centered coffee shop that stays open late enough for people to come in after work. He said the shop initially will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. He is not planning to open on Sundays.
He also wants to make Bittersweet a place to relax. “We’ll have wi-fi,” he said “Coffee shops generally breed that hangout kind of thing. We hope that we will.”
The major vision for the shop’s decor came from Elvis’ son, Ashton Elvis. He is a student at Delta State University and works on painting and designing Bittersweet’s interior when he’s out of class. He has installed gallery space in the shop so that local artists can exhibit work. Bright red pops up from neutral colors, giving the space as energetic a feel as one hopes to get from the coffee it serves.
A young woman from the church painted a winding mural behind the barista bar, and an antique-looking toy plane dangles from the ceiling.
The Elvis pair also hope to turn the coffee shop into a music venue on Friday nights.
“The back area will have a couch. Our goal would be for Friday nights to maybe have a jazz band or something, move the couches out of the way and the band will set up there,” he said. “This will be our little artist area. I’ve got some friends in Madison that have a coffee shop, and once a month on Sundays they have music.”
Bittersweet is based more on Elvis’ favorite coffee shops in Mississippi than it is on Starbucks, but it will follow the Starbucks model, offering the “true, full range of coffee drinks and gourmet teas,” he said. It will not offer much in the way of food, instead focusing wholeheartedly on an artisan and creative approach to coffee.
Elvis’ idea of the perfect coffee shop is place where customers can get to know the people who make the coffee.
“You walk in, you get to know the guys making your product, they’re pulling your shot, everything’s done right there. And you’re at the counter seeing the machine and everything,” he said.
Some places have “super-automatic” machines that do everything themselves, but “we’re going to have a semi-automatic machine, so that you have to tamp the coffee, pull the shot,” Elvis said. “I want people to leave saying, ‘They made this right.’”
Although he has not yet found a roaster, Elvis wants to choose a local coffee distributor based in Mississippi.
“I just like the idea that I could call the roaster and they will roast my product if not today, then tomorrow, and it’s going to ship to me tomorrow. And I’m going to have it the next day,” he said. “And if you come in and order a drink, your beans will be ground right then.”
Bittersweet will offer gourmet chocolates and biscotti to complement its selection of coffee drinks, and it will feature the highest- quality syrups and flavorings, said Elvis.
Elvis is still unsure of when the business will officially open, but he has planned a special sneak preview of Bittersweet from 4 to 8 p.m. on Nov. 13.
