Photo courtesy of Mudhouse Coffee
Mudhouse Coffee opens next week in Old Town Alexandria
Mudhouse Coffee Roasters, the Charlottesville-born specialty roaster that pours beans grown on its own farm in Panama and other coffees, is now set to open its first Alexandria café at 1119 King St. next week, according to manager Tyler Todmann Easterling.
The team will host a soft opening Thursday, July 23, for neighboring businesses before opening to the public the following week, likely Thursday, July 30, or Friday, July 31, said Todmann Easterling, a 13-year coffee-industry veteran whose résumé includes Baked and Wired and A Baked Joint. The early preview is a thank-you to the surrounding businesses, she said, giving the immediate neighborhood the first look inside.
At launch, the menu will feature a full lineup of drinks but no food yet — a temporary limit while the café finishes assembling its team. Six employees are on staff so far, and the shop is still hiring. "We are still looking for one or two part-time staff," Todmann Easterling said. The food program the shop has previously described, including baked goods and biscuits and cookies made on-site, is expected to follow once staffing fills out.
Photo courtesy of Mudhouse Coffee
Mudhouse Coffee will open next week in OLD TOWN ALEXANDRIA.
The space seats about 40 across two distinct areas. At the front, the room leans into a tea-house feel. "In the front, it's more of a tea-like aesthetic, using 1930s hand-painted Japanese china from the owner's mother," Todmann Easterling said. The second area, called The Chambers, is a phone-free room with couches and a signature blue wall, built without power outlets by design to nudge patrons toward conversation and reading.
Coffee is central to the Mudhouse story, and much of it traces back to the company's own land. Owners John and Lynelle Lawrence grew Mudhouse from a 1993 coffee cart into an award-winning roastery with cafés across Virginia and in South Carolina, along with Finca La Cabra, an experimental farm on the slopes of Volcán Barú in Panama. The couple is in Panama now, Todmann Easterling said, taking part in Best of Panama cuppings — the country's premier specialty coffee competition — and connecting with other growers there. Beans from the farm are roasted in Charlottesville before arriving in Alexandria to be ground fresh.
To mark the Alexandria debut, the team is developing an opening drink exclusive to the location — unnamed so far, but likely a raspberry basil creation. Live music is also expected in the coming months.
