Bean Tree Café continues to grip community loyalty

Liberty’s vendor of the month, Bean Tree Café at Cornerstone (which takes Flames Cash) was committed to quality and community from the beginning.

According to General Manager Ariana Lefferts, Bean Tree continues to serve customers a well-brewed cup of coffee, something that has been the goal of owners Keith Johnson and Josh Allen since the café opened in 2014.

That was not their only goal, however. Lefferts said the café has also committed itself to promoting community. For her, those two things set Bean Tree Café apart from the other coffee shops in the area.

“There have been a lot of shops in Lynchburg that have popped up, but I would say that we still have a focus for quality, we still have a focus for trying to connect more of the community together,” Lefferts said.

Johnson and Allen went to great lengths to promote community at Bean Tree. Bean Tree opened in 2014. According to Lefferts, they wanted to provide a community space both for college students looking to escape campus for a little while and for the locals.

Bean Tree became so popular that it relocated to its current spot at Cornerstone in 2016 to provide more room for guests.

“One of our biggest complaints was coming in and not having a place to sit, which is kind of an issue that a lot of coffee shops have, but it’s one that we wanted to take seriously,” Lefferts said. “So that was our goal in opening the new place, just having a bigger space so that more people could enjoy the community.”

According to Assistant Manager Tyler Long, it is one of the largest coffee spaces in Lynchburg.

The location is roomy with a variety of table sizes, and in one nook, arm chairs sit packed comfortably next to a window.

Bean Tree tries to promote its community through some of the events it hosts. The café periodically hosts paint nights and live music nights with local artists, including several music nights over the upcoming weekends. According to Lefferts, dates for those events are on Bean Tree’s Facebook page, but she said that at 6 p.m. March 29, Bean Tree will host a live music night which The Journey radio station will broadcast live.

Bean Tree also holds a few regular events. Every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. they have a trivia night, which Lefferts says is particularly popular among college students. On Thursday at 10 a.m., Bean Tree has story time for children.

“Our owners both are parents to young children, so they recognized a need for moms in the morning to just have a space to kind of come and connect with each other,” Lefferts said.

Lefferts also said that customers also often use Bean Tree for their own gatherings. She said she has seen everything from Bible studies to bridal showers at Bean Tree. She said customers can call ahead and reserve space for events like birthday parties and meetings.

“We love it when people come in and use our space to get connected and actually build relationships,” Long said.

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