While living in Colorado in 1995, Stacie and I became friends with some folks that owned a coffee shop. We frequented the place and there fell in love with the concept of specialty coffee and dreamed of one day opening our own place (or maybe I dreamed, and my wife lovingly went along).

After some exhaustive research into the world of specialty coffee and designing the best floor plan possible for our customers, Higher Ground Coffee Company opened its doors in December 2007. In 2013, we began roasting our own beans to ensure our customers can enjoy the highest quality coffee available and also opened a second location in Martin, Tennessee.

We believe God has given us this opportunity to serve other people — we just happen to be doing His work in coffee shops in Union City and Martin, Tennessee. We can have the best location and the best products, but without a spirit of service, we just have another one of those “good ideas.” If you ask any one of our great employees the main reason we exist, they will tell you simply “to serve others.”

Since opening in 2007, our customers have helped bring this “good idea” to life, exceeding all our wildest dreams. We have been overwhelmed with the support we have received from our community. In a book entitled, “The Third Place,” the author talks about those places that are not work or home. They are places you can come visit with a cross section of people at any time of the day and for numerous reasons. There is no right time to be there or right person to be there with. You can come be yourself. You can meet people you may have never had the opportunity to meet other than the one thing you have in common — the place. We like to think of the place as “A Great Place To Be,” and we call it Higher Ground Coffee Company.