Calling All Coffee Connoisseurs
buckhead coffeehouse, coffee, columbia, debbie cooper, food, maury county,
Before opening Buckhead Coffeehouse, Debbie Cooper’s job was pretty uneventful. But she had a life-changing epiphany while sitting at work one day.
“I had worked at a bank for 15 years,” Cooper recalls. “And one day I just realized, ‘I am bored to death.’”
Not long afterward, she started managing the coffee and doughnut shop that soon was to become Buckhead Coffeehouse – now a favorite hangout among Columbia’s coffee connoisseurs.
“I had always wanted to do something like this,” she says.
Two months after starting a job there, she bought it from the owner.
“What I like best about the atmosphere is that it’s so diverse,” Cooper says. “We have customers of every age, from every background.”
And a good gender balance, too, which was important to Cooper. In fact, she thought long and hard before settling on a name for the place for that very reason.
“I named it ‘Buckhead’ so that men wouldn’t be afraid to come in,” she explains. “I think it has a nice, masculine ring to it.”
Cooper has 12 employees, and she buys her coffee locally – some from a small-batch roaster in Hermitage who creates Buckhead’s exclusive signature roasts, and some from a flavored-coffee roaster who has honed his craft since 1980.
Buckhead serves lattés, cappuccinos and espresso, as well as seasonal specialties developed by Cooper and her staff. The menu also features fruit, salads, sandwiches and a popular selection of vegetarian and vegan items.
The works of local artists adorn the interior of the recently renovated Trotwood Avenue location, and outdoor seating also is available.
Cooper has opened a second Buckhead Coffeehouse at the Mid-Tennessee Bone and Joint Clinic in The Medical Plaza at Creekside Place.
Cooper says her customers have become like family in the seven years since Buckhead opened.
“Everybody feels at home here,” she says. “And that’s the way we want it to be.”
Story by Carol Cowan
