A Letter to our Customers

Twelve months ago, Coffee Haus Downtown was working with architects and city employees on finishing the preliminary steps toward moving our shop. It was the biggest step we had taken since opening the coffee shop eight years ago. It was going to be a beautiful new shop in a restored historic building. We were all ready. It was the next step, a new beginning. Then there was Thanksgiving.

Thomas, my father, a husband, a brother, a nephew, an uncle, a grandfather, a friend, and the original owner of the Coffee Haus Downtown unexpectedly passed away last Thanksgiving. We were lost; do we just close shop? Do we stay open? How are we going to go on?

Well, we did go on. Cheyne and I were determined to do all we could [to not just keep this place alive but] to make it grow and thrive and be a place where more memories could be made. We made it almost a year before I had to make the toughest descision of my life, thusfar.

I have chosen to move on and start the next chapter of my life. Though we had great support from our loyal customers over the years (without whom we would not have lasted two years let alone eight), the coffee haus just was not sustainable, and the stress of maintaining it was killing me. Working against a changing economy, occupying an aging building, working with near-decade old equipment with no resources to address either problem or invest in the company, I knew it was time.

I will miss all of you, and I'm sorry to leave you. I'm ready to move on, and I hope you will find it in your hearts to let me. This place has given me the best eight years of my life. Through the Coffee Haus, I gained an even stronger relationship with my father, I met the love of my life, and cultivated relationships with really fantastic and generous people, too numerous to name.

Goodbye and thanks a million for the last eight years. I will never forget it.

-Thomas M Horton III

Our final open day will be Saturday, October 23rd. A few of our fantastic customers are planning a potluck in the shop that day. We welcome you to come and will share the details of that event, shortly. We are considering maintaining the roasting portion of our business but we have many details to work out on this next stage.