Oh no 
This is my favorite coffee shop in town. It might be silly to mourn the loss of a business, but here’s the thing….
Highland Coffee Company has a lot of my memories tied up in it. When I was living in the Highlands and going through really rough times in my mid/late 20s, I’d spend hours there reading, writing, sipping, people-watching, just to get away from things. When I moved away and then back to Louisville, I would drive out of my way to come back to this place. I wrote college papers here. I studied for music history in those benches. I signed my divorce papers at one of those tables. I took out-of-town family here to try it out for the first time. I met friends here. I met web clients here. I accepted job offers and would go here to celebrate. And lately, I’ve been taking my daughter here for hot cocoas and steamers.
When Urban Outfitters bought out the Blockbuster location on the corner years ago, they tore down the Highland Coffee sign since it was shared with the old Blockbuster sign. I don’t know the details around it, but Highland wasn’t allowed to put another sign up. Some friends and I made it our mission to visit that coffee shop as much as possible. Highland Coffee even turned it into a very awesome marketing campaign, with black tumblers and bumper stickers with white lettering that simply said, “I Know Where Highland Coffee Is.”
My kiddo loves all the support for LGBTQIA+ they see every time we go there. Last year, when Heine Bros. refused to keep a BLM sign up (and then caught major flack for it and reversed course), they asked to go there every day to support them, especially after seeing the Breonna Taylor and David McAtee (and others) artwork as you enter the door (it’s still there on your right).
They’ve always been the nicest people with a level of courtesy and a calmness that really makes you enjoy the experience. I’m going to really miss this place.
Facing ‘COVID winter,’ Louisville coffee shop to close after 20-plus years in business
After 22 years, the Highland Coffee Company will close its doors on Sept. 9, the company announced, citing “another COVID winter ahead.”
“To say this has been a gut-wrenching decision would be a huge understatement,” the company statement, shared to Facebook on Sunday, said, adding that the move was right “as a business and personally.”
“So much of what Highland Coffee has been about is not just about great coffee, but so much more about people, and being able to gather together in a warm and inviting space with friends and neighbors,” the statement added. “In the current world conditions that remains limited, becomes much more limited during winter months, and there is little sign of that changing in the near future.”
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