View our Archive Photos: Higher Grounds Pix
Check out Higher Grounds, Old School: Joe, William, and William's Mullet servin' coffee on the Corner next to Baja Bean. Yeah, Will's got a Mullet. Joe's wearing a vest (he left his fanny pack at home that day). Don't know where Doug is. He's probably at the U-Heights Apartment wearing acid-washed jeans and counting change. It was 1993 ya'll and that's how we all rolled. Don't lie. You know you sported a fanny pack and could only dream of William's Mullet Glory.
In 1992, while working on a class project at Evergreen State University, William created a business plan that would become Higher Grounds. After researching a number of East Coast cities ripe for specialty coffee, the list was narrowed down to Chapel Hill NC, Richmond VA, and Charlottesville VA. All are college towns boasting demographics favorable towards gourmet coffee. (Plus, these 3 cities have way better weather than Seattle.) William and Doug Keller, a friend since age 6, visited all three cities and decided on Richmond. Charlottesville-too small. Chapel Hill-too far south. Richmond seemed like the perfect choice. It's a city(sort of), not too far south, with a university, major medical centers, and the good weather.
In October of 1993, William and Doug loaded a coffee cart and all their belongings into a U-Haul and headed for Richmond. They wheeled into Richmond one week later, tired, smelly, and bloated from countless meals at Taco Bell. Driving by the corner they had eyed during their earlier scouting trip, they found it occupied by another coffee cart with guys from California - NOOOOOOO! Pedal to the metal, they bolted to Charlottesville.
William and Doug set up shop on UVA's "Corner" in an alley between Baja Bean and Plan 9 Records. A few weeks later, William's brother Joe joined them with his own tale of cross country winter treachery.(They talked him into leaving a corporate job at a Microsoft R & D firm to become the financial wizard of Higher Grounds.)
In 1994, Higher Grounds moved their Corner location into a small space beside Arch's Frozen Yogurt while beginning its' relationship with the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center and Martha Jefferson Hospital. In 1995, Higher Grounds Downtown opened and quickly became a favorite local breakfast and lunch joint.
Doug Keller returned to Seattle in '98 to get married to his long time girlfriend, Nanette Oliver. At this time, Soren Mitchell, an old friend from Evergreen, stepped in to manage the Downtown restaurant for 3 years and expanded hours to include Higher Grounds At Night. After 8 years of serving muchos Huevos Buenos, the downtown location was sold to Antonio "Tony" Jorge and morphed into Cafe Cubano. Another change occurred when in 2003, the Corner location moved into a shared space with Plan 9 Records in the old Anderson Brothers building.
Higher Grounds has always been known for its' quality coffee at a fair price and now the coffee is even better. Trager Brothers Coffee is William and Joe's new venture. Their coffee is Fair Trade, OCIA certified Organic, Rainforest Alliance, and freshly roasted at their new Roastery in Lovingston, Virginia.
It was on November 3rd 1993 that Higher Grounds gave away its' first free latte on the "Corner" - day one was free day, and today the Charlottesville specialty coffee market proudly boasts 9 independent retailers, 5 roasters, and yup 9 Starbucks - not bad for a population of a 100 grand.
View our Archive Photos: Higher Grounds Pix
