Treading on Hallowed Grounds: Two newcomers compete with Mudhouse for downtown coffeehouse business

Coffee Competition

WHAT Two new coffeehouses downtown have put pressure on Mudhouse, though each has looked to carve its own niche.

SO WHAT Customers have options, but it remains to be seen whether business will be spread too thin.

WHAT’S NEXT Heer’s and College Station should bring an influx of new customers to downtown, increasing the likelihood of survival for the three coffeehouses.

A trio of coffeehouses is lining up to re-energize downtown Springfield. But only time can tell which ones will be up to the task.

Newcomers The Coffee Ethic and Rendezvous Coffee Lounge are infringing on what’s become Mudhouse territory during the past decade. The coffeehouses are within blocks of each other.

“They’ve got some stiff competition within a stone’s throw,” said Rusty Worley, executive director of Urban Districts Alliance.

Rendezvous Coffee Lounge is set to open March 4 at 320 Park Central West, formerly home of Randy Bacon Photography. Rendezvous Coffee will be just 530 feet west of Park Central Square’s new tenant, The Coffee Ethic, which itself is just 440 feet due north of center city stalwart Mudhouse.

Head-to-head

Mudhouse opened New Year’s Eve 1998 at 323 South Ave. It was one of the city’s first specialty coffee shops, and since opening, competition has come and gone from downtown’s landscape. Churchill Coffee Co. on South Campbell Avenue and Springfield Coffee Co. on West Olive Street are just two examples.

Mudhouse co-owner Rob Weislocher said today’s downtown business environment is more conducive to supporting multiple coffee shops, though he still only gives a 50 percent chance to all three coffeehouses surviving. He gives a 75 percent chance to two of the entries making it long term.

“On one hand, you have the idea that you have the downtown area with a lot of coffeehouses and art galleries, to where it becomes more of a destination point,” Weislocher said. “But at the same time, too many in one spot is just going to kill each other.”

Skepticism is shared among the competitors.

“There will be two major ones down here,” said John Fleming, co-owner of yet-to-open Rendezvous Coffee. “From my point of view, that’ll be us and the Mudhouse.”

Fleming said Mudhouse’s longevity and loyal following gives it fortitude, but he questions whether The Coffee Ethic will draw enough customers with its limited menu.

The Coffee Ethic, which opened Dec. 7 on Park Central Square, offers single-origin coffees and sells pastries provided by local bakery The Artisan’s Oven. Owners Tom Billionis and Jim Hamilton are counting on percolating plenty of business from a connected Springfield-Greene County Library that opens in March.

The Coffee Ethic also has the only single-cup Clover brand brewing system in town.

The $11,000 system – one of only three in the state – allows baristas to customize settings, such as water temperature, based on the type of coffee being brewed.

Billionis and Hamilton also are trying to appeal to the socially conscious crowd with an emphasis on fair trade and direct trade coffee and environmental friendliness. Furniture in The Coffee Ethic, for example, is made of wood reclaimed from the Ozarks’ historic ice storms of January 2007.

“We want to be about making a profit, but that can be measured both economically and by what we do to help people and by what we do to help the environment,” Hamilton said.

“We believe that people are starting to look for businesses that are doing that,” he added

Rendezvous’ owners are trying to carve a niche by featuring extending hours – 6 a.m.–2 a.m. daily except Sunday – and an expansive menu, which will have everything from lattes and smoothies to hamburgers and breakfast burritos.

“There’s a lot of people who drive to work, and they’ll drive through at McDonalds and get them a bacon-egg-and-cheese biscuit, or whatever, and a coffee,” Fleming said. “(Now) they can … walk right in here and get what they want.”

The “X” factors

Once construction work on College Station and Heer’s finishes, many more potential coffee drinkers could be pounding downtown’s pavement. College Station is slated to open in early fall, and anchor tenant Hollywood Theaters has predicted it will sell 500,000 movie tickets in its first year.

UDA director Worley said College Station and Heer’s will “remarkably change the traffic patterns we have here downtown,” and he said all three coffeehouses should be able to successfully tap into the influx of people if they play their cards right.

Worley and the coffeehouse owners said they’ve heard rumors of a national coffeehouse chain possibly coming to College Station; no tenants beyond the theater have been announced.

Mudhouse’s Weislocher said he welcomes competition, because it “keeps us on our toes.” After nearly a decade in business, he said it’s easy to turn on cruise control.

“We’re kind of excited about (the competition),” he said with an earnest chuckle. “It kind of has energized us again.”

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