Side Track Coffee: Cultivating Community Through Coffee
|Words & Photography by Hueman Collective|
That’s totally the coolest vibe–to be loved on unconditionally.
Walking through the glass double doors, I’m greeted with a forest of traditional coffee shop sounds. The whirl of coffee grinders, the shuffling of chairs against old hardwood and the gentle table conversations all blend into a collective hum like cicadas on a warm Alabama night. People are lined up waiting to order at the bar that is strategically placed directly in the center of the room, rather than tucked into a convenient corner, as to remain part of the conversation. Customers fill the shop – some working and studying beneath the massive marquee, others laughing while lounging on couches with friends.
The barista behind the bar greets each person in line like he’s known them for years before listening to their order and turning the register around so they can choose how much they want to pay for their drinks. The moment catches some people off guard as they struggle to understand how a business can allow the customers to decide the worth of their coffee, but they eventually settle on a price and move on, taking in the shop with a new perspective as they sip their coffee.
As it reaches my turn to order, I’m met with a big smile, a genuine question about how my morning has been and a poorly rehearsed handshake that I should definitely be better at by now.
The friendly face greeting each customer is David Bizilia, the owner and operator of Side Track Coffee. My experience this morning is what everyone who has come into Side Track Coffee more than once or twice has come to expect as a normal day.
Side Track Coffee first began in April 2016 in what David describes as “basically a closet.” He and his friend Buddy Foster opened the shop with the help from Wade Preston, owner and operator of Prevail Coffee Roasters. It was originally intended to be a temporary shop that only lasted a few months, but as the summer came to an end David decided to keep Side Track open and moved next door into the larger location they are in today. Now, two years later, Side Track is a staple of Opelika’s blooming downtown area.
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David found his passion for coffee while working for local coffee shops and honed his skills as a barista in the years before opening Side Track Coffee. While talking to David, he tells me that he finds inspiration for the creative, unique coffee recipes he offers on bar by experimenting with his team of baristas and by staying connected with other coffee shops driving the southern coffee culture.
The South’s coffee culture is very unique, one reason being because it’s smaller and younger than other areas in the U.S. This tight-knit community helps to unite the shops defining the culture. That’s why David carefully chooses what roasters he uses at the shop.
“We try to carry mostly Southern coffee roasters here because I want to make it relevant to people and show them that we have things like that in the South,” David said.
“Side Track is not the coffee we make, not the space, not who works here, not our social medial, not the vibes we put off – it is 100 percent the people who sit down in the seats and their attitude about it.”
He and his team approach Side Track’s seasonal menu like mixologists, crafting beverages with traditional and non-traditional ingredients to create entirely different experiences from the standard lattes and poor overs. The seasonal drinks feature ingredients like grapefruit tonic water, espresso and orange peel or activated charcoal, pepper jelly, espresso and milk. Their names are equally creative: The Young Man and Spring Matcha are staples with this Summer seeing additions like The Pool Boy and The Girl From Hinnom, TX.
Although celebrating coffee and crafting drinks with excellence is a priority, that is only part of Side Track’s bigger picture.
“Side Track is not the coffee we make, not the space, not who works here, not our social medial, not the vibes we put off – it is 100 percent the people who sit down in the seats and their attitude about it.
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Value Beyond The Register
Side Track Coffee is different from average coffee shops, and it doesn't take long to see that after walking in. One of the first things you’re faced with is the drink pricing – or the lack thereof. Side Track runs on of a pay-what-you-want pricing model, something David has done since opening the shop’s doors.
“It was definitely something that we didn’t want to keep on doing to begin with,” David explained, “but in doing it, as days went by, we saw how people reacted.”
On a regular day at the shop, a customer gets an iced coffee and leaves a regular amount–$3.50. Soon after, another passes through and pays the least they can squeeze out–$1 for two drinks. This experience is what David has come to love about letting customers choose their price.
Although he admits the 50 cent drinks hurt in the beginning, David says it’s incredible to see how people react when they are allowed to choose how much they pay for their drinks. Most people choose to pay a fair amount, but when someone chooses to pay less, he and the other baristas view it as an opportunity to love them and treat them as if they paid $100.
“Seeing people amazed that they gave us almost no money, and we still loved on them makes me want to continue doing it. …When we take that outside of Side Track, and say that someone was to wrong me – say give me 50 cents–then it wouldn’t be wronging me. It would just be something. …To embrace everyone with love and care–it has definitely changed the course of my life and how I interact with people.”
“The Coolest Vibe”
Side Track is about great coffee and even better community. For David, being at Side Track is not so much working as it is spending time with friends and family and serving and meeting new people. He hopes people can be refreshed and grow from their experience at Side Track and can take it into their everyday lives.
“I get to stand behind that counter, and people get to come to me. I don’t have to go anywhere, and I get to love people…and care for people and listen to people and encourage them,”David said. “It has taken me a really long time to realize that I am blessed with that.”
David ultimately wants people that enter Side Track to see that there is intentionally behind everything. He wants them to leave asking, “Why did that feel so different?”
“Hopefully, that reason is because that person right there in that moment...was cared for as much as we could. …That’s totally the coolest vibe–to be loved on unconditionally,” David said. “The world would be a lot better place if people could realize, ‘Dang, I can bless people by loving and caring for them and serving them unconditionally. Whether it’s 50 cents or $100.”
Side Track Coffee brings an entirely different dynamic to the traditional, bustling coffee shop. Rarely can you walk into somewhere and immediately feel right at home then look around and see that everyone there does as well. In a time when people seem to be more focused on the things that divide us, Side Track manages to unite us with the one thing we all share–community.
Side Track Coffee serves its customers daily at 817 S. Railroad Ave. in Opelika, Alabama. Stop by for a coffee and join the community. Visit them at www.sidetrackcoffee.co, and follow them on Instagram @sidetrackcoffee.
