Gathering Grounds is a popular business in Osceola

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - Here’s another example of how a couple with ties to a small town, made the decision to return home to open a unique business and find success.

We talked with Steve Davis about his business “Gathering Grounds Coffeehouse” that has been open for a about a year on the southeast corner of the courthouse square in Osceola. He is a native of the community, and his wife Annette is from Omaha. As you might imagine, the coffee business is getting rave reviews.

“This is one of the original buildings to Osceola,” Davis said. “It dates back to the late 1800′s. When I was a child growing up here, it was a grocery store called Red & White.” The sign of the old grocery store sill hangs on the coffeehouse wall. That store closed in 1995. “When my wife and I moved back here in 2015, we started talking to the mayor about this space, and about the possibility of acquiring it and opening a coffee shop,” Davis said. “One thing led to another, and in the fall of 2019, we did acquire the building, and then we started the renovation project, which took us a year.”

The interior features exposed brick, a distressed look, but also a modern feel. “When we got the space, we wanted to retain as much of the original look as we could,” Davis said. “So, where the stucco was loose, we knocked it off the walls, and where it was solid, we kept it. And we incorporated some cedar into the mix, as a modern feature to complement the old looks. We had a great contractor that had a good vision, and helped us through a lot of that.”

Davis says he’s been thinking about a coffee business for a while now. “My wife has always had an espresso machine,” Davis said. “That’s how it kind of got started. Every morning we’d start off our day with a latte, and it’s always been in the back of our minds that having our own coffee shop and a gathering place where people felt warm and welcome, would be something we’d want to do. Most recently we’d been living in the Phoenix area, and it’s wasn’t practical there for us. But once we came back to Osceola, we really wanted to have a chance to save an old building that was in disrepair. It’s been a dream for many years.”

“I think a common problem in small towns in Nebraska, is buildings that are vacant,” Davis said. “They fall into disrepair. At the other end of this block, we actually had another building that ended up having to be torn down. There’s a pocket park there now, but the town didn’t need another pocket park. So, when we had the chance to renovate this building and create a gathering spot, it turned out to be a win-win situation.”

Gathering Grounds offers a wide variety of Osceola memorabilia on the walls, along with old signs, and of course, a wide selection of coffees. “We have all of the traditional coffee drinks, lattes, frappes, and iced drinks,” Davis said. “We also have a local person who bakes pastries for us. As far as coffee shops go, we can do almost anything. And the local support has been fantastic.”

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