LAFAYETTE, Ind. — For the coffee lovers in Lafayette, the arrival of the Eleventh House coffeeshop to the downtown ecosystem may be received as some of the most significant news to cross their feed in a while.
For those new to Eleventh House, it’s an eccentric coffee shop that services uniquely flavored coffee, crafted espresso and bagel sandwiches.
The owner of Eleventh House, Gianna Hartman, hopes to open her new location at 116 N 3rd St., where Honeybaked Café once operated, by the end of August or the beginning of September.
Currently, it is housed in The Spot Tavern, where it operates during the day prior to the bar’s operating hours.
The transition from an obscure coffee shop hidden away on South 4th street to a full fledge storefront was a multiyear endeavor.
The coffee shop initially started off as a pop-up event held at The Spot Tavern every Friday in late 2019.
The owner of The Spot, Paul Baldwin, approached Hartman asking if she would want to utilize the space of during the day and pursue her passion for coffee.
Hartman jumped at the idea, and in late 2019, Hartman and her team held their first pop-up.
Due to the small scale of her business, Hartman had to overcome several limitations, which ended up leading to Eleventh House’s creativity.
“We didn’t have an espresso machine at that point, so we were using an AreoPress and we were just using a really concentrated shot with that and warm oat milk,” Hartman said.
“Because I knew we couldn’t get good texture, so we put a focus on bold flavors.”
This limitation led to the Eleventh House creating their iconic drinks such as “Good Karma, ” a latte made with Chinese five spice, their house mocha, and the sweet potato latte.
“Word got out that we had these crazy latte flavors, so people started coming in, and it was pretty good every Friday,” said Hartman,” and then COVID hit.”
“We stopped during COVID and picked up again about a month into COVID. We moved to doing cold brew pop-ups to the patio.”
Continuing on their trend of offering unique flavors, cold brew coffee came in different flavors, such as banana bread and and one resembling a Creamsicle.
After several months of success, Hartman decided to officially open the Eleventh House full time in August 2020.
Adding sandwiches, experimenting with lattes
For the next two years, Hartman and her team expanded their menu to include sandwiches and continued to create experimental lattes and cold brew, but in late 2022, Hartman knew it was time to move.
That’s when she discovered that the property on Third Street was available, and after getting ahold of the property manager, she was hoping to move in by the end of 2022.
Unfortunately for Hartman, that didn’t happen.
After months of delays, Hartman hopes to move her business into the downtown location by the beginning of September.
Aiming for a smooth transition, Hartman will be keeping the menu the same. But after the team becomes comfortable with the new location and flow of the business, Hartman hopes to then expand Eleventh House’s menu.
Noe Padilla is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email him at Npadilla@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter at 1NoePadilla.
