New coffee shop to open in former Campus West Starbucks space in Fort Collins

A Campus West corner is going back to its coffee shop roots later this summer.

Just Love Coffee Cafe, a Nashville-born coffee franchise, will open its latest Colorado location at 1335 W. Elizabeth St. in Fort Collins later this year, according to mother-daughter franchisees Cindy Richards and Jordan Ingram. The coffee shop is taking over the space formerly occupied by Starbucks, which shuttered the Campus West location amid companywide mass closures in the spring of 2020.

Richards, a longtime Fort Collins resident, said she and her daughter, Ingram, have been interested in opening their own business for years. After settling on a coffee shop, they started looking at various franchises and found Just Love Coffee Cafe.

"We pretty much just fell in love with it as the name implies," Richards told the Coloradoan Monday.

The story behind Just Love Coffee Cafe

Just Love Coffee Cafe dates back to 2009 when its founders Rob and Emily Webb — then the recent adoptive parents of two children from Ethiopia — decided to use their small hand-roasted coffee business to help families fundraise to offset adoption expenses. The business expanded with multiple Nashville locations and is now in 16 states, according to its website.

Just Love Coffee Cafe encourages its franchisees to adopt a philanthropic cause. While they haven't yet identified specific organizations to partner with, Richards said she and Ingram have previously been involved with the National Alliance on Mental Illness and hope to help causes centered around mental health and mental wellness.

"For us, it's a business and obviously we want to be successful, but we also want to be part of the community," Richards said.

"We want to be helpful in the community and try to do as much outreach as we can," Ingram said, adding that the shop is also considering selling local artwork and hosting open mic nights.

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What is a womelette?

Just Love Coffee Cafe serves up coffee made from beans roasted in its Nashville facility. It also offers breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner, with a waffle-iron-centric menu that includes a waffle-meets-omelet creation known as a "womelette," artisan waffles and iron-cooked breakfast biscuits, burritos, sandwiches and wraps, according to the chain's website.

When is Just Love Coffee Cafe opening?

Richards and Ingram said the West Elizabeth Street space is undergoing a major renovation, with the project including the demolition of existing walls and partitions and the creation of a new kitchen and bar area, according to building permit application submitted to the city of Fort Collins.

With that work already underway, Richards said she and Ingram are hoping to open the coffee shop around late August.

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This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: New coffee shop to open in former Starbucks space in Fort Collins