Indy Indie Coffee Shops

Several years ago, I created a Google Map for Indianapolis Indie Coffee Shops. I even purchased the domain, IndyIndieCoffee.com. I haven’t contributed to it in a couple of years, so if you know of any shops that have opened or closed, please let me know. Better yet, if you live in the Indianapolis area, and would like to become the editor of this map, let me know. I’d be happy to set you up with this.

These are fairly easy to create for your own city. Find coffee shops in your local city, save them to a particular map and make sure you only find locally-owned or non-Big Chain Coffee shops. No gas stations, no restaurants that serve coffee. Cafes, coffee shops, and bistros are ideal. If a company owns more than one shop, that’s okay. We just don’t want large corporations that have thousands of shops around the world.

If you make your own map, let me know, and I’ll be happy to embed it here.

Coffee Shop Stories: Lulu’s Coffee and Bakehouse

As part of Indie Coffee Shop Day, we’re inviting independent coffee houses from around the country to send in their story and a little note about themselves. Our very first entry is Lulu’s Coffee and Bakehouse on the northwest side of Indianapolis.

My husband and I purchased Lulu’s Electric Cafe about 11 years ago. We had operated a deli and catering company for five years, and thought a coffee shop and bakery would partner well with it. We moved just a few blocks west a little over two years ago, renamed it Lulu’s Coffee and Bakehouse, and changed the menu up a bit.

We now have a comfortable, third place hang out with lots of food and beverage options. It is a beautiful, cozy, and welcoming facility. We were food specialists when we purchased Lulu’s initially, and the food menu grew. However, the coffee didn’t.

We have been researching and educating ourselves over the last several years to move into the third wave of coffee. The Indy Coffee Association, Coffee Fest, and Caffeine Crawl have all been great resources. We offer a full espresso bar with all the common drink choices, breakfast options, a full lunch menu, grandma’s pies, even tea parties for 2.

Some of our signature drinks include: a delicious Traditional Italian Cappuccino. It is 3oz of Espresso and 3oz of deliciously sweet steamed milk, our Iced Toddy Coffee, and our Loose Leaf Teas. You can now expect latte art on all hot drinks. This is incredibly important, because you can only produce art with quality steamed milk.

We are also, one of the only shops in town that offer multi midwest roasters. We buy beans from multiple roasters here in Indy, as well as, Louisville, Illinois, and Michigan. We currently offer these coffees in whole bean sales, and as a single extraction from an Aeropress. We will soon be offering up a Clever Dripper brew method as well. We will be rolling out our summer drinks in the next couple of weeks.

If you have any questions or need any more info just let us know. You can also check out www.facebook.com/luluscoffee and www.luluscandb.com. We are extremely active on Facebook.

Steve and Tiffany
Lulu’s Coffee +Bakehouse
2292 West 86th St.
Indianapolis, IN 46260