During its 25 years in Winter Park, Austin’s Coffee has been a place where folks can enjoy fair trade coffee and local entertainment nightly. For artists it’s a place to practice their craft — even if that means painting the walls.
From the small, red clay bricks directly to the right of the front entrance to the large, gray cinder blocks in the restrooms at rear, artists and regular customers have used the building as their canvas.
But now the days may be numbered for the coffee shop and the Austin’s community that has found refuge and common cause within its colorful walls. The shop’s new landlord, the city of Winter Park, has set an Oct. 31 closure date and said it will likely raze the building at 929 W. Fairbanks Ave. by year’s end.
Winter Park has wanted the land for decades, in part to help relieve nasty traffic congestion at a nearby intersection.
Some fans still hope Austin’s can outlive the tumult. C. Robert Barnett, a shop manager, founded Friends of Austin’s Coffee last spring to raise money to relocate — and possibly buy — the business.
“It makes no sense to me why you would do this to a mom-and-pop business that’s been operating longer than almost any other business in the area,” said Barnett, an Austin’s regular for decades.
The nonprofit’s Save the Austin’s Art Community fundraiser is 6-10 p.m. Sunday at CityArts Gallery in downtown Orlando, 39 S. Magnolia Ave. Barnett said so far fundraising has brought in thousands of dollars but costs of relocating are still being determined.
During the Nov. 13 city commission meeting, Mayor Sheila DiCiccio explained that the owner of the land approached the city about buying it. She said otherwise it likely would have gone to a developer, also imperiling Austin’s.
The city purchased the acre of land beneath Austin’s and other businesses for $4 million but didn’t renew the shop’s lease, which was set to expire this fall. Austin’s is the closest business to the troublesome intersection. The city plans to add dedicated left-turn lanes (in both directions) from Fairbanks to Denning Drive. It also wants to expand Martin Luther King Jr. Park, improve drainage in an area which often floods in heavy rains, and beautify Lake Rose (created by a sinkhole).
“That intersection at Fairbanks and Denning is a mess,” DiCiccio said then. “It will also give us an opportunity to expand the park. We would like to have a walk all the way around Lake Rose.”
The property where Austin’s is located also includes the Chef Michael Collantes-owned and Michelin-starred Japanese restaurant Soseki, Bar Kada sake lounge and Perla’s Pizza — which opens Sept. 10 — as well as nail salon Nail Alchemy. Leases for Soseki and Bar Kada go until Dec. 31, 2028; Perla’s runs until Feb. 28, 2031 with extensions; and Nail Alchemy is until Feb. 28, 2028 with an extension.
The city said whether it will renew these leases when they expire is uncertain: “This is something we are exploring and will know better as we continue to develop the plans and design process for the property.”
Jackie Moore, co-owner of Austin’s, said that owners have found a property where it could reopen.
“We’re in the negotiation phase with the landlord and we just hope we can get everything done fast and efficiently,” Moore said, adding she supports the nonprofit buying the business if it means the doors open back up at a new location.
As far as the artwork, she said the city has told the owners they can remove anything they wish to preserve: “If it’s feasibly doable then I think it should be done, if not by me by anybody in the community.”
Austin’s has built its community in part through the regular live performances it’s been home to for decades, Barnett said, with five art communities taking its stage weekly: Comedy night is Sunday, hip-hop night is Monday, folk music nights are Tuesday and Friday, poetry night is Wednesday and jazz night is Thursday (featuring Rollins College and University of Central Florida players). It also offers breakfast all day along with salads, sandwiches, flatbread pizza and light bites. In the rear are shelves filled with board games, books and colored pencils for those looking for diversions.
During Wednesday night’s monthly poetry slam contest it was standing-room only. The lively crowd cheered and finger-snapped to laud poets — and sometimes booed judges for how they scored them.
Raymond Jimenez first heard of Austin’s from a friend almost 20 years and became a regular. The Central Florida poet, ceramicist and sculptor hosted the poetry competition.
“Poetry can be messy at times, poetry can be imperfect,” Jimenez said. “There are people who are trying things for the first time, there are people who’ve been there a long time.
“You want the opportunity to have all those voices together because you never know when you’re going to stumble upon something of you’re just going to stumble.”
Anayzia Dawkins, a Winter Park resident who competed in the poetry slam, said she’s been coming to Austin’s since November and credits it with helping grow her aplomb as a poet and musician.
She described the current shop’s closing as bittersweet, saying there is great potential if it can move to a new location.
“Even though it won’t be the same building, it’s still going to be the same energy, the people and the community and that’s what matters,” Dawkins said.