Cookeville’s Poet’s Coffee recently opened a Tennessee Tech location, believed to be the first-ever local business to locate on campus.
Owner Jeremy Crabtree said he never expected to get such an opportunity but the entire Tech community has been supportive of the new location. Crabtree said it is exciting to be able to provide a relaxing environment in the university’s library where students can study and socialize.
“Poet’s has kind of allowed them to kind of create kind of this, we talk about it quite a bit, a third place where they’re either at home or they’re at school and where’s that third place they’re going to hang out,” Crabtree said. “So Poet’s has kind of become a hub for them to hang out and talk.”
Crabtree said his team is looking at ways to set up more seating outside the coffee shop to further improve the space. Crabtree said the new location can entice potential students touring the university and create a space for members of the local community who regularly walk through campus.
“It’s been a great thing for Tech to bring in a community coffee shop and for Cookeville to see a local business partnering with Tech,” Crabtree said.
Crabtree said the university reached out to him with the idea to open a Poet’s Coffee on campus early last year. Crabtree said the new location had its soft opening in late January and will have a ribbon cutting officially celebrating the grand opening Wednesday.
“We were not prepared for the response that we would get,” Crabtree said. “It’s been extremely, extremely busy. We’ve had to kind of beef up staffing just to kind of cover the influx of customers and college students that we’re having. And so it’s been fun and really exciting.”
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