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Matt Starnes, Café Jude’s
My entire life, I’ve loved this building. I always wanted to be here. I always wanted to live in the apartment upstairs – which we do now. So it’s kind of a dream come true.
Rachel and I bought Jude’s Coffee Company about five years ago from friends. It was still pretty new, just about a year old. The name was already in place, and we loved it, so we kept it. The original owner named it after her grandmother, Judy or Judith, who went by Jude. Funny enough, in college, my nickname was Jude – people told me I looked like Jude Law.
When we moved downtown, we had already expanded the food side of things as much as we could at our old location. The name “Jude’s Coffee Company” didn’t really fit everything we did anymore, so we rebranded as Café Jude’s. We still have our original drink menu, but now we offer so much more.
This building has always stood out to me. It’s different from anything else downtown – stately, with those big, heavy stone blocks. The stone facade isn’t original. It was added in 1927 when the building became a bank. But my whole life, when I walked past it, it just caught my eye.
I grew up here in Lebanon – born and raised. When I moved back, I first lived in an apartment above Larry’s Barber Shop on Madison Street. I loved that space, the huge windows, the big tree outside. Now, we live above the café, and because of that, we rarely close. Even on snow days, we open. We don’t have an excuse not to – we just live upstairs.
Seeing downtown come to life has been my favorite part. People were worried when we moved, thinking we’d lose visibility, but foot traffic downtown is even better than car traffic. People spend the day here now. Even on a random Monday morning, you’ll see people walking the sidewalks, browsing.
Every time a new business opens, downtown gets better. I always wanted to be here, and now I get to live and work in the place I love.
Read about Café Jude’s on their website: https://www.cafejudes.com/
