Recess Coffee & Baked Goods- Black Mountain, North Carolina

Despite feeling completely overwhelmed to where I think words may not suffice, I will do my best to try.

Starting with a little bit of a back story.

In 2016, I was hired at a specialty coffee shop in Arvada, CO called Two Rivers. It was my first job since giving birth to our first child, and I was excited and nervous to jump back into working with a newborn at home.
Once I started getting back into the swing of things, Two Rivers really gave birth to my desire to pursue more within the specialty coffee industry. I ended up competing in the US Coffee Champs competition representing Two Rivers in 2017, in addition to various coffee competitions.
Fast forward to the last few months of my time at Two Rivers, came Harrison Jones.
What made me instantly like this guy was his inherent ability to make anyone feel at ease around him. He was always happy, and not the “fake-a-smile” kind; he genuinely exuded joy. He was also a really hard worker, and was never opposed to learning or being taught.

After my family and I moved to Nashville, Harrison and I kept in touch via social media. A few years later, he got married to Lexi, and I was able to continue keeping up with their ventures online.

In January, Harrison and Lexi announced the beginnings of their coffee and bake shop in Black Mountain, North Carolina. They were going to serve Sweet Bloom Coffee, which was the shop that merged with Two Rivers. For the next few weeks, I watched intently as they shared sneak peeks before their opening on Leap Day, February 29th, 2024.

A couple days after opening, we were supposed to be driving through Black Mountain on a road trip, and I decided to reach out and see if I could come take pictures. The trip ended up falling through, but we stayed in touch as the months went on until September when we began to plan another trip through. We booked for the weekend of October 12th.

On Friday, September 27th, Hurricane Helene washed through Black Mountain and the surrounding areas. Thankfully, Harrison and Lexi as well as Recess, were primarily unaffected except for running water. While some could have just rested in the fact that they weren’t severely impacted by the storm, Harrison and Lexi dove in to helping the community that they were now a part of. Recess became a save haven for victims of Helene, they took truck loads of supplies back and forth from Charlotte, and provided peace amidst a literal storm.

We postponed the photo shoot till December, and if you couldn’t tell already, I was SO excited to see the place and the people that I had been watching online for so long, in the flesh.

To say it was everything and more would be a massive understatement, but I can’t think of any other way to describe it. Harrison and Lexi, thank you so much for inviting me into the space that you worked so hard to build. I am so honored to know you, and we will be back ASAP.

If you haven’t been to Recess Coffee & Baked Goods yet, this is your sign.