Mudhouse in the media
May/June 2016
This month Roast Magazine profiled John & Lynelle Lawrence, the owners of Mudhouse Coffee Roasters, in its feature on family owned roaster businesses “Family Matters: The Joys and Challenges of Working with Family.” A small excerpt:
One of the greatest benefits of working with family is the ability to share your passion.
“It’s something you care so much about,” says Lynelle Lawrence, who owns Mudhouse Coffee Roasters, based in Charlottesville, Virginia, with her husband John. “If I weren’t able to share it with the person I care most about, it would be very strange.”
You can read the full article here in pdf.
Some Nice Things People Have Said
“Voted Best Coffee…”
—Cville Weekly award from 1996-2015
“The local crowd that you’ll see lining up at places like…Mudhouse coffee, runs the gamut. There are sober-suited bankers and lawyers, antiquing ladies of leisure, wizened elderly gentlemen taking the sun, tattooed Web gurus, cell-phoned-chatting businesspeople and the girl dressed mostly in feathers who floated past me…”
–The Washington Post
“Best Places to Get Found: Once you’ve settled into Charlottesville, you’re unlikely to do any of the following without seeing familiar faces…pose with a grande latte and journal at the Mudhouse.”
–Outside Magazine
“Ten BEST Coffeehouses across the US: 1. It’s not surprising to find a busy shop in a university town, but it’s much rarer to find good coffee, Deferio says. Mudhouse has both. It has the local art and the quintessential coffeehouse feel — and they have amazing coffee.”
—USA Today
“The Mudhouse, a cafe in Charlottesville, Virginia that employs the pierced, tattooed and generally bohemian, is not the kind of place where you pay for your mocha with a $100 bill. To do so would be to invite a sneer that says, “‘Why not just go to Starbucks, you corporate asshole?’ To do so if you’re Dave Matthews, whose band got its start fourteen years ago playing gigs at a tiny restaurant a few miles away, would be even more gauche. This is a fact of which Matthews is well aware, and when he opened his wallet on a balmy mid-May morning and saw that the only currency it contained was the Benjamin he’d been given as his per diem a few nights earlier, he panicked. “I had to borrow five dollars from my daughters’ nanny,” he says in a deep, gravelly monotone. And five dollars barely covered his mocha, which he takes with four shots of espresso.”
–Rolling Stone
Top 10 Things to Do (if you’re in Charlottesville)…”#4 Mudhouse. A gourmet, Wi-Fi coffee shop in the heart of the downtown mall…”
–Virginia Pilot and Ledger Star
“The Mudhouse Cafe in Charlottesville, VA, is one of the city’s most frequented downtown establishments, offering a menu that features gourmet coffees and fresh pastries…[Mudhouse] has become quite successful.”
–Nation’s Business
“The Mudhouse. Must…not…sit…on…sofa. Too late. I am here for the rest of the afternoon, if not the decade. Also here for a spell, in Mudhouse’s cozy, often crowded space at the west end of Charlottesville’s ever-bustling downtown pedestrian mall, are more than a few young people with really interesting hair or pierced what-have-yous, plus at least seven laptops and a table of tweedy professor-looking guys. So Mudhouse has arguably the most diverse clientele and one of the best locations of all of C-ville’s coffee bars…Mudhouse is usually ranked among the city’s top three or four coffee bars.”
–The Washington Post
“These days, when you think about a coffeehouse, words like quick, coffee, espresso, latte come to mind. You don’t generally consider a coffeehouse an arts community center that offers opportunities for painters, poets, musicians, filmmakers, arts exhibits, poetry slams, concerts and miniature film festivals. You especially don’t think that the owner of a coffeehouse is going to walk, unsolicited, through the front door of your non-profit and hand you a donation. Well, that’s the kind of place the Mudhouse coffeehouse and espresso bar is. And that is exactly what co-owner John Lawrence recently did…But this was just the start of building this collaborative relationship with the Mudhouse…Thanks to the Mudhouse…we are continuing to build partnerships throughout the community that will allow us to provide affordable housing to those who need it most.”
–The Blueprint
“Mudhouse Coffee: These baristas make a mean cappuccino”.
–The Washington Post
“The Mudhouse cafe earned the distinction of becoming the first cybercafe in the southeast when it opened its doors in October 1995. The charming cafe combines the relaxing atmosphere of a coffeehouse, serving local coffees and pastries baked on site, with a high-speed internet connection at a workspace the owners, Lynelle and John Lawrence, created specifically for the cafe. The cybercafe also features live music and Thursday night ‘poetry slams’ for their diverse clientele. Located on the picturesque main street pedestrian mall in Charlottesville, VA…the Mudhouse has become the central meeting place and place for doing business, for the city’s government officials, lawyers, business owners and students. The atmosphere created at the Mudhouse is a dream realized for the Lawrences.”
–SCORE Today
“The natural next step (from the coffee cart) was the Mudhouse, Charlottesville’s premier coffeehouse which opened in 1995. Being of forward thinking spirit, the Lawrences saw this need as an opportunity to have their business grow…”
–Business to Business
“Mudhouse serves light fare and local art with the coffee. The owners of Mudhouse operated an outdoor espresso stand for a couple of years at the east end of the Downtown Mall and the city market on the weekends. But setting up a coffeehouse in a permanent location ‘was our goal all along,’ John Lawrence said. A row of church pews runs along one wall…people of all ages com in…certain barriers aren’t there…it’s not, this is my table…that’s one of the nice things about a coffeehouse.”
–The Daily Progress
“Best Hangout: Charlottesville. Mudhouse coffeeshop on the Downtown Mall brews the city’s best java.”
–Bon Appetit
“Early Saturday you can map your itinerary with a fat muffin and a cup of C-ville’s best cup of coffee at Mudhouse in the Downtown Mall’s west end.”
–Cottage Living
“Located in historic downtown Charlottesville, the Mudhouse opened its doors in the fall…the Mudhouse is quickly becoming a habitual haunt for some of Charlottesville’s glitterati…actress Sissy Spacek, members of the Dave Matthews Band, poet Charles Wright and author John Casey visit, as well as students, business leaders, retirees and digital hipsters. The Lawrences attribute much of their success to more than three years of research and meticulous planning.”
–The Richmond Times-Dispatch
