Story by Abbey Stoetzel
You might’ve noticed a new coffee shop location on your Instagram timeline showing up in Lee’s Summit lately.
Post Coffee Company is a new coffee shop that has become a fast hit.The company was started by Levi Holland and Tanner Stevens, who have always wanted to start a business together.
“Post got started when Tanner and I wanted to do a business together but also do something that mattered in a community working together so he had started a coffee shop in Downtown KC,” said Holland. “I was a youth pastor in New York and we were close friends before I moved away and we had always kept that in the back of our brains that we would want to do something together one day and it just happened to come a little sooner than later.”
Once they knew they wanted to make coffee together, a name was needed. Deciding what they wanted the coffee shop to be like helped develop the name, and Post Coffee Company was born.
“The meaning comes from the picture of an actual fence post; something that’s rooted in the ground, rooted into place; that other things can connect to and it provides support and stability to everything around it so we wanted to be that as a business, as a place, as just a separate community for the community so that people had a place to go to conversate,” said Holland. “The Chipman Commons had a place where all these businesses can gather together, hold meetings, and kind of be a place where other people could exchange ideas and a place they could feel they belong knowing that you don’t have to go into the city if you’re looking for that bit. We’re bringing that experience to Lee’s Summit as well.”
“The menu is very simple and elegant. It’s also very cheap and affordable. Free wifi and lots of seats gives a perfect atmosphere for work and a nice place to talk with friends,” said Junior Austin Vogt, who visits Post Coffee often.
The Post Coffee shop has only been open a few weeks, but the company has been serving coffee since last summer.
“In July, we started roasting coffee, brewing it, tasting it, sampling it,” said Holland. “And we found something we really liked and started selling it at the Farmer’s Market on Wednesdays in Downtown Lee’s Summit and eventually moved to Saturdays in the fall and that’s where we feel like we really established our presence as people and as a business in Lee’s Summit simply just by having conversations at a pop-up stand at a Farmer’s Market.”
West graduate Montana Rex works at Post Coffee, and said he likes working there because it bridges the gap between the coffee farmers and the customer.
“I get to help people learn about and experience great quality coffee,” said Rex. “When I began my coffee career it was about making drinks taste great. Then I learned that it was about making people happy. But then, I learned that it was all about making peoples lives better and cultivating culture. So I guess my favorite part about working at Post is being able to cultivate culture while enriching lives through an integrity filled coffee experience.”
What the company wants is to be a place that people can come to and feel at home.
“I want them to experience first, hospitality. I want them to feel like they’re having an excellent coffee experience because we care about our product,” said Holland. “We don’t just care about the environment. We care about what we’re actually serving. Hopefully people can just find us as part of their daily routine or a special place they can come. Just to feel welcomed in a place; without pretension. If they want to order something fancy and feel fancy, they can do that. If they want to order their normal everyday cup of coffee, they can do that too. Hopefully no one feels out of place is kind of what we wanted to do.”
Vogt describes it as a coffee shop that would appear on the TV show “Portlandia.”
“It’s very calm and peaceful there, very artistic. It’s real coffee, like with little fancy flavoring but strong, yet not black coffee,” said Vogt.
For the future, Post Coffee wants to continue their success in the cafe experience, but also get their wholesale business off the ground.
“Our wholesale business will hopefully take off where we can distribute our product not only in places in Kansas City but around the Midwest, and heading to East Coast and West Coast, wherever people want coffee. Hopefully it stands up to anybody’s coffee. We’re hoping our wholesale grows,” said Holland.
Rex sees Post Coffee being a staple in Lee’s Summit.
“I see us not just being a coffee shop but a leader in bringing things like community gardens, bookstores, doughnut shops, record stores, and other things to Lee’s Summit,” said Rex. “A thing that is very important to us is coffee education. So be ready to see coffee classes start up that will be open to all ages. I see Post Coffee Company and it’s customers working together to make Lee’s Summit a better place to live.”
For updates on Post Coffee Company, you can follow them on Instagram: @postcoffecompany
