Grin Coffee Company brings a smile to Hattiesburg.
The smell of fresh roasted coffee permeates the building filled with crowds of friends and family in this small coffee venue located at 508 Broadway Dr.
Grin Coffee company is not a traditional coffee shop and owner Tommy Teepell said his shop doesn’t qualify for the title whatsoever.
“For us, it was important that the city of Hattiesburg understood the importance of coffee,” Teepell said. “Coffee is not just somewhere you go to get a fix. We want people to come and have a good cup of coffee, acknowledge it, and have good conversations as well.”
Mornings will find a brightly-lit counter with “Gertrude,” Teepell’s trusty roaster that sits center stage in the shop, chugging along roasting the very coffee customers indulge in when ordering a cup for themselves.
Teepell is always busy at the shop, customers or not – running deliveries, making coffee and working the bells and whistles of “Gertrude.” He frequently jumps from customer to machine and back like a wild man, laughingly admitting, “I’m not rude, I’m roasting,” to a lively guest.
Molly Evans, a music major at Southern Miss, said she found Grin through a Facebook group showing students where to go to “Become a Hattiesburger.”
“(Grin Coffee’s new shop) is really cute… It’s kind of small, but cozy,” Evans said.
“We love the idea that we are local,” Teepell said.“We want people to drink [our coffee] not because we are local, but because we are good and we are local. I don’t want [Hattiesburg locals] to feel obligated.”
The roastery, as Teepell calls it, is filled with calming music and the soft chatter of conversation. “I am extremely humbled that people enjoy our coffee,” Teepell said. “It’s a little overwhelming.”
Aaron Bermond, a Southern Miss grad student studying psychology, found Grin Coffee through his fiancée. She learned of Grin through the food truck Terrell once sold from.
“I’ve always wanted to roast my own coffee,” Bermond said. “It is really cool that they roast their own beans because a lot of places usually use preroasted.”
When asked why he gravitates toward coffee Bermond gave two responses. – “The joke answer is that it makes me not a cranky graduate student, but the real answer is I just like the taste. Coffee serves its purpose as a stimulant, but I just personally love the taste.”
Bermond said he likes the overall atmosphere of the shop. “It reminds me of different wineries I’ve been to because of the bar you can stand or sit around,” he said.
The response from customers about the new location has been positive thus far, and that makes a pleased owner.
“At the end of the day, we are just selling coffee,” Teepell said.
The shop is open from 7 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday and closed Saturday and Sunday.
