Docent Coffee and Cold Beer Bring Craft Coffee and (Fast) Fare to the Atlanta BeltLine Oct. 16
Atlanta BeltLine-adjacent office workers and residents, along with walkers and runners, will soon have a new place to satisfy their craving for fast-crafted coffee, sandwiches and pastries when Atlanta-based specialty roaster Docent Coffee teams up with Chef Kevin Gillespie’s Cold Beer to create a walk-up coffee shop, opening Saturday, Oct. 16. This limited-time offering is one of several steps Gillespie is taking to assure Cold Beer is providing what Atlantans in that area want.
The DOCENT x CB fast-crafted concept aims at combining the convenience, speed and relative affordability of fast food with the unique, creative and quality-driven nature of the craft food and beverage space. Occupying Cold Beer’s existing walk-up bar area, located under its covered/heated patio area overlooking the eastside BeltLine trail, the new concept will serve Docent’s full coffee and tea program as well as a curated menu of grab ‘n go breakfast and lunch fare crafted by Gillespie and his team. The shop will be open Wednesday-Friday 7 a.m.-2 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 8 a.m.-3 p.m.
Fans of either Docent or Gillespie will not be disappointed with the new digs and offerings. On the coffee front, Docent will have a full-scale program offering all of the traditional specialty coffee classics (drip, espresso, americanos, cortados, cappuccinos, lattes, etc.) as well as a couple of non-traditional drinks such as frozen iced coffee and boozy Irish coffee slushie. And of course, DOCENT x CB also will be offering Cold Beer’s extensive beers on tap all day.
With regards to the food, Gillespie’s deliciously crafted feel-good recipes are on full display. Breakfast items such as the bacon waffle wrap with salted pecans and apple butter, homemade cinnamon rolls and the chicken chorizo breakfast burrito are just a few of the all-day breakfast items being served. Additionally, lunch items like homemade paninis and his signature C.O.S. (Closed On Sunday) chicken sandwich also will be offered.
“Substance is our Style” is the phrase that adorns the back of every bag of Docent coffee sold, and for owners Nolan Hall and Jeff Richards, it is the ethos by which they approach the craft and run their company. They feel the true metric for great coffee lies almost solely in how it tastes, not how it trends, which is why they’ve teamed up with Kevin Gillespie, who they feel is their culinary equivalent in this regard.
“Docent’s approach to coffee is almost the same as mine with food. So it just made sense to work with each other to bring something different to the BeltLine,” says Gillespie, who tapped Docent back in 2019 to provide coffee for his restaurants (and develop his own signature blend) after being impressed with the quality of the coffee and the founders’ approach. “We both feel that great coffee and great food shouldn’t be relegated to just snobby slow-serve establishments.”
Named for volunteers who help guide guests through museums and art galleries, Docent’s goal is to guide all ilk of coffee drinkers toward the world of premium specialty coffee—without the pretense. Its origins began from the owners’ individual humble desires of developing a coffee brand that is almost solely fixated on the quality of its products, while openly rebuking the many (and varied) industry clichés and stereotypes they believe distract and disenchant the public from being more educated and aware of the craft itself. “Our coffees are black-tie affairs you can attend in your sweats,” Richards states.
“We want to prove to people that delicious well-crafted coffee and food can be had in the same amount of time you sit in a drive-thru for something that’s far less appealing and that you don’t have to sacrifice quality for convenience,” says Richards.
While Cold Beer’s patio and adjacent beer garden seating will be available to patrons during the hours of operation, the concept is geared more toward those looking to quickly grab a coffee or a bite to eat on the way into work, and/or as they continue their journey down the BeltLine toward their final destination. How quickly? Richards anticipates that no order will take greater than a few minutes to complete (barring an unexpected/unusual rush of customers).