Our address is 22 Sheldon Ave NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503. The historic building is located on the grounds of Veterans Memorial Park in downtown Grand Rapids, across from the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum and the Apartment Lounge.

We are open Monday-Friday from 7AM-2PM, and on Saturday from 8AM-2PM. Over time, we hope to extend these hours and possibly even open on Sunday (if demand and staffing permits).

There is plenty of metered street parking surrounding the west, south, and eastern sides of Veterans Memorial Park. We’d recommend downloading the Motu Parking app beforehand to monitor your time from your phone.

The Kent District Library parking lot, which offers affordable parking rates, is also nearby.

If you’re really in a hurry and are just popping in to get a coffee and baked goods to go, there is a loading zone on Sheldon Avenue in front of the Children’s Museum.

We have an ongoing gift card that customers can contribute to and “reload” so that a veteran never has to buy their own cup of coffee. We also have gift cards available to give to others available in-store and (soon) to be sold online.

You can also DONATE with your preferred credit/debit card, Cash App, or Venmo to [HAS HEART] online, which will be directed towards our “Coffee For a Vet” campaign.

We are always looking for dedicated and passionate veterans, partners of veterans, and supporters of veterans to add to our small, but growing, team. Feel free to fill out a job application and/or contact us if you’re interested.

As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (EIN: 45-2609530), proceeds will go towards sustaining our organization (paying bills, keeping the lights on, coffee shop supplies/equipment, etc.), enabling our mission (continuing to share veterans’ stories through art & design, launching new projects and collaborative products, creating content that showcases our work), and supporting our small team of dedicated staff. Once we reach a point where are generating a profit, those funds will all be reinvested into expanding the impact of our organization within our local community and hopefully others across the country (one day).

None of this would have been possible without the shared vision, collaborative partnerships, and generous support of countless individuals and organizations, including but not limited to:

• Grand Rapids Parks and Recreation: $500,000
• Downtown Development Authority: $166,000
• Grand Rapids Community Foundation: $150,000
• Wege Foundation: $100,000
• EDP Foundation: $70,000
• Michigan Economic Development Corporation: $25,000
• Consumers Energy: $20,000
• DeVos Foundation: $20,000
• Frey Foundation: $20,000
• Michigan Arts & Culture Council: $15,000
• Home Depot Foundation: $10,000
• Anonymous Donor: $10,000
• Kent County Veterans Services: $5,000
• West Michigan Veterans Coalition: $5,000

To our knowledge, the building was built in 1935. But, before it was a building, it was just men’s and women’s restrooms built into the hillside in the late 1920’s or early 1930’s. The main floor was constructed on top of the original restrooms (which now form the basement and have the original tile that inspired our bathroom and entrance tile upstairs).

The building was originally home to the West Michigan Tourist & Resort Association. We believe it was later used as a recruiting station during World War II, but we don’t know much more about its use since then.

The last known use of the building (before we started utilizing it for our annual ArtPrize exhibits and pop-up shops) was annex offices for the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum in the 1990s and early 2000s.

We started planning the Coffee Shop with the GR Parks Department in 2016 before construction began in early 2023 before we opened our doors on Veterans Day, November 11, 2023.