FAST FACTS
The Meeting House What is it? A coffee shop and cafe, Monday through Saturday. On Sunday it becomes Red Bank Chapel, with services at 10 a.m. and, beginning this weekend, 5:30 p.m. It's also the pick-up location for Anvil Crash Pad Rentals. Where is it? 3912 Dayton Blvd., Red Bank
Red Bank didn't have the most welcoming vibe when Mayor John Roberts got elected about five years ago. The sliver of a city that sidles up to growth-charged Chattanooga was "anti-business, anti-just-about-everything," as Roberts tells it.
A lot has improved since then, the fruits of which can be seen in at least one case-in-point: The Meeting House, located on Dayton Boulevard in the oldest building in town and one of the oldest business districts in the area.
This cafe-turned-church-on-Sundays opened in December, part of Mission Chattanooga, the same parent organization as downtown Chattanooga's Camp House. The Meeting House becomes the Red Bank Chapel during times of worship, the inside outfitted interchangeably for coffee sipping and Bible reading. The same goes for Camp House, the popular daytime eatery and hangout that becomes the City Center Chapel on Sundays.
When Roberts got word that organizers wanted to open a coffee shop in Red Bank, he got to work straight away making connections and introductions. The space got built out last summer, the middle section of a short red-faced row of bricks along Dayton Boulevard near Morrison Springs Road. The Meeting House space had once been a drugstore/hardware store and later an athletic store and storage for an antique shop.
It's a key location, Roberts said, in the middle of Red Bank's newly created "central business district," which is still getting ironed out but got set up in January. And a coffee shop is one kind of business Roberts has on a short list of business types he wanted to see in town.
"It's a place to gather, it's a place to be social, it's a place to network," he said. "Coffee has become more of a cool thing. In the '30s and '40s you'd see people go to a bar and get a martini."
Pastor Al Alison, who came on board in 2013 specifically to plant the Red Bank Chapel, credits the collaboration for things taking off on his end. So does Ben Loderhose, The Meeting House's general manager, who is focusing on supporting local small businesses and cultivating an outdoors link to the coffee house.
"Red Bank is trying to make a comeback, but hasn't gone after one specific thing," he said. "We had dreamed up being a big part of creating culture here in Red Bank through music and the outdoors."
The Meeting House regularly hosts musical acts. On the outdoors front, local online startup company, Anvil Crash Pad Rentals, calls the space home, insofar as storing its bouldering crash pads and meeting its customers from around the country there to hand off pads. Anvil founder Brian Tannler, a rock climber who happens to be sponsored by Mayfly Coffee, launched his company early this year, renting high-quality Organic crash pads to travelers who otherwise would bring their own bulky pads with them.
The Meeting House also is committed to supporting local roasters, Loderhose said, and showcases two: Velo and Mayfly. A cup costs $2 with tax. There's no other local, specialty coffee in the vicinity. For that, you have to go to Chattanooga, part of the reason he has taken seriously the task of getting his staff to lightly engage customers in learning about the roasters and where the coffee beans come from (a family of four in Nicaragua, for one Mayfly brand, he said).
Loderhose also is hoping to enhance Red Bank's dining scene. To that end, he's working toward offering dinner a few nights, the kind that would work nicely for a date.
So far, The Meeting House has helped changed the atmosphere, Roberts said. "We knew people would come no matter what. It could have a ripple effect."
Contact staff writer Mitra Malek at mmalek@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6406. Follow her on Twitter @MitraMalek.