Love Local: New Apotheos Roastery Brings Midtown Together One Sip at a Time
Coffee means connection. And the Hughes family has something fun to offer in Midtown.
09/21/2023
BY BRIAN CARR
The executive team at Common Grounds Coffee House LLC sees the role that coffee plays in bringing people together. That's why this fast-growing, local, family-run business chose to land their newest Apotheos Roastery location in Midtown Atlanta. Their focus on serving a quality cup of coffee, creating a community give-back and getting better every day is central to their mission.
We spoke with Luke Hughes about how the Apotheos Roastery Midtown location is poised to become your next gathering spot.
Coffee = Connection
The Hughes family is building a fun concept in metro Atlanta predicated on a simple truth: coffee is a great way to bring people together.
“Often when you're trying to get to know someone, the first thing you say is, ‘Hey, let's go grab a cup of coffee,’” said Luke Hughes, Chief Experience Officer at Kennesaw-based Common Grounds Coffee House LLC. “So that's the backbone of the company.”
Makes sense. And we all know that your choices for where to sit down over that cuppajoe are plentiful in this city. So, why choose theirs? For Hughes, it starts with the meaning behind the name over the counter.
The name “Apotheos” comes from the Latin apotheosis, which means to achieve a divine status.
The way we use it is that we're always looking to be better,” Hughes said of the Apotheos Roastery brand name that adorns his family’s growing number of stores. He added that the head roaster brings more than 20 years of experience to his craft.
“We want to be a little bit better at coffee each day,” he added. “We want the roast to get a little bit better every time. We're always seeking that perfection. So the brand name was to remind ourselves that the standard's there today, but it goes higher tomorrow.”
Midtown Bound, Expansion-Minded
These are heady times for this relative newcomer to the local coffee scene. You’ll find Apotheos brewing in Midtown inside the Elevance Health building lobby at West Peachtree and 4th Streets, as well as at the roastery HQ in Kennesaw. And the news recently dropped that retailer Wal-Mart has struck a deal to bring Apotheos coffee shops into six of their metro Atlanta locations later this year.
The Midtown location opened in the spring. And according to Hughes, the decision to be in Midtown was easy to make.
“We understand that Midtown is a very vibrant corner of the city,” said Hughes. “It’s where people want to be. There’s foot traffic among residents and workers that leads inside our coffee shop, and we can get them together over a nice cup of coffee.”
Hughes described the advantages of being in lobby of the Elevance building, beginning with the built-in customer base of their workforce. He added that his team was adamant on needing direct access off sidewalk to show the people in the Midtown community walking by that they could come in as well.
According to Hughes, the sales activity is heavier on Tuesdays through Thursdays, following the current pattern of office work as many employers nearby are on hybrid work schedules. But Apotheos Roastery has found ways to lean into the schedule with specials that draw crowds.
Try the friscuit.
Several approaches to the menu and offerings set the Midtown location apart.
“It's all about no upcharges,” Hughes said about the pricing structure. “We offer craft lattes however you want them. You can add espresso. You can add more flavors. You can make it hot, cold. There's no upcharge. It's $5 for a 16 ounce latte.”
And if you are seeking out some yummy pastry to go with your brew, Apotheos Roastery invites you to try their “friscuit.” It’s biscuit dough, rolled out like an empanada, and filled with sweet or savory goodies. There’s the classic bacon egg and cheese, a turkey bacon ranch, and a strawberry goat cheese version.
“It’s an endless little creation we've made,” said Hughes, adding that the company owns a bakery in Marietta to produce all the baked goods in-house.
So in Midtown, there’s caffeine aplenty. And friscuits. And … a full-service bar.
Hughes said his team realized that coffee has a limited appeal as the day wears on.
“Serving alcohol at the Midtown shop allowed us to continue our mission of bringing people together,” Hughes said. “And we understand that you're going to clock out around four or five o'clock, but you might not want to go home, or you might live really close by and you're going to want to continue meeting people who live or work in the area.”
“We've discovered that Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are taking over the traditional roles people had for Monday and Friday pre-pandemic,” Hughes said. “That's when they want to go out, that's when they want to socialize around where they work.”
So Apotheos Roastery created Wine Down Wednesdays in the Midtown shop for people to sip on something new. And the creative ideas continue from there into a special community give-back.
Community Give-Back Helps Those in Need
The company's Hunger Is A Choice initiative helps local people experiencing food insecurity. Some of the proceeds from the Midtown store's sales help pay down school lunch debt, fund free breakfast programs and summer gap meal programs, and support for local food banks.
The amount of thought and attention to detail that goes into their work - the striving for better - comes across in speaking with the Hughes family.
"When you support our coffee shop, you're supporting a local business that wants to support the community that it exists within,” Hughes said. “We’re very excited to be in Midtown. And we think you'd be hard-pressed to find another coffee shop providing the high caliber of product that we're putting out there."
Find Apotheos Roastery Midtown at 740 West Peachtree Street NW in the lobby of the Elevance health building.
