DeLynn Geiger, left, and Lori Tilden-Geiger stand inside their coffee shop, The Grounded Coffee House at The Depot. It will eventually be located in the former Akron train depot, but for now has opened at 111 W. Rochester St., Akron, where A-Town Pizza was located. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

AKRON — DeLynn Geiger and Lori Tilden-Geiger want their Akron coffee shop to be a gathering place for people.

Tilden-Geiger shared with InkFreeNews that The Grounded Coffee House at The Depot is meant for “people coming and gathering and grabbing their cup of coffee and sitting and neighbors meeting neighbors.”

The business opened the weekend of March 11-12. Its name comes from the fact it will be one day located at the 1883 Akron train depot that the husband and wife team moved last year to downtown Akron.

For now, Geiger and Tilden-Geiger are operating the coffee shop out of 111 W. Rochester St., Akron, where A-Town Pizza was located.

“It gives us time to convert the depot because that’s a lot of historical work and restoration … and this way we can get the coffee business going for the people of the community,” said Geiger.

The couple hopes to get grant funds to help renovate the depot, with it and more than 90 other Akron buildings being considered to be named to the National Register of Historic Places. If that goes through, the depot would be qualified for a historic preservation grant.

After having the coffee shop opened on Saturdays and Sundays only, the couple started having weekday hours the week of April 3.

Its hours now are 6:30-11 a.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; and 8 a.m. to noon Saturday and Sunday.

Tilden-Geiger explained why the business is primarily open only in the mornings.

“We have such great restaurants in Akron. I don’t want to compete with that, but I want to fill that early morning gap of people heading to work, needing something a little sweet on the road,” she said.

The menu, written on a blackboard salvaged from the Silver Lake School, includes Americanos, lattes, cappuccinos and cold brew, with coffee being from Metropolis Coffee, Chicago, Ill. The shop also uses Rishi Tea from Milwaukee, Wis., and gets pastries from Warsaw Donuts (formerly Wabash Donuts) and Harvest Moon Foods of Rochester.

One special batch brew bears the name Front Porch Swing, with its moniker being in honor of Tilden-Geiger’s late mother, Carolyn Tilden. In a Facebook post from the business, it was noted that “one of her favorite places to be was on her front porch swing on East Rochester Street drinking her black coffee.”

Family ties into the shop operations as well with the Geigers’ son, Graham, and Tilden-Geiger’s sister, Tricia Tilden, working there.

Tilden-Geiger said she and Tricia have had some of the same customers they did when they served coffee in Harris Drug Store when they were younger. That building used to be on the lot where the Geigers moved the depot along Rochester Street.

When the coffee shop isn’t open, people can reserve it for events by calling (574) 527-3000. The couple is planning a grand opening for the shop at its current location on Friday, April 21, with it open from 5-8 p.m. then and a ribbon-cutting at 5 p.m.

A look inside the interior of the shop. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

A blackboard salvaged from the Silver Lake School displays the business’ menu. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

Merl Tinkey, left, and Dean Baker converse inside the shop. Photo provided.