Pine Brothers Coffee Company: A Cup of Community
Pine Brothers Coffee Company (recently opened on the Square in Scottsboro) is part coffee shop, part record store, part art gallery, and a welcome addition to the community in Scottbsoro. Pine Brothers offers a wide variety of coffee (they have their own brand of beans, which turn into some great coffee), specialty drinks, tea, food, and candy. They also stock new and used records (including those from owner George Hartline’s band, The Harmless Doves, which recently had a top ten debut on Billboard’s up and coming artists chart), and their hallway features an art wall, where a different local artist is featured each month. Pine Brothers is not your average small-town coffee shop, a fact that George is very proud of:
“We worked hard to make it special, and that’s what we need more of: special things, because it’s about the community, and the people that come here, and we wanted our customers to have something that is special for them.”
Coffee has been a lifelong passion for owner George Hartline. He worked in a chain coffee shop for a time and says he really enjoyed the job and the idea of one day owning one of his own. George, originally from Section, was living in California at the time, but once he moved back home, he had a realization:
“I’ve been a coffee drinker since I was really young. I love coffee, and I love the environment and atmosphere of a coffee shop. Combine the drinks with food and music, and it’s a great thing. I worked for years at a chain coffee shop and always thought that one day I’d have one. When I moved back here from California I decided that the square could really use a coffee shop.”
After deciding that he was going to go through with his dream and open a shop, one of the first things George realized was that he didn’t just want to serve generic coffee, instead he would seek out the perfect beans and create his own brand. It was on a trip to do so that he and his wife Joanie came up with the name for the brand of coffee and by extension, the coffee shop. Joanie asked George what his two favorite things about the south were. He immediately answered with “pine trees and family.” His wife then suggested Pine Brothers and George immediately fell in love with the name:
“I grew up running through the woods and the pine trees with my best friends who are kind of like my brothers, So Pine Brothers really fit.”
Since opening Pine Brothers on October 22nd of this year, George says he has been floored with the response he has received from both customers and the community, but that also means a lot of hard work. Opening a small business is never an easy undertaking, but opening a small business that is open from 6 a.m to 9 p.m seven days a week, and that is very busy is quite a time commitment (not to mention the fact that George is also a lawyer, and practices out of an office in the back), but George wouldn’t have it any other way:
“I would have never imagined the response we’ve had. I was very conservative with my estimates, but when we opened it was crazy. I was basically sleeping in the back, getting here at 5:30 in the morning and going home at midnight or after, but I’m really enjoying it. It’s not like work to me. It allows me to be creative and that’s what I like to do. I’m a musician, and I’m a wannabe artist, so this is kind of one of the pieces of that.”
George decided to open a c0ffee shop on the Square not just because he loves coffee, but also because he has a vision for how great the area can be, and he wants to be part of making it happen:
“There needs to be places where your imagination can run away, and I think that can affect the community in a lot of different ways. I think it can also be a catalyst for other places that could open. If you’re a young person that is deciding where you want to live and work you look at Huntsville, and you see all of the places to go and things to see. If we had more of that, we’d have more of an influx of population. That means an increase of revenue and infrastructure for the city. I would like to see the square thrive, to have every single building filled and have the upstairs be filled with lofts and apartments. This could be a great little fun community.”
George also believes that in order to make the community great, people must make an effort to shop locally, and business owners must be focused on building something great and giving customers great places to go:
“Shopping local keeps money in your community. If you want nice things near you, it’s necessary to shop local. If people don’t come to this coffee shop and spend their money, then we can’t stay open. If you want things more convenient, you have to have local. If you want to go to Huntsville anytime you want a good steak, then don’t shop local. If you want to have to go to Chattanooga to get a coffee, then don’t shop local. If you want to have to go get organic food an hour away, then don’t shop local. If you want those things close to you, then shop local. The more you shop local, the more things will come, because the supply will meet the demand. It’s up to the businesses as well to be considerate to their customers. You can’t just throw something up half-heartedly thinking that they can’t get anything else around here. It starts with the business taking a gamble. If you build it they will come. But as a customer if you want it close to you, you want it convenient, and you want it to be really good, we need your support. ”
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