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The coffee is hot and ready. 

Sweet Roast Café in downtown LaGrange recently opened and their shop has had a revolving door ever since. 

“We have been really busy and have been getting here early every morning just making coffee,” said coffee shop owner Jessica Brown. “Honestly, we didn’t realize how busy we would be, but it’s been really good. I think the community has really loved it. I’ve heard nothing but really good things about it.” 

What was once the front shop of a dance studio was renovated into a full-fledged café and bakery. 

To add to the local touch, all coffee is roasted and ground by Jessica’s husband, Alex. 

Brown said the first few days they were selling out of bakery items. 

“I had a lot of people come up to me and tell me this is just what downtown LaGrange needed,” Brown said. “People are loving our cinnamon rolls, and now that we have an insulated display case, we will be able to bake more.” 

Brown said customers can call ahead and ask for any of the bakery items by the dozen. 

The café is also offering a coffee subscription for unlimited drip coffee and 10 percent off any bakery items and specialty drinks for $24.99 a month.  

“We are also thinking of the idea of doing a flight of coffee for the summer months,” Brown said. “So, it will be a paddle board with samples of different types of our coffee and specialty coffees.  It’ll be a mix of our sweeter drinks to our stronger ones.” 

The Browns created a signature drink called ‘The Sweet Roast Americano.’ while gearing up for the coffee shop to open. The drink is made like any Americano with one part hot water and one part espresso but the Browns add their own spin on it by adding almond sweet cream. 

“We made that this past year, and it has been a hit when we introduced it here at the café,” Brown said. “It’s a good coffee for an afternoon sweet treat. Any drinks with caramel in it all have homemade caramel that we use in our baked goods.”

Many local high school and college students have already made the coffee shop their go study spot. 

“We have had so many students come through these past few days and just spend hours studying,” Brown said. “We probably opened at the best time because it is final season. I am thankful we are able to provide a spot for them to study because this time can be really stressful. We have had a few nurses stop by and spend hours studying too.”

Brown added that she hopes to add a few more small details to the café soon to add more homey vibes to it. 

“This all has just been surreal,” Brown said. 

“We get home and look at each other and just can’t believe we made this happen. We had this vision, and I’m just like blown away by everyone here who has helped make it come to life. It just feels really good for people to see the hard work we put into it and how much we wanted to bring this to the community.”