Daydreaming in Winans

My friends and I bought a couch this week! We are all living in an old farmhouse next year, so we are beginning the very adult process of furnishing our home. The couch was our first big purchase (my roommate keeps reminding me we need furniture before we can focus on decorations).

Umm, Emily? This blog is about coffee shops, not your life.

Yes, I know.

But! The coffee shop I visited this week has lots of similarities to our house for next year. So, welcome to my review of Winans Chocolates + Coffee in downtown Springfield—and how it has inspired my decoration dreams for our farmhouse.

Atmosphere

Winans Downstairs

Winans has one of my favorite aesthetics of all the coffee shops I have been to (which if you haven’t been counting, this is number 11). The unfinished, industrial ceiling filled with vents, floor beams, and brick descends into the carefully decorated downstairs area. White painted brick and authentic wood tables and bar seating are accented with tasteful black and gray.

After the distinct color pallet, you can’t miss the strings of lights. I don’t just mean a few strands above the counter, I mean numerous strands artistically draped over the entire seating area—upstairs and down. They add a warm and comfortable vibe to the rustic atmosphere.

Winans Upstairs

A large glass garage door floods the space with light and completes the industrial look. Oh! I can’t forget—Winans smells like the perfect combinations of delicious chocolate and fresh coffee.

Upstairs is a designated, quiet, study area that is great for focusing. The space continues the exposed brick, wood tables, and canopy of lights. It can be cold upstairs, but that doesn’t prevent students from coming. Make sure you get there early on a Saturday if you want a place to camp out and study.

Winans has a clearly developed brand, and you could say it’s not necessarily local because there are multiple locations throughout Ohio. However, the more I look at it the more I realize how well-designed of a space it is. Plus, the real rustic but still clean feel makes the coffee shop that much more inviting (just like our farmhouse is going to be…eventually).

Drinks & Prices

First note about Winans coffee: they don’t offer free refills, but their “Big Joe” is one of the largest cups of coffee I’ve ever seen.

I asked Luke what he thought about the coffee and here’s the gist of our conversation:

“It’s really good.”

“What does good mean?”

“It’s smooth, not grainy, lots of flavor, never burnt, good roast. It’s very consistent—better than many of the other coffee shops we’ve been to.”

Going off of his point about good coffee, Winans roasts and sells their own coffee. They also make every kind of chocolate you can think of. All of their products are for sale online as well.

More than just black coffee, Winans has plenty of unique specialty drinks to try like the “Karamel Kiss” and “Wurtle” (both are very good, I’ve tried them before). The one down side to Winans’ drinks is they’re priced kind of high—I guess you’re paying for the atmosphere too.

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So how does this all fit with our farmhouse? I’m glad you asked. Winans has the roots of an old barn or warehouse that has been decorated to fit a coffee shop atmosphere. We can do same to make our farmhouse equally homey, artsy, and inviting (with lots of coffee and chocolate too, of course).