photo by Cindy Steele
Gearhart grew up in Columbus, attended Ivy Tech, and worked for 31 years as a draftsperson.
“ I loved what I did, and I had opportunities to move up in the company, but I said no. I didn’ t want to do anything else, I liked doing drafting,” Gearhart said.“ I would never have thought of doing a coffee shop. My sister dragged me into it.”
Her sister Lita had a vision with grand dreams and was the kind of person who made them come true.“ She said,‘ We’ re going to start a coffee shop.’“ I said,‘ We are?’” Gearhart was still working full-time at architectural drafting and was preparing to retire. She became a silent partner.
In 2005, the sisters opened a coffee kiosk in The Commons Mall in Columbus, which is why the current shop is called“ Common Grounds” and also why the proprietary house blend is called“ Chaos.” It was named after the giant kinetic sculpture located in the downtown Columbus landmark.
“ Chaos is my house blend,” she said.“ That is what coffee is supposed to taste like. It’ s a small microroaster from Oregon that we’ ve been with since day one.
“ I’ ve got really high standards on my coffee. My sister and my niece went to a cupping in Indy and tried 30 coffees, and just kept coming back to their basis for this. We’ ve had them tweak it. This is our proprietary blend. You can’ t get this Chaos anywhere else.”
After Iris was retired for a few months, her sister told her,“ You’ ve got to come and play too.”
When the mall closed for renovation in 2007, Lita said,“ Let’ s go to Nashville.”
Having grown up in Columbus, the sisters were very familiar with Nashville. They had visited the town their entire lives and always loved the atmosphere.
“ When we were in Columbus, people generally came in, got their coffee, and left,” Gearhart said.“ Here, they wanted to hang out.”
So, they scouted around and found the old Colonial Restaurant building empty, opening the shop there in February of 2010.
“ We had some coffee and tea merchandise, but nothing like this,” she said.“ My sister had been going to yard sales, close-outs, clearances, whatever, for thirty years. She had three storage units full of stuff. She just had the eye for perfect stuff. So, when we moved in here, we just started selling stuff.”
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March / April 2024 • Our Brown County 47