The Sampler
The Olde Bartley House Coffee & Donuts
I
know just how you feel. You hit the town early, determined to experience every shop, eyeball all the merchandise, take in every breath of color and culture that Indiana’ s coolest little village has to offer.
About mid-morning, after exploring a few dozen stores and blocks of scenic small-town wonder, you start to feel ready for a little break, a little pick-me-up before soldiering on to the shopping conquests that lie ahead. Have I got a place for you! It’ s old Nashville, but it’ s been made new. It is cool, clean, well-appointed and has a bunch of interesting stuff to look at as you refresh yourself. It’ s a little place where people can come in and sit down, get something cold to drink, maybe a small bite, get off their feet and relax a bit before going back out into the wilderness of the public marketplace.
And, best of all, especially if you are a restaurant enthusiast like myself, you will have the opportunity to snack on something new, something special, something you or I have never eaten or even heard of before— the Volant.
A Volant is a“ French Americana layered donut” unique to the recently opened Olde Bartley House Coffee and Donuts. Offered in many different permutations and incarnations, it is the mainstay food offering along with about two dozen coffee variations and non-coffee caffeinated drinks.
Filled with curiosity and practically overcome with donut desire, I made my way down to the Olde Bartley House which prominently occupies the corner of Van Buren and Franklin streets.
This wonderfully preserved building was built in 1886 by a local grocery store owner and landowner, Charley Gibson. Ambrose Bartley owned the home from 1903 until 1929, leaving it with his name.
Over the past couple of years, the building has been beautifully and meticulously restored, making it worth the visit just to take in the new improvements to this lovely old structure.
66 Our Brown County • Sept./ Oct. 2024