Mile 42 Coffee fills caffeine-deprived downtown Loveland niche

BY JOE WESSELS
Loveland Local News

LOVELAND, Ohio — Katie Butler’s old boss does not mind she started the same kind of business he groomed her in a few years back. In fact, he’s pretty happy for her.

“Well, they’re not our competition. And they still buy our coffee,” said Tony Tausch, the owner of Coffee Emporium and arguably Cincinnati foremost coffee expert, whose coffee shops are in Over-the-Rhine and Hyde Park.

Butler – who worked for Tausch for about eight years – just opened Mile 42 Coffee adjacent to the Loveland Hardware Store on Broadway Street in downtown Loveland. The store had a soft opening February 2, with a grand opening and ribbon-cutting Saturday. Mile 42 – which is named after the nearby mile marker on the bike trail – buys their roasted coffee beans from Coffee Emporium.

“I’m very pleased and happy for her,” Tausch said. “She always kind of said that is what she wanted to do. I know she has some strong ties to Loveland and she’s very family-oriented.”

Butler, who is the daughter of Loveland City Councilman Tim Butler, stopped working for Tausch in 2014, when she reduced her hours to take a full-time job with Givaudan, a food flavoring company (she is a 2007 University of Dayton graduate with a degree in food science).

While at Coffee Emporium she did more than pull shots and steam milk, instead she learned the coffee business top-to-bottom, even going with Tausch and his wife to El Salvador to meet the farmers growing the coffee beans roasted in Cincinnati.

“I started out and thought it would just be a job,” Butler said. “Since early on at Coffee Emporium I just loved being in a coffee shop. I wanted one in downtown Loveland.”

Butler said in her home growing up coffee was a morning staple for everyone, pretty much since she was a teenager.

“My parents are big coffee drinkers. Every morning when people are home, that’s just part of growing up,” she said. “I’ve always loved coffee.”

It took her a few years to act on her vision for opening a coffee shop in Loveland. During strolls with her mother, Jackie, on the Little Miami Scenic Trail, they’d plot out their idea which came about after not being able to find a good cup of Joe nearby. About a year ago they decided it was time to act.

“Walking down the trail, we planned it all out,” Butler said. “There’s isn’t a traditional coffee shop in downtown Loveland. There wasn’t a place for people to gather, meet friends or work. Now there is.”

As downtown Loveland started to experience a resurgence in recent years – with the opening of Loveland Station and the remodeling of the Bishop Building post-2017 fire – the timing seemed right.

“There’s just a lot more going on down here,” she said. “I think if we weren’t going to do it, someone else was going to, and we really wanted to do it.”

This is Tausch’s third employee to start their own coffee shop, two locally and one in Deer Isle, Maine. He’s proud of that. He’s even prouder his former employees with their own local shops come back to him to buy their coffee beans.

“We love that our coffee is being sold with a further reach. We trained them,” he said. “I would have been crushed if they bought someone else’s coffee.”

He thinks Butler has what it takes to make it in the super-competitive coffee business.

“We have delivered a lot of coffee to them already. They have been even busier than they expected,” he said. “I definitely think (Katie) will be able to do it. I think she will do a great job.”

Mile 42 Coffee, 133 Broadway Street in Loveland, is open 6:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday; 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. Saturday/Sunday, with expanded hours expected this spring. (513) 900-9480. Visit www.mile42coffee.com for more information.

Last Updated on May 20, 2020 by Joe Wessels