Starbucks, watch out. Tennessee-based Just Love Coffee Cafe, a growing franchise with a mission of helping adoptive families, is opening its first Alamo City shop at 6010 UTSA Blvd #209. The chain’s debut adds to a growing list of upstarts challenging the Seattle giant’s foothold in San Antonio.
The idea for Just Love was born out of a deeply personal journey. After facing financial challenges in adopting their children in Ethiopia, Emily and Rob Webb wanted to help other families going through the sometimes discouraging process. An amateur roaster, Rob decided to launch an online coffee shop that could do just that.
“I could see that there was a market for hand-roasted coffee, but I never dreamed that Just Love Coffee Cafe would be anything more than a small business devoted to helping families fundraise to offset the expensive costs of adopting children,” said Rob in an earlier release. “Just Love Coffee Cafe grew out of a need to do positive things in the world.”
The Webbs opened their first brick-and-mortar in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 2011. In less than 15 years, the chain has grown into 50 shops, some standalone and others located within Walmart stores.
Although Just Love prides itself on its artisanal roasts, the drinks menu sticks to tried-and-true classics like lattes, cappuccinos, and mochas. The food menu, however, innovates with a very busy waffle iron.
The coffee shop has yet to find a food it can’t press. The menu includes waffled omelettes, breakfast burritos, hashbrowns, biscuit sandwiches, and calzones (and yes, traditional waffles, too). Only a few items are free of craggy grids, but if Just Love could figure out a way to griddle salads and soups, it would surely press those too.
For now, Just Love is keeping the opening timeframe under wraps. Although a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation listing says the store will be completed in October, that’s not yet set in stone. A request for more information was not returned by deadline, but this article will be updated as more information becomes available.
Just Love is just the latest coffee chain to open in a very caffeinated San Antonio. Dallas-based La La Land Kind Cafe, which has a similarly charitable mission, is coming to the Shops of La Cantera this fall. Meanwhile, locally owned Archie’s Fine Coffee is making inroads with a fourth shop in King William.