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Photo by Erin Nelson.
A cold brew royale at O.Henry’s Coffee on 18th Street South in downtown Homewood.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Corrie Parks, a barista at O.Henry’s Coffee on 18th Street South in downtown Homewood, takes an order.
For 30 years, the smell of coffee from O.Henry’s Coffee and Company has wafted through the morning air along 18th Street South, marking the arrival of each new day and calling the shop’s regulars in for their morning brew.
Regulars greet each other and share a “good morning” with the staff before gulping down their first cup of coffee.
“It’s like a second home for them,” said barista Corrie Parks.
This year, O.Henry’s celebrates its 30th anniversary. The shop has grown from its original home on 18th Street to multiple locations across the greater Birmingham area.
Owner Blake Stevens has certainly spent enough time at the shop to call it his second home, too. Stevens worked at the shop while he was a student at Samford University from 1996 to 2001. He opened a shop at the Regions-Harbert Plaza, which closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. While he took a position with Starbucks, one he held for roughly 15 years, Stevens came back home in 2019.
Decades after he first worked at O.Henry’s, Stevens is now watching people he grew up with bring their kids into the shop.
Stevens bought the business from Randy Adamy, who bought it from founder Dr. Henry Bright.
For two or three years before he opened O.Henry’s in 1993, Bright traveled to learn as much about coffee as he could. At that time, there was no Starbucks in the area, and no one around town had ever heard of espresso coffee, he said.
Bright’s friends and acquaintances thought he had lost his mind when he pursued opening a coffee shop after retiring from his work as a dentist.
“I didn’t know what I was doing,” Bright said.
Bright found Gary Teplitsky, who was “doing something unique” in Key West: roasting his own coffee in his Florida coffee shop. Teplitsky, who is still in business today, invited Bright to spend a week with him and learn from him. He introduced Bright to roasters in New York, where Bright headed next to learn from the Dallis brothers.
Bright eventually moved his roaster to West Homewood, where the shop’s roasting operation is still handled today.
Five years after he started the business, Bright sold it to Adamy, who had come to Birmingham from Michigan with Bruno's grocery business. Bright stayed on to help Adamy, and the two became not only partners, but fast friends.
“It was a good fit,” Bright said.
Bright said he has enjoyed seeing O.Henry’s growth.
“It’s amazing how fast the 30 years have passed,” he said.
In his roughly 20 years of ownership, Adamy added locations, more variety in the shop’s coffee beans and delivered O.Henry's coffees to other up-and-coming shops for them to sell, he said. Business, he said, was good.
“I was not a great salesman,” Adamy said. “I just had to answer the phone.”
Despite the shop’s popularity, the goal was never to make it a corporate giant, Adamy said.
“We never wanted to see how big we could get it,” Adamy said. “We just wanted to be proud of it.”
When Starbucks came on the scene and opened a location at what is now the SoHo Standard location, Adamy admits O.Henry’s leaders were “nervous.” But Homewood residents chose not to patronize the Starbucks, keeping their dollars at O.Henry’s.
“They prize independent, local people,” Adamy said. “That’s what makes Homewood, Homewood.”
Bright’s vision was to “have a place where folks could gather around a great cup of coffee,” Stevens said.
“That’s still our vision,” he said.
In the four years since Stevens took over, the shop has faced a global pandemic, supply chain problems and the opening of new locations. But even during tough times, the shop hasn’t had big cuts and has provided a sense of normalcy for its customers during abnormal times, Stevens said.
“We’ve got some war wounds, but we’re a stronger team for it,” he said.
Teams across O.Henry’s locations work hard to maintain its high roasting standards, Stevens said. Those teams are made up of people who, like Stevens, won’t work at the shop forever, but will benefit from the lessons they learn, he said.
“We know this isn’t your forever job,” Stevens said. “How can we work together to help you learn some soft skills?”
And while they might not all come back one day like he did, Stevens said the store does have some managers who have been with O.Henry’s for a long time.
In the past several years, the company has opened up new locations in Vestavia Hills, Hoover and in Dunnavant Valley.
“Each store has its own uniqueness,” Stevens said.
Dunnavant Valley’s shop continues to grow, with stores like Ace Hardware nearby drawing more customers, along with a drugstore. The Patchwork Farms location in Vestavia benefits from the apartment complexes nearby, along with Highlands College students. The Hoover shop has picked up some steam and is seeing more activity, Stevens said. Each new location means adding more team members, which he enjoys seeing.
“I love watching teams develop and people grow,” he said.
While the original location’s aesthetic has not changed, O.Henry’s has added more food and drinks to its menu over the years and has also added a mobile app for customers to place their orders ahead of time, Stevens said. The company also provides consulting and equipment to other shops.
O.Henry’s is no longer the only option in town. Several other coffee shops have moved in, with more on the way. But it doesn’t faze Stevens.
“I’ve never viewed folks coming in as competition,” he said. “We want people to gather around a great cup of coffee.”
Coffee is all about relationships, Stevens said. Each cup of coffee that comes from a farm, wherever it may be, represents a family. Stevens said O.Henry’s as a company has always been about family, with Beverly Bright, Mary Adamy and Anna Stevens all playing a role in helping run the store along with their husbands.
O.Henry’s has also played host to many a first date and has even witnessed marriage proposals, Stevens said.
“Everybody has their O.Henry’s story,” he said.
That includes barista Corrie Parks. Her parents had one of their first dates at the shop, something they enjoy bringing up whenever her job comes up in conversation.
“It’s wonderful,” Parks said of her family’s history with O.Henry’s. “I have a strong sense of nostalgia.”
Despite all of the changes in Homewood since O.Henry’s first opened its doors, the shop has stood the test of time, Stevens said.
“We see our place in the community as this timeless brand,” he said. “O.Henry’s is not a person. It represents something bigger than yourself.”
