People looking for a cup of coffee, a home-cooked meal and a place that feels like home away from home can stop by Barista & Baker, a coffee shop on Main Street that opened Sept. 11.
Justin and Bethany Ulrich, Taylor alumni who own Barista & Baker, work together to make both coffee and cooking possible.
“I’m the barista, she’s the baker,” Justin said.
Justin mans the front-of-house coffees. In the back, his wife bakes scratch-made pastries, breakfast sandwiches and burritos, chia bowls and seasonal items. The menu includes several gluten-free options including biscuits.
The menu is influenced by her roots in Florida, offering comforting Southern staples like biscuits and gravy. She loves making homemade biscuit spreads: apple butter, jam, cinnamon butter, local honey and pimento cheese.
The couple puts a spin on several menu items when naming them, such as naming a drink after their white golden retriever, Justin said.
“He’s white and sweet,” he said, “So we have our white mochas, we just call ‘the bear dog.’”
They also partnered with several local shops for their eats, sourcing their salsa from Gas City’s Casa Grande and drizzling their chia bowls with local honey.
The Ulrichs had discussed starting a coffee shop as their next “kingdom act” in the past but raising kids and financial factors had prevented them, they said.
Then, when visiting Indiana, they discovered their favorite local coffee shop, The Bridge, was for sale. They walked through the building, not seriously considering a purchase.
“We walked through and kind of started to just pray through it,” Bethany said, “and the Lord just started opening doors.”
The Ulrichs worried starting a business would put stress on their son, a senior in high school.
However, his “spiritually mature” response encouraged them to follow God’s call to minister through business.
Acquiring the building presented “a million challenges,” but Justin’s construction background and Bethany’s interior design skills helped them gut the building, renovate its inside and paint the outside.
They hope the space feels fresh, new, clean and cozy, Bethany said.
“I want people to feel like this is home, and like they can just find respite here through good food and just a warm atmosphere and things that I think I missed a lot when I came,” she said.
As a Taylor graduate from Florida, Bethany knows what homesickness feels like, Justin Ulrich said.
The Ulrichs have a heart to integrate the Taylor student body with the community of Upland, Bethany said. They treat every individual who walks through the doors with love and hospitality, whether they are a student or Upland native.
The Ulrichs’ dream of loving locals is beginning to come true.
Bethany’s heart warmed recently as she watched kids sitting on the brown chairs talking and draping their legs over the armrest.
The Ulrichs’ desire to cultivate community is rooted in God’s love for others, Justin said. It doesn’t matter if the customer they’re serving flew in a private jet or not.
“Those people in God's eyes all have that same inestimable value and worth, and so that's how we treat business,” he said. “ … God labels us all as chosen and loved.”
The Ulrichs’ hope more memories like this are cultivated within the four walls of their business.
They hope to host worship nights, live music nights and finals “evening hours” during exam week, Bethany said.
As a coffee lover who has been in the business for 15 years, Justin has enjoyed integrating his passion with his business.
“Honestly, we’re coffee snobs,” Bethany said. “I mean, I don’t know what to say, but that’s true. We are coffee snobs.”
They also plan to offer seasonal items like pumpkin spice drinks. Bethany’s pumpkin chocolate chip scones, which may or may not have a cream cheese glaze, are in the works. Customers can find out more about these delicious treats on Instagram at @barista.and.baker.
