A quick Q&A with Brian Colegrove who bought the space that used to be Buzzy’s

So what’s been going on with the space?

We’ve done a lot of scrubbing and painting upstairs. We are repairing, sanding, and refinishing the floors. I really liked the rustic look, but didn’t realize that the look was mostly grime! They now look amazing. The contractor had to do a side at a time because of all the appliances, and last night he finished staining the second side.

We definitely have got to take a look.

The downstairs semi-kitchen area has been power washed. I painted the floor a light gray to brighten up the room. The floors upstairs have been finished and sealed so that the sawdust doesn’t filter through to the basement floor.

We didn’t even realize there was a downstairs area! What are you hoping to change from what some people knew of Buzzy’s?

I really want to change a lot of the negative thoughts about the place. Even though we do have some of the same employees and the same general layout, we are going to be different. The biggest complaints were about the cleanliness, the food, and the coffee. It will be clean. I will be there every evening to make sure it’s clean for the next morning.

What about the food and coffee?

The food options / quality will be better. We aren’t going to try to be a full on restaurant, but what we will offer should be worth putting on the menu.

The coffee. There is a lot to say about how it was. There are a lot of people who say we can’t get rid of the Church Hill or the Buzzy flavors, so…we won’t. We will use the same beans and roast them the same way, so those two things will stay the same, but as things progress, we will look into using higher quality beans for the other roasts.

There will be some mechanical differences. The espresso machine will be a brand new, higher end model on which we will all receive proper training. The coffee brewers and grinders will also be new, with the exception of one grinder. The water will be tested and filtered appropriately for the machines. Previously, the espresso machine was the only machine on which a filter was installed. The brewers used tap water. All machines will be regularly serviced.

Oh, and the coffee will not be watered down.

This sounds exciting, when do you think you’ll open?

We are still shooting for a July opening. As things go though, it may be pushed back. Things never seem to go exactly as planned. This is our first venture into any sort of business for ourselves, but I hope we’re headed in the right direction.

If you haven’t yet checked it out, please read this neat feature from Richmond BizSense from last month. You can also check an interesting article on coffee grinders here.