EXCLUSIVE: Couple opens only coffee shop in Leiper’s Fork, serves brew from custom-made trailer
PHOTO: Sadie Shaw-Brooks and husband Kyle Brooks sell brew at the RedByrd Coffee Shop from their custom-built trailer in Leiper’s Fork //Brooke Wanser.
By BROOKE WANSER
For the owner of Leiper’s Fork’s only coffee shop, “It’s all about joy.”
That’s the RedByrd Coffee Shop’s motto, said Sadie Shaw-Brooks and her husband, Kyle Brooks, as they sat inside their custom-built trailer shop at the corner of Old Hillsboro and Bailey Road. The trailer is right next door to the Shell gas station and diagonally across the road from Green’s Grocery.
The couple, married since 2013, both beam when talking about serving their local customers, the aforementioned joy evident in their smiles.
The RedByrd opened in February, but Shaw-Brooks first dreamt of opening a coffee shop in 2005.
Not a metaphorical dream; “I was actually slumbering,” Shaw-Brooks laughed.
In the vivid dream, she was the owner of a coffee shop, similar to ones in San Francisco, with earthy, wooden tones and an air of individuality.
“A place to go for community, where you can wrap up a lot of different things like art classes, music classes, spoken word,” she said.
The setup mirrors Shaw-Brooks’ desire for a positive community space.
Inside, nooks and crannies of the small shop are filled by hats, shirts and mugs emblazoned with a red bird logo she designed.
On the shiny espresso machine, a magnet reads, “Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken,” an Oscar Wilde quote that Shaw-Brooks said is one of her favorites.
