Our story

The River Coffee Company opened on Water Street in Decatur in March 2018 — a small cafe with just coffee and tea on the menu. No roaster of our own yet, not even an espresso machine. Just good drip coffee and tea, and the kind of place where your name gets remembered by your second visit.

On April 1, 2019 — a year and a month after we opened — a fire consumed the entire building. Everything we'd built — gone in a night.

As the Herald & Review reported at the time, the building at 530 N. Water St. — home to three local businesses — was a total loss.

After the fire, we questioned everything — why we'd built this in the first place, whether it was ever really ours to build. We spent time in prayer, seeking direction, and came away with a strong conviction: God wasn't done with us yet.

We rebuilt a few blocks away, in the old Decatur Brew Works building at 101 N Main St, and opened again. From there we grew into what we are today: roasting weekly, grinding to order, running a full espresso bar. The community that showed up for us that year is still showing up — it's a big part of why we do it the way we do.

What we're building goes beyond a good cup of coffee. Every bag we roast — including our Good News Blend — helps fund our work supporting missionaries, locally and around the world. That's the mission behind both the cafe and the roastery: good coffee, made honestly, that does more than sit in a cup — it reaches further than Decatur.