Third places – those places between home and work or school, where you can gather, catch up with a friend and just be – are essential to a community, whether it’s a brewery, park…or a coffee shop.
Brandie Potzick wants Fable Cafe to be one of those third places in Westwood. That’s partly why she chose the name Fable – envisioning friends and families gathered with cups of coffee in hand as they share stories, or parents, like herself, who may tire of the ‘kid places’ but still want to bring their children somewhere with a little bit of magic.
And there is magic in the walls of Fable, whose home on Harrison Avenue in the heart of Westwood’s business district offers coziness in a bright and airy space with its rustic, chic design, including a whimsical mural featuring vignettes of fairytale-esque characters drawn by Brandie’s friend, and all-are-welcome ethos.
Fable Cafe features the traditional coffee menu like drip coffee, lattes and cappuccinos, along with a full espresso bar, made with coffee from local roaster Yield. They’ll also offer pastries from Sixteen Bricks, as well as vegan and gluten-free options from other vendors. Made-to-order breakfast sandwiches will be available only on the weekends to start, but will eventually be on the menu every day. Brandie says she’s hoping to grow the food program in the future and bring it in-house.
As for flavors, Fable Cafe is keeping it simple and will only offer housemade syrups. They’ll have vanilla all year round, as well as seasonal flavors. This summer will feature a strawberry cappuccino and lavender latte.
Owning a coffee shop has been a dream for Brandie since college. She studied marketing and communications and worked in the industry on and off but said she never truly enjoyed the work. She experimented with different jobs, working in coffee shops, roasting and selling her own coffee and running a photography business.
“In the back of my mind, a coffee shop was something I always wanted to do. I’ve always been entrepreneurial, knew I wanted to own my own business … but nothing had clicked quite yet,” Brandie told CityBeat.
Her coffee shop dream was one her husband, Austin, would join her on.
“We started dating over cups of coffee, so there’s that little piece of it,” she said.
Wanting to one day own their own business – something they could do as a family and include their children – Brandie and Austin started tucking away pennies. And that business being a coffee shop just seemed like a natural conclusion. With Brandie’s marketing background and having managed a coffee shop, and Austin having worked as a barista and an accountant for a large coffee roaster in Cleveland, they had experience in all the facets of opening the cafe.
“So between the two of us, we kind of worked in every capacity of a coffee shop, both behind the bar and doing the books and training and hiring and recipe development. That definitely gave us the confidence to be like, okay, we could do this if the door ever opened,” Brandie said.
The door began opening after Brandie and her family moved to the west side of Cincinnati, where Brandie is from. One of her and Austin’s favorite things to do with their three young kids on the weekend is going to different coffee shops around town for drinks and pastries and exploring the neighborhoods. But after moving from Golf Manor where they didn’t have to go far to find what they wanted, Brandie said they were going farther out – to downtown or Over-the-Rhine or Covington – to do their weekend family routine.
“That kind of opened our eyes – this thing we’ve always wanted to do, we’ve never really been in a good location to do it. It’s always been very saturated already with coffee shops and things like that,” Brandie said. “So just really living in this area and walking and driving this neighborhood so much after we moved here was really like, ‘Someone needs to do it,’ … And that kind of put the fire under us. Here we have this small, little savings we’ve been putting pennies in to open our own business someday, and … this area’s so primed for something like this, and at some point, someone’s going to do it and it’s going to be devastating for us if it’s not us.”
Another catalyst and part of the Fable Cafe lore was Brandie and Austin's youngest daughter's health. She was born last August in acute liver failure and was diagnosed with a rare liver disease.
"That turned our whole world upside down," Brandie said. "We hit pause on thinking about opening a business. But then she was listed for a liver transplant, and it sounds weird to open a business at a time like that, but it just shifted a lot of things into focus for us."
Knowing if their daughter received a liver transplant it would make their whole lives look different, Brandie said getting the cafe going went back into the forefront.
"Giving us the ability to do something as a family, for our family became more important than ever," she said. "And she ended up recovering, and it's truly crazy and wonderful and amazing."
Brandie's daughter spent six weeks in the NICU at Cincinnati Children's Hospital and was able to come home in October. It was about a week or two later when the building's landlord reached out to Brandie and Austin about renting the space.
"She was truly the biggest catalyst for us, like we just need to go for it," said Brandie.
And even before opening the doors, Brandie wanted to make sure Fable Cafe was a place that gave back to the community.
“Kind of leaning into that third place concept … we started thinking about right off the bat, how can we show that we are committed to investing in the neighborhood and being part of the community?” she said.
Brandie partnered with Westwood Works to raise funds for its mini-grant program, which provides grants to those who have ideas on how to enhance the neighborhood, whether that’s through a community garden, laundry service for those in need or books for the local schools. Through a month-long online fundraiser, Fable Cafe was able to raise $2,400 for the program, which immediately doubled thanks to an anonymous donor.
It’s all part of the tenets Brandie put in place for Fable Cafe: One, do coffee really well and in an approachable way. Two, make sure every guest feels welcomed and at home.
"We just want people to come in here and feel like they're walking into our home. We just want to give them that experience, that they are truly our guests," Brandie said. "And that goes for everybody: people coming in with their babies to teenagers coming in after school. We just want everyone to have that experience.
Fable Cafe will hold its grand opening Sunday, July 23 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Hours will be Monday-Friday 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Fable Cafe, 3117 Harrison Ave., Westwood. More info: fablecafecincy.com.
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