5 Lessons From the Best Coffee Shop in Grand Junction

For wandering travelers looking for meaning

When you walk into Copeka Coffee, the first thing you notice is that every chair is different. You could come to Copeka every day for a month and get a different sitting experience every time. The furniture at Copeka is an eclectic mix of chairs, couches, and tables representing a diverse array of styles, colors, and generations. The furniture at Copeka is kind of like the people in a community — all unique in look and story, but similar in purpose and location.

Lesson 1: You are unique, but also the same as everyone else.

You may look different than every other chair, but you are still a chair, and you bring as much to the table as every other chair in the coffee shop.

Lesson 2: There is magic in sitting together and sitting alone.

Creativity can happen at the chair in corner of the coffee shop by way of some lone-geniusing, and it can also happen at the community table where people arrive to collaborate and cross-fertilize ideas.

Lesson 3: Vintage is beautiful, useful, and inspiring.

Imagine all of the chair designs that have ever been conceived and all of the intentional thought that has been put into them, and then think about how to make your work and your relationships timeless and everlasting.

Lesson 4: Community is about belonging and not belief or background.

Everyone has a different style, a different perspective, and a different story, and being a community is about making everyone feel like they belong even if we don’t look like we match or like we came from the same thread.

Lesson 5: Communities want places to gather.

Coffee shops provide a unique service to humanity that has very little to do with coffee. People want a place to meet and work and collaborate and be creative, and coffee shops serve as that place in our society.