I think taking time to make the best coffee you can enhances the experience for people to be together.

Coffee is a thing that has been affected by God and nature and rain and soil and farmers around the world.

It's this everyday little thing that we can celebrate, but it's the whole world at the same time and in enjoying that, we can be reminded of how big the world is.

This needs to go to like maybe 15... 14 or 15.

Perfect.

Would you mind grabbing that kettle?

That bonavita kettle, and just real gently, slower, slower,slower.

Yeah.

Nice!

TJ moved across the street from me when I was 15 and he was 17.

So that's how we met.

Yeah, we went to college together and dated and ended up working at the same coffee shop at different times.

We finished grad school and we do’t know what to do.

We had been in a motorcycle accident 20 days before our wedding.

and we realized we could either go to Europe, like we had planned or we could live in our 1974 Volkswagen Camper van.

The idea of traveling just sounded like so much fun.

We drove up around the Great Lakes and we stayed in Newfoundland for about a month.

And then we got a phone call.

There is a coffee shop that has closed down and the town is eager for it to reopen as a community space.

And we drove and visited.

I don't even think I could have conceived a notion that one day I would own a coffee shop.

I think it was just encouraging that it had been a coffee shop for nine years.

The process of deciding to do it was mostly affected by the humans we talked to and recognizing there was a need for a community space.

So we thought we would give it a shot.

Really, Julie is the one that named Commonplace “Commonplac”.

And I just remember thinking, you know, TJ loved Walt Whitman so much and so thinking about something that could tie that in.

I just remember the first day that we opened Seeing people come in and being so grateful, we eventually faced some really difficult times and those people just really took care of us.

It was a beautiful thing to see how a coffee shop can affect people.

Commonplace has six retail locations, two in Indiana, PA which is actually where it was founded one in University Square near IU’s campus and one inside the Indiana Regional Medical Center one in Squirrel Hill, one in Garfield, one in Mexican War Streets and one in Point Breeze North called Rockwell Park.

And we are also in the South Side works.

Commonplac’s evolution over the last 20 years mirrors a lot of the ways the specialty coffee scene has evolved over the last 20 years.

Coffee in America is generally described as having three distinct waves.

The First Wave is really when coffee became an American pastime, and a lot of that was rooted in coffee being a part of military rations during World War II.

And once soldiers came home, they were used to coffee and continued to drink it heavily.

And then, you know, Maxwell House introducing the concept of the coffee break.

The ground coffee that tastes as good as it smells every time.

Second Wave is considered the coffeehouse experience really pioneered by Peet's Coffee and then later, you know, shot into the stratosphere by Starbucks.

And so that was about coffee shop experiences and vibes and sort of get the‘Friend’ Central Perk style coffeehouse big comfy couches, lots of flavors, large cappuccinos, all that sort of thing.

When we started in 2003, there was definitely still a late 9’s kind of vibe to the original shop.

Third Wave Coffee was really when shops started to drill in on the science and execution of coffee and trying to expand people's minds and palates for what coffee is and what coffee could be when executed really well.

In 2015, we opened the coffeehouse on the north side of Pittsburgh that has consistently been a time of Commonplac’s history where I feel like we started reaching the age of adulthood, Commonplace really started to look at projects from an objective standpoint rather than just waiting for another universe gift of an address, or an opportunity, or some silly possibility.

It was the first time we started thinking.

Are there areas of Pittsburgh we'd like to move into?

Are there areas outside of Pennsylvania we'd like to move into?

We never asked those questions before 2015.

My first impression of when I met TJ was not meeting TJ because I actually missed my first interview with commonplace.

TJ likes to give me a hard time for this.

I took a month to decide whether I was going to leave my current part time coffee job to take another part time coffee job with Commonplace, but ultimately decided to join up.

There's going be a community here that I really want to be a part of.

My wife and I moved to this neighborhood in 2009.

The location that Commonplace Mexican War Streets is in now has been two coffee shops prior.

My wife, Belle, and I actually had two separate meetings about purchasing this coffee shop in this building.

It just wasn't the right timing.

I used to sit on the front stoop with my dog and think to myself, Did we miss an opportunity?

Fast forward to 2014.

The people who did buy this building reached out to TJ and let him know that the coffee shop that was currently occupying the space was going to be going out of business.

And wanted to know if Commonplace was interested in being here.

I saw an email from TJ asking if ’d be interested in doing this.

This was a dream that Belle and I had and had put on the back burner and turned off the burner.

The Fairchil’s and Commonplace came along and reignited that stove.

Full disclosure, I remember thinking I can't believe I'm doing this.

But I said to TJ, I'm sorry, I've seen two coffee shops fail in that space.

I can't tie my family's livelihood to it.

And T’s response was, Well, let's do something stupid together.

Dream come true.

This is super approachable coffee, easy to drink.

Great in the morning because it's not so overpowering.

And I like it all day.

And this is probably the number one coffee that's picked by folks like you for their projects.

I mean, it is still the elevated version of most morning blends.

Is it different enough to make our shop stand out?

This is like an awakening.

This is like, oh, this stuff.

This tastes like it.

But oh my gosh, it's a thousand times better.

Like, this is this is that next step in a coffee drinke’s life.

Let's just be really honest about the reality that Commonplace has not always performed at peak specialty coffee- Third Wave Coffee performance.

For years, Commonplace roasted coffee tried to set up wholesale accounts and stock wholesale lots of larger capacity bags of coffee in our retail store.

No business makes 100% correct decisions all the time.

We had a lot to learn.

There were things that needed to be changed in a good way.

A version of HQ started in 2009.

We moved that building's contents and activities to Pittsburgh in 2011.

That really was what set the table for significant change.

At Commonplace HQ, and that's our headquarters and roasting facility twice a week be running deliveries either to our retail shops or to wholesale clients.

We're bagging up the coffee that is getting roasted.

We're receiving shipments.

We are working on equipment and we'll get it ready for install at a wholesale client.

We serve all kinds of wholesale clients.

Primarily, it's going to be other coffee shops, but we also service, you know, churches, offices, universities.

The business has sort of transformed.

But in the same way that the shops have; people come in, they bring their gifts, their talents and skills, and TJ gives them the space to be able to develop them.

If we had not evolved in the science of coffee and taken better care of the craft of our coffee, we would not have enticed rockstar baristas that care deeply about things like flavor and execution and science in coffee.

When that conversation happened across the bar, that legitimized us as an equal if not better, coffee company in the Pittsburgh market.

I mean, this is another thing.

It's not a competition for TJ He doesn't-he's not looking to just thrive by himself.

Now, you look at his consulting aspect of his business and he's helping other other coffee companies thrive.

We received a call from Discovery Channel.

They wanted us to help them with a show where they were resurrecting a failing coffee shop and they needed a coffee expert to come in and help evaluate what things this coffee shop owner needed to do to help right the ship of her business.

And so in response, we have had a huge push of people asking us to help them with their coffee projects.

If it is the case that Commonplace is about creating community spaces, why would we not want to help other people create community spaces?

We really started conceptualizing the idea of opening a diner together.

That was eight years ago in Smallman Galley It was a restaurant incubator where we got to test out to see if we were good at owning a restaurant instead of just working in a restaurant.

So the first time we met TJ from Commonplace, they had just moved in right across the way from us.

When we opened the Speckled Egg, I already knew immediately we were going to call him up and have him teach us everything he knows about coffee, or at least a tiny piece.

He had a whole staff meeting.

He taught everything, everybody, the basics of espresso and what a ristretto is and how our machine only pours ristrettos.

He brought everybody together.

He taught every last person in house how to pour a shot, how to steam milk, what you're looking for, like the basic ABCs to make a latte.

Coffee and breakfast obviously are a match made in heaven.

Yeah.

And also one when we are when we're traveling to eat breakfast, there's always something missing.

So you so you go to a diner, right?

You love a diner.

But the thing that diners don't have is the latte or the Bloody Mary.

So that's kind of what we wanted to take breakfast and make it even better by adding those different accouterments and having the Commonplace espresso to make those lattes just takes the experience a step beyond.

So I was thinking about the first time Julie and I pulled up.

We parked right in this space.

We looked at this building and we thought, This is the worst idea we've ever had.

The coffee shop is in the back of this building.

We had to walk up a flight of stairs.

We had to turn right.

And now we're walking in.

I had no vision for humans coming down the hill from IUP and walking in this space.

It was a task I didn't think we'd ever make work, but we did it.

Hey, Al.

Hey, Peter.

How are you?

I'm good.

How are you?

Good.

Do you guys mind making me a cappuccino?

I'd love to.

Yeah?

Thank you.

Story is very important to me.

I hold them with me whenever I think of this place.

I always say that if these walls could talk, the’d have a lot to say.

I first walked in to Commonplace in 2006.

Whenever I graduated, I wanted to work maybe four or five years, just in a local business and interviewed in three different places, one of them being Indiana.

I heard coffee shop, I heard small little town, walkable... Whenever I interviewed with TJ, I fell in love with his concept of community and what he was doing with coffee.

And so I decided to just go out on a limb.

So TJ was willing to take me on.

And let's just say I did a lot of closings, a lot of learning how to make coffee.

Probably about four years later, TJ asked me to then manage.

That was a 100% yes.

Being manager and seeing staff that come in that have never worked with coffee before is one of the most challenging parts of my job.

But 6 to 8 months later, to see them really care about the space and really take what they're doing seriously has been really fun for me.

And I know for a lot of baristas coming in, maybe i’s just a two year thing.

My hope is always that I can show them what University Square has to offer them.

The guests that randomly will bring in apples for everybody or randomly bring in gifts.

It goes both ways.

The barista cares for the guests, but here I feel like our guests really care for our staff in ways that I am totally amazed.

Those are stories that matter.

It's been fun to be a part of.

There's this lifeblood here that is still through whatever and all the changes people I haven't seen in 10 or 15 years will come back and talk about their story of whenever they first came here.

And it's amazing to hear those stories being told over and over and over again.

I'm Matthew Fridg.

And I'm Jennifer Fridg.

And we've been together since Commonplace opened its doors.

I started out as a regular.

We would come most days plus Saturdays and Sundays with the regular morning group.

When Lydia and I met, what year would that have been?

2015 was my first time here.

You took me here early on when we first started dating.

I think that the Commonplace it is very, very dear to me.

It's not just a place that I go to drink coffee or to meet friends.

Well, we knew each other in high school.

We did.

My dad, who was an amazing guy, but he hated all my boyfriends.

Always.

I went to college 1000 miles away, one spring break.

He came to me right as I got off the airplane and said, I'm going to ask you one favor and I won't ask you it again.

Will you please meet somebody special at this new coffee shop, the Commonplace.

I had been a partner in a bakery here in town and left that position.

And when there was an opening to bake here and TJ and Julie approached me, I jumped towards it.

I was really happy to get back into baking.

And that was seven years ago.

And it just was a perfect fit.

So when we were going to get engaged, I wanted to meet her at Commonplace because I was like, well, we met at Commonplace.

I should propose at Commonplace thinking, how in the world am I going to get you there?

And I was like, Oh before like the Family, we have to, like, talk to everybody, Let's go hang out.

And you were like, What if we go to Commonplace?

And I was like, great idea!

We actually would sit down and dream about opening our own coffee shop.

Through a series of interactions with TJ, he had really walked us through the whole process of what that would look like, and we ended up opening up a coffee shop in 2022.

You can, you know that this is not a business just to make money.

There's something behind it.

This year for my birthday, a present from TJ was he took me and Al and Katie and we visited all the stores in one day and it was really, really fun.

The idea of just coming here in the mornings and meeting friends or coming here in the afternoon and reading, all of those are special memories.

There's been a ton of growth, but there has not been a great change in the warmth and the environment that Commonplace lends to everything.

I think that TJ and Julie have always stuck to their beginnings of wanting to make a place for everybody.

So it's been 20 years.

We've moved several times.

We've had four kids.

And I love that our story is interwoven.

I love walking back in there and it brings back memories of something so beautiful and great and that's what it means to me.

Gosh, over the last 20 years, the business has grown so much.

And yet TJ and Julie, they have grown a lot as well, but they are the same people.

Their vision is the same.

Their vision for community, their vision for coffee.

Almost 20 years later, to still be considered one of the best coffee shops in the region is awe-inspiring and I hope 20 years from now we are still getting named Best Coffee Shop in the region.

20 years speaks volumes to the company itself.

It's I think what TJ and Julie do is contagious.

People want to be a part of it.

They pull people in.

I think we would just like to say thank you to Commonplace for everything they've done to help us get on our feet and to continue helping us grow as a company.

I think that one of the things that is super special about Commonplace to me is that not only am I going to get a really good cup of coffee, I'm going to walk in there and see somebody I care about, it brings together people that I care about in my community Just thank you.

You know, thank you to TJ and Julie and everyone who's made this place the way what it is.

In terms of the 20 year history of what TJ and Julie and the Fairchild family and anyone that has been involved in CommonPlace has created.

I really just think about the idea of, redemption.

The space that the Indiana shop is in was a prior coffee shop.

Until recently, our shops in Pittsburgh were all coffee shops prior to Commonplace being involved.

There were spaces that were important to different communities that were going to go away and that the Fairchilds saw something worth redeeming in those spaces and allowed people to hand something over that they cared about and see it live on.

Through all the stages of the process, through all the humans it touches, whether it's a farmer, a delivery driver, a person in our organization, or a person out of our organization that we're still engaging with.

We want to do that with relationship.

We don't want to just do a transaction.

I mean, it's just so amazing.

And just to see the team of people too, that we have around us, that just do an amazing job fulfilling what we wanted.

It's just really exciting to see that I-well, ’m just really proud of the work that they've done.

And I'm probably going to cry, so I ca’t say anything else.

<i>The commonplace I sing,</i> <i>How cheap is health!</i> <i>How cheap nobility!</i> <i>Abstinence,</i> <i>No falsehood, no gluttony,</i> <i>lust:</i> <i>The open air I sing, freedom, toleration,</i> <i>(Take here the mainest lesson-</i> <i>less from books-less from the schools)</i> <i>The common day and night-</i> <i>The common earth in waters,</i> <i>Your farm-your work, trade, occupation,</i> <i>The democratic wisdom underneath</i> <i>like solid ground for all.</i> I mean, that's, that's, that's not just the name... that's... that's who we are.