WORDS Tara Crutchfield
PHOTOGRAPH Amy Sexson
Life Unfiltered It would be fair to say Bartow’s newest coffee house started in a Brooksville field – the idea for it did, anyway. CEO and Creative Director of Unfiltered Coffee, Geanie Folder, worked in a nursing home for most of her life. A fierce creative, Geanie always kept a “vintage side hustle” upcycling clothing and furniture with her company Rebel Juju.
Geanie described as “such a great friend, such a visionary,” had a space he wanted to show her for a future shop. Earlier that day, she told him, “If I’m going to do this thing, I’m going to do it right – I have to find the right building. When that comes to me, I’ll know it.” The moment they walked through the back door, Geanie turned to Linda and said, “This is it.”
THE BEATNIK EXCHANGE IS BORN
“The spirit of Bartow and the spirit in this building drove me from that day to come here and open this place,” she said. “It just chose me.” The 120-year-old building has lived many incarnations, Geanie found out during a trip to the historical society. It was first a hardware store carrying a selection of groceries and dry goods. Next door to Unfiltered is The Wine Stable, originally a livery stable. According to Geanie, folks would leave their horse and buggy next door at the livery stable and come do their shopping. One-sixty South Broadway Avenue has also been a furniture company, grocery store, and auto parts office.
When her last child left home, she left her job at the nursing home and started the Beatnik Exchange. Like many of Geanie’s ideas, the Beatnik Exchange was unapologetic, free-spirited, eclectic and kismet that gathered folks of the artistic and innovative variety. Geanie explained her idea to friend and owner of Vintage Warehouse in Lakeland, Mendy Michalec. Geanie was dreaming of an annual artisan-driven market. The plan was to keep the market one-third farm to table food, one-third artisan, and one-third vintage. Mendy cheered on the idea and said Vintage Warehouse would even sponsor the event, along with Robyn Story Designs.
Geanie and her landlord collaborated to open and renovate the space. “I say that very lightly because really the building did it, the building told me,” she said. “I stood in one corner and I said ‘Okay, here’s what we’re going to do here…’ and we just kept chronologically moving around the building and it kept happening. […] I know that sounds strange, but it is so true,” she said. “I didn’t set out with this grand plan on paper.” There were a few things she was certain of. “I knew it would be earthy, I knew it would be open. I knew downstairs I would have to keep my hand down on the color palette, but equally, I knew upstairs I could bring every color to the moon.”
The first-ever Beatnik Exchange took place on Geanie’s Brooksville farm in 2016. And that’s sort of where everything started for the magical Bartow coffee shop. “I kept gathering people – artful people – and we grew from there,” said Geanie. They started gathering artists as they took the market to events like Sun n’ Fun. A few years in, Geanie and her Beatnik Exchange partner and dear friend, Luke Dickerson decided to open Luka Blue Vintage next door to Vintage Warehouse. Coffee was central to Geanie’s vision. “How many deals, and friendships, and sorrows, and celebrations have people had over a cup of coffee?” she said. She met Lisbeth Pacheco and Jolian Rios, the founders of Ethos Coffee Roasters and started serving their fair-trade coffee at Luka Blue Vintage.
The Unfiltered creative director knew she wanted to have a bar. “I wanted to model it like a home,” she said. She asked herself, ‘If you came to my home, what would I do? How would I treat you? How would I serve you?’ Well, she would serve you off of one of a kind pottery plates and mugs made by other artists. “Ninety-five percent of what was used in the store came from my personal collection that I procured over the years,” complete with kitchen equipment and silverware courtesy of the Lakeland Yacht Club, according to Geanie.
THIS IS IT After a year, Luke decided to open a real estate company, Luke Blue, LLC and Geanie decided to get back to her fashion roots and nurture that aspect of her creativity for a while. The pair closed their Lakeland location. Looking for a private space to sew in, along with a painting studio for her friend, Linda Cassels-Hofmann, the two met with the landlord that owns the Stuart Building to look at office spaces. They rented an office space and the landlord, whom
Even the bookshelves for their in-house bookstore, The Unbound Bookery, were made with wood recycled from doors, made by Luke Dickerson. Geanie paused and thought about the space. “It has been a collection of goods, a collection of people, a collection of art.” The food and drink offered at Unfiltered were not an afterthought. Ethos - CONTINUED ON PAGE 25 -
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