Coffee Man

At Home and On the Route with Vernon Thornsberry

originally published April 4, 2007

Meghan Jones

Vernon Thornsberry sits in the sunny kitchen of his Normaltown house on a Saturday afternoon drinking - what else? - Jittery Joe’s coffee. “The good stuff, really dark,” he says. He gets as much as he wants for free; it’s one of the perks of being the official Jittery Joe’s coffee deliveryman, a job he’s had for about a decade. His eyes are twinkling mischievously as he tells me about his plans for the rest of the weekend: being a man about town, Vernon always gets invited to the best parties and shows. We talk a bit more about his coffee (French press, of course) and then get to the business of the day: what it’s like making the rounds to keep downtown pantries well-stocked with beans.

Flagpole

So how did you get started delivering coffee for Jittery Joe’s?

Vernon Thornsberry

Alright, well I started working on Washington Street at Jittery Joe’s, where the Room 13 - there’s another place there now - used to be. I was working serving coffee when Charlie Mustard came in and started roasting. So that’s when I started working there, then they closed the place down and sold it to this guy named Ernie. We moved onto Prince Avenue and roasted beans there, and that’s when I started delivering coffee beans. Then they closed that place down, and Charlie moved onto East Broad Street, and that’s when I started delivering coffee beans from there, too.

Meghan Jones

Flagpole

How much coffee do you start the day off with on your bike?

Vernon Thornsberry

Sometimes I start off with 165 pounds, and that’s a lot! Those bags are five pounds apiece. When it gets down to 80 pounds, I can ride the bike instead of pushing it.

Oh, and it was hard at first! Because I only had coffee on the front of the bike, it was tilting over. Then Charlie decided to put some on the back to balance it out, and that made it better. But I’m an experienced driver; I’ve never spilled the beans.

Flagpole

Tell me about the route you take. All over downtown, right?

Meghan Jones

Vernon Thornsberry

Well, I start at the roasters on Broad, I go to Bluebird first, then after Bluebird I go to DePalma’s. I go to Speakeasy, I go to Five Star Day. That’s when I go to Walker’s and that K.O. coffee place.

Flagpole

K.O. Coffee? [Laughs] Do you mean the O.K. Coffee on College at Clayton?

Vernon Thornsberry

[Also laughs] Yeah, yeah, never mind, it’s O.K. Coffee, then Phoenix, Last Resort. Then Redeemer Church, The Grit, Bischero, Big City Bread, and the Co-op. Well, sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t; the Co-op doesn’t always order. Marti’s every so often, that’s kinda far up this way.

Yeah, I get there around three in the afternoon on Fridays; about 5:30–6, I finish up.

Flagpole

Well, I’ve walked the route with you once or twice and it’s a pretty pleasant way to spend a sunny afternoon. You bump into lots of interesting people; everybody knows you and stops to say hi.

Vernon Thornsberry

Oh, yeah, yeah, the shop owners are pretty good, and I get to talk to a lot of people sometimes. When I’m taking care of business, though, I have to go real fast. But people are always asking how much the coffee beans cost, or where you can get coffee beans, just all types of things.

A lot of people just don’t know what it is, and they stop and ask me, “What is that? What is that you’re selling?” They say, “What’s in the bag?” and that’s when I say, “Oh, it’s coffee beans,” and they say, “Oh!”

Meghan Jones