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Here Comes the Neighborhood

Willis and Sonya Walker's trendy coffee joint gives Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward a much-needed caffeine fix

By Didi Swartz (Atlanta '03)

It's a chilly Thursday evening. A woman in a suit and black-rimmed glasses toting a laptop walks into Javaology, a hip coffee shop in Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward, and orders an espresso concoction with an "atomic" flavor shot. A few tables down, two college students plan a fundraiser over sandwiches and the soft din of hip-hop. A customer perusing the lab-themed menu mistakenly orders a "tall" macchiato, to which the good-natured clerk replies, "We're not Starbucks." Soon after, a young man inquires about a Peace Corps meeting. He is directed to the upstairs loft where a sign on the door reads, "Building community one cup at a time."

And so it is. Today the shop is bustling with college students, artists, musicians, and professionals, but less than a decade ago this same corner in the Old Fourth Ward drew a much different crowd. "It was a laundromat," says Javaology owner Willis Walker (Metro D.C. '95). "Probably made more money from drug sales than from washing clothes."

Betting on the success of a trendy coffee joint here was no small gamble for Willis and his wife, Sonya (Metro D.C. '95). The couple, who met as college students in Atlanta-he was at Morehouse, she was at Spelman-and wed during their second year in the corps, remember a crime-ridden neighborhood and a revolving door of failed businesses. "I don't think we really understood the level of blight," says Willis. "It helped being young and idealistic."

The couple had trouble securing a loan because there were no other new developments in the area. One bank officer asked a startled Willis, "Do you really think black people will drink coffee?"

"The process was painful," says Sonya, now a middle school language arts teacher. The difficulty extended to renovating the former laundromat. "That was an old, old building. It had no plumbing, no electricity, and no walls. That project really helped me understand what it means to be first. It's not as romantic as it seems."

Still the Walkers persisted, and Javaology opened its doors in September 2004. "The neighborhood was so excited to have a new business that everyone came out to support us," says Willis. On opening day, he started by giving out free cups of coffee to attract customers, but as locals continued to pour in for the first hour, he told his staff: "Let's turn on the registers, let's go."

Since then, Javaology, with its open-mic poetry nights and salsa and tango lessons, has become "a community nexus," says Willis. The couple, who have two sons, Willis IV and Elijah, also hope to open a wine bar. Following their lead, a handful of shops and restaurants-not to mention several condominium and apartment developments-have sprung up to cater to the new diverse clientele. "We've been a test bed about whether the neighborhood is ready to turn around," he says.

That Javaology is nestled just a few blocks from Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthplace and the famed Ebenezer Baptist Church is not lost on its owner. "It is pretty special," says Willis, "to be a part of the new wave of entrepreneurs in one of the oldest black business districts in the country."