Trailside Coffee Becomes Grit Café

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Brandon Wooten
Brandon Wooten

Trailside Coffee in Old Trail Village has been acquired by a group of investors who have assembled three coffee houses in Crozet and Charlottesville and will operate them under the name Grit Café.

Brandon Wooten and Brad Uhl have joined with Eric Kelley, the founder of Para Coffee on Elliewood Avenue in Charlottesville, to buy Café Cubano on the Downtown Mall and Trailside Coffee.

“We’ve been seeing what’s needed in the coffee landscape,” said Wooten. “We’ve decided what the concept is going be. The name change to Grit Café will happen in the next few weeks. We’ll be open the whole time during renovations [to Trailside].

“We love what Marcia [McGee] has built. We want a Southern tie. ‘Grit’ is sort of a Southern word. We want it to be a space to work out of. I’m excited to create a space for people, especially people from Charlottesville. We love to come out here [to Crozet] to get away from the hustle and bustle. You can really get a lot done here.

“We’ll slowly roll out a new food menu,” said Wooten. “It will be Southern and we want locally sourced food, too. We’re partnering with a local roaster to produce our own blend that will be called grit coffee. We also want Virginia beer and wine and small plates. We want people to sit and enjoy the view and we’re going to try to create more use of the patio.

“We weren’t looking for a Crozet space, but it happened that way. We want feedback on what Crozet wants. We might add a country store concept with candy for Western students.”

Wooten said store hours will stay the same but may be extended once beer and wine sales are official.

“We’re focused on coffee,” he said, “but we’re trying to make it more like a café and a place where people feel comfortable and can hang around.”

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