Photo by Erin Nelson.
Sydney Hazlewood, store manager at Baba Java Roaster & Cafe, makes a latte for a customer at the Hoover store on July 6. Baba Java is opening a second location on Alabama 119.
Four years ago, Hoover residents Nathan and Wendi Parvin started a new coffee shop in Riverchase called Baba Java Roaster & Café, and now they’re expanding.
The Parvins in February opened a second location in Montevallo and hope by late August or early September to open their third location of Baba Java in the new Village at Meadow Brook strip center, at the corner of Alabama 119 and Doug Baker Boulevard.
The 2,200-square-foot shop is in the same shopping center where Burn Boot Camp opened in December. It will be a little larger than the 1,650-square-foot shop in Riverchase, said Brad Haynes, Baja Java’s vice president over operations.
The new shop will offer the same coffees and teas the Riverchase location has, but it also will have a new element. The Meadow Brook Baba Java will be combined with a Popbar shop, which sells gelato popsicles.
Popbar has about 15 locations in the United States, including one in Atlanta, but this will be the first Popbar in Alabama.
Haynes said Baba Java has always wanted to be on the U.S. 280 corridor because that’s where he and his family live, as well as a lot of their employees and customers. Developer Jim Mitchell made them an inviting offer to come to his shopping center, and they really liked the location, Haynes said.
“We feel it’s a great way to be near 280 but not right on 280,” he said. “There are a lot of great customers around here, and we feel like we’ll get some good business there.”
Baba Java takes pride in the type of coffee it offers. It’s all specialty coffee instead of typical commercial-grade coffee, which means it must receive a grade of 80 or higher, with the grade hinging on how the coffee seed is grown, harvested, processed, shipped and stored, Haynes said. Most of Baba Java’s coffee has a grade of 85 or higher, he said.
The shop’s flagship coffee comes from Yemen, but other coffee beans come from China, Ethiopia, Columbia, Papua New Guinea, Guatemala and Honduras, he said.
Initially, Baba Java was roasting its coffee beans in the shop, but now most of the roasting takes place in a warehouse in Pelham, Haynes said. The shop got so busy that they decided to do most of the roasting off-site, he said.
Baba Java also is committed to ethical sourcing of its coffee beans, meaning that the farmers who produce the coffee beans are well paid, Haynes said.
“It takes a lot of work to grow coffee,” he said. “We’re very intentional who we buy from. … The people we buy from do a lot of community projects to help locals in the community, such as building schools and wells and doing various things for the community.”
Baba Java’s specialty drinks are sold in traditional Italian sizes. Its cappuccinos are 6-8 ounces, lattes are 12-16 ounces and macchiatos are 3 ounces with a touch of milk.
Baba Java’s tea comes from Sachai Tea Co, which imports from India, and Piper & Leaf in Huntsville, which uses tea leaves grown in Alabama, Haynes said.
The shop also sells some food, getting sweet scones from Highland Gourmet Scones and savory scones, cinnamon & crepe rolls, sweet rolls and breakfast croissant sandwiches from Copper Train in Alabaster. Michelle’s Chocolate Laboratory in Hoover supplies coffee cake, breakfast bars, puff pastries and chocolate-covered Oreos.
Haynes said he wasn’t yet sure exactly how many seats the Meadow Brook location will have, but it should be similar to the Riverchase location, which seats 48 people. The Riverchase location employs 12 people, some of whom are part-time, he said.
Baba Java actually has already signed a deal for a fourth location in downtown Birmingham, at the development taking place at the former Powell Steam Plant, Hayne said. That location will be almost 3,000 square feet — nearly twice the size of the Riverchase location — but it probably won’t be ready to open until the summer of 2024, he said. It also will be combined with a Popbar store, he said.
The company also has signed a deal for a Baba Java/Popbar combo shop at a new development called The Edge, coming along Green Springs Highway in Homewood.
For more information, go to babajavacoffee.com or check out the company’s CoffeeU podcast.
Editor's note: This story was updated on Aug. 16 with news about Baba Java and Popbar preparing to open a joint location in Homewood and to reflect the opening of a location in Montevallo this past February.
