The back door, used as a canvas for a painting by Kelly Berry, swings open as starving artists flood in. The room becomes an improbably harmonious balance between the hum of conversation with steaming milk and microphone tests. Anxious poets approach a sign-up list placed almost too close to the stage. It challenges would-be artists to jump through not just one hoop of fear, but two. Navigate the narrow walkway to that piece of paper, and then stand up on the stage and bleed. It must be another open mic night at Austin’s Coffee in Winter Park.
“I don’t know where I’d be without this place,” says long-time local poet Haley Graves. “It’s home.” Nestled snugly on a busy strip of West Fairbanks Avenue home to sundry bars, restaurants and businesses, Austin’s Coffee has long offered a refuge for performers wanting to ply their craft, finding regulars void of judgment at nightly events running the gamut from open mics to drag to freewheeling jazz jams. It’s a bohemian haunt that stands out in Winter Park. You can almost imagine Jack Kerouac, during his brief tenure as an Orlandoan, posting up in a booth to watch the wordsmiths do their thing during open mic nights.
The future of this local institution, however, is once again in peril. Last month, Winter Park city commissioners unanimously passed a motion for the city to purchase the one-acre plot of land on Fairbanks Avenue where Austin’s currently sits — as does Michelin-starred restaurant Soseki Omakase.
The city of Winter Park has committed $4 million to the project, aimed at adding a left turning lane on each side of the intersection of Fairbanks and Denning Drive to improve traffic flow, and eventually expanding MLK Park. However, that plan requires the demolition of Austin’s Coffee and neighboring businesses.
If this sounds familiar, that’s because this scenario was proposed back in 2021, but the vote didn’t pass. The motion was tabled then with a decision to further review traffic and pedestrian impacts. This time, the outcome was very different.
After operating for more than 20 years and even surviving a pandemic, employees of Austin’s find themselves caught in a loop of wearying déjà vu.
Speaking to OW, assistant manager Bob Barnett, an employee of five years, says he was there for the last go-around, right after the pandemic, as small businesses were already taking a tremendous hit.
The recent news caught both the shop and most locals off-guard. Barnett says that a regular informed a barista after seeing the road project mentioned in the city council minutes, with a vote scheduled within days.
“There’s nobody on staff who’s paid to read the city council meeting minutes, and there’s nobody on staff here who’d pay to read the schedule,” Barnett deadpans.
Barnett says he’s been working day and night to come to an agreement with local officials and plan pop-up events to help raise money in case Austin’s has to relocate. Barnett’s efforts to raise awareness have even extended to the social media realm; a new Instagram account @saveaustinscoffee shares updates and information on the situation and rallying events.
“In this instance, we are asking the city to either help us relocate, which is within their power, or to extend our lease, so we can try to figure it out,” says Barnett, “or both.”
The importance of Austin’s in the community goes way beyond its physical address. It has become, organically, a performing-arts incubator.
Local poet Dream Engert, a regular at Austin’s for years, attests to the opportunities offered.
“The first time I ever performed poetry on a mic was here,” Engert says. “To say that was a milestone would be so understating.” Engert says they’d always struggled with getting on stage, but here they felt secure enough to give it a try.
“This is the safest place I’ve ever been,” Engert says. “This place is therapy for people who don’t have it and a safe space for people who can’t be themselves anywhere else.”
Orlando punk musician Lena Alkhaldi says that it’s disheartening to see the city try this again, knowing the impact Austin’s has on the community.
“My hopes are that the city decides to listen to the locals and the community. This is not the first time they’ve tried to do this. The first time, people didn’t take it well and this time we’re not going to take it well either,” Alkhaldi says. “It’s like they’re trying to tear the community apart and it sucks that it’s during a time where it feels like community is all we have left.”
Arjun Bala, the host of Wednesday Open Words at Austin’s, says that local shows like these poetry mics are struggling to stay alive and keep the creative community engaged. When they lose prominent venues, it’s a huge setback. He hopes that this isn’t the case with Austin’s.
“When these kinds of spaces close down, it becomes a void that cannot be filled,” says Bala. “It’s devastating.”
A couple of weeks ago, Austin’s hosted a “Save Austin’s” open forum, inviting attendees to pass the mic and share opinions, questions, solutions or just their stories.
On that Friday evening, the shop was packed with a mix of regulars, artists, concerned citizens and even a few civic leaders.
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Inside and out of the overflowing room, folks chatted about their worries of seeing Austin’s tumble, while sharing cigarettes and tea.
“I wanted to sing and uh … they let ya here,” led off Kendal Rivera, lead singer and guitarist of Holding on For Dear Life, who got their start on the creaky stage of Austin’s Coffee. Rivera underlined the fact that the café fostered an environment where you felt comfortable enough to do anything you felt artistically possible.
Orange County District 5 Commissioner Kelly Semrad soon took the mic — surprising the gathering with her opening line.
“I want you to know this is one of the very first places that my husband and I had a date, years and years and years ago. Actually at that table,” Semrad said, pointing at a booth.
The entire shop lit up in snaps and claps. Semrad expressed her empathy for the situation, saying Austin’s is a unique gem in the community.
Anna Eskamani, the ubiquitous State House Representative for District 42 in Orlando, showed up in solidarity, saying that Austin’s has a special place in her heart.
“When I finally got to get a car and make it out to parts of Orlando and Winter Park and actually see city life outside suburbia, I was just taken away by these incredible historic establishments that are creating safe creative spaces for every type of person to be their authentic selves,” Eskamani said. “And we are losing that throughout Orlando.”
Eskamani also stated that she had a positive conversation with the mayor regarding the situation. But she was clear-eyed in her assessment of the larger problems and stressed that our society (and by extension, leadership) often doesn’t prioritize community nor protect establishments that have significance beyond just the bottom line.
“At the end of the day change is inevitable, but we want to be a part of that change, not left out of it,” Eskamani said.
The hopeful crowd dispersed after many more stories regarding lives that would’ve been much poorer without Austin’s Coffee and tips on how to “legally harass your politicians.”
Then it was time for the singer-songwriter mic to begin.
In true Austin’s fashion, the second half of the night began with the strum of a guitar and a guy in a beanie introducing a tune that’s “a love song … about drugs.” And that abrupt left turn kind of sums up the beauty of this place.
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This article appears in Dec 18-24, 2024.