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When it comes to birthday bashes, Cove Coffee’s Kelsey Bertel really knows how to go all out.
Balloons, special vendors and a whole lot of team jerseys were seen at Bertel’s popular coffee shop on Friday as she and her employees celebrated their sixth birthday together.
Raised in Mountain Home, Bertel was obsessed with the downtown area as a child. She would visit the downtown square with her friends, popping in and out of the stores for fun.
And while there wasn’t much for her and her friends to do, she saw the potential of Mountain Home’s old-time square.
Bertel’s journey to opening her downtown coffee shop would start with her return to the small town after being away for seven years. She picked up work at Brewed Awakening, another of Mountain Home’s coffee companies, and fell in love with the craft.
She soaked in the experience, learning all she could from Brewed Awakening’s former owners Mike and Kimberly Lengenfelder. By the time she turned 25, her thoughts had begun to drift back to downtown Mountain Home.
The second a space became available in the downtown area, Bertel took her risk and opened Cove Coffee in 2018.
Bertel started with nothing but secured the equipment needed to get going after learning that one of her husband’s clients was getting out of the coffee business.
Cove Coffee is not a typical coffee house. It doesn’t have individual seating and tables. Instead, the shop is filled with couches and communal tables where guests can sit down and get to know each other over a game of chess or checkers.
Its coffee is locally sourced from Allan Hickman, a micro-roaster in Harrison, Arkansas. Its baristas have the artistic freedom to experiment and make new drinks and flavors when they want. The shop also sells fresh pastries from Aletha McClure, a local baker in Mountain Home.
This month’s seasonal drinks are themed around Halloween.
Cove has continued to grow over the last six years it has been open, thanks in part to Bertel’s “flavor first, sweetness second” approach to making coffee.
Over time, Bertel, along with her husband and his team at the Dels, have completely renovated the building, installing new flooring, new walls, and a new bar for Bertel to work from.
In addition to Cove Coffee, the Bertel family owns the Dels Corporation, which oversees hundreds of rental properties throughout the Ozarks, and a variety of restaurants in the heart of downtown Mountain Home including Rio Burrito, Caddy Jacks, Scoop Ice Cream, and Buzz’s Pies and Pub.
Cove Coffee can be found at 714 S. Baker Street in downtown Mountain Home.
