LOUISVILLE, Ky. — For so many entrepreneurs in 2020, business came to a grinding halt. That’s why giving the gift of local goods means so much to local communities.

“We are working on year number three now,” Alphonza Bradley said. He and his wife LaToya had only just begun their modest catering business when COVID-19 rocked the world, but they concluded if they wanted their business to survive, they needed to make a critical change.

“When [COVID-19] hit and we had to cancel some events, we decided that it would be in our best interest to open a coffee shop,” Bradley explained.

They switched from catering to coffee, renaming themselves “Brew & Sip Coffee Bar.”

Working behind the bar on a cool December morning was family favorite and biology major Sierra Crump, picking up some holiday hours.

“I started working here over the summer and then I just came back from college, so now I’m working back here over my break,” Crump said while steaming milk.

Brew & Sip is a locally-owned coffee shop on Shepherdsville Road in Louisville, Ky. (Spectrum News 1/Jonathon Gregg)

Brew and Sip recently joined the Louisville Independent Business Alliance which strongly advocates for Kentuckians to shop locally during the holiday season.

“When you look at dollars spent and what recirculates in the community, if you were to spend $100 at a chain, only $14 would stay in the community,” Executive Director Jennifer Rubenstein explained. “If you spend that money at a locally owned, independent business, more like $55 will continue to circulate, so that means a lot to our local economy.”

Shopping locally means a lot to Alphonza and LaToya Bradley, who have invested everything they have into their business. 

“Our community has really supported us. It’s really nice to see, like, a lot of my classmates, my wife’s friends, business associates… and they come in and they really do support us,” Alphonza Bradley said.

And the Bradleys support them back. “We shop local as well. We like to keep our money in our community,” Mr. Bradley said.

Earlier this year, Brew and Sip opened a second location on Broadway in downtown Louisville—just proving that if anything, this family is still on the grind.