Workhorse Coffee Bar

New coffee shop promotes art in unexpected places

Article and photos by MARGIE O’LOUGHLIN

The storefront at 2399 University Ave. has been a coffee shop for more than 20 years: first the Prairie Star, then the Edge and, since May of this year, the Workhorse Coffee Bar. Co-owned by business partners and spouses  Ty Barnett and Shannon Forney, the space has been repurposed to suit their vision. “This business,” Forney said, “is our baby.”

As all new parents must, Barnett and Forney have defined their roles and are playing to their respective strengths.

Photo left: Shannon Forney, business manager, and Ty Barnett, proprietor, are co-owners of the Workhorse Coffee Bar at 2399 University Ave. They are breathing new life into the old space, located in the historic Security Building (ca 1910). Their newly renovated coffee bar boasts the only original tin ceiling remaining in the building.

Barnett, a tinkerer by nature, loves the mechanics of making great coffee. A self-confessed motorcycle hoarder, she understands engines and moving parts both large and small. Her coffee equipment is in tip-top shape and, as the proprietor, she’s almost always the one behind the bar serving up sublime coffees and fragrant teas from 6am-6pm, Monday through Friday, and from 7am-5pm Saturday and Sunday.

Photo right: More and more people are informally “officing” out of coffee shops these days. On a Saturday morning, Donald Stephens created illustrations for a graphic novel he was working on—with his coffee nearby. The portraits of Masanari Kawahara grace the walls above him. 

Forney works as the business manager while continuing to hold down a day-job as program director for the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. She’s the Workhorse logistics specialist and described with pride a loan officer from the Neighborhood Development Council who helped them get started.

“The officer,” Forney said, “valued that we were a women-owned, local establishment. She also commented that we had the best-developed business plan she’d ever seen and that she loved our cash-flow projections.”

Barnett and Forney are a like a team of work horses. They have their individual talents but share an enthusiasm for the neighborhood, a strong desire to work hard and to welcome every customer who walks through their door. Forney said, “Nobody opens a coffee shop to get rich. You do it for the love, and you hope to earn a living along the way.

Like many coffee shops, Workhorse exhibits original art that changes every four to six weeks.  Barnett and Forney decided early on not to take a percentage of sales, as a way of supporting the work of community artists.

Currently on exhibit are the gentle, wide-eyed portraits of neighbor Masanari Kawahara, a resident of the C & E Lofts across the street. “All of art we choose to hang here,” Forney said, “is hyper-local.” Painter Eric Pearson is up next for exhibit on the walls and lives a block away in the Carleton Artist Lofts.

Photo left: Shannon Forney holds the keys to the Smallest Museum in St. Paul. She and Ty Barnett were awarded a $5,000 Knight Grant to complete the project. Out of 868 proposals for the St. Paul Arts Challenge, only 42 applicants received funding.

Slightly less conspicuous is the famed Smallest Museum in St. Paul, located in a vintage fire hose cabinet—recessed into the exterior wall near the entry door. With help from the Knight Foundation’s St. Paul Arts Challenge, Barnett, and Forney were able to transform the 24” X 35” space into a micro-museum gallery. They believe that small art can make a big impact, and have lined up an ambitious monthly rotation of artists through June 2016. Up next is artist Ruthann Godollei with a small exhibit on micro printing.

“We hope to give visibility to artists living and working nearby with this project,” Forney said.  “The Smallest Museum in St. Paul invites pedestrians to consider art in unexpected places; it promotes a sense of humor and maybe some sidewalk conversation.”  Forney added that the project was inspired by Little Free Libraries, which pepper the Twin Cities.

Who knows? There might even be artists from Minneapolis vying for a spot there soon.