In Downtown West, Anchor Room aspires to be more than just coffee

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Amanda Woytus

An iced vanilla latte at Anchor Room

I’m sipping an iced vanilla latte at a communal table inside Anchor Room Coffeehouse (1610 Olive), a café that opened about a year ago downtown, sandwiched between Soldiers Memorial Military Museum and the soon-to-open Centene Stadium. It’s “afternoon caffeine slump” o’clock, the hour during which tired people like me need a cup of coffee to carry us through the rest of the day, and it’s quiet except for the hum of the air conditioning and some piano music trickling out of a speaker in the corner. Another patron is camped out at a round, marble-looking table in front of the coffehouse’s stage. “Do you go to this church?” he asks me.

He’s asking that because Anchor Room is more than just coffee. It’s attached to Centenary United Methodist Church and is a nonprofit that provides supportive employment to St. Louisans and donates profits to safe-water projects in Africa. And though I’m loving the quiet surrounds—and the latte, too, with the coffee made from a secret blend of fair-trade beans—Anchor Room is hoping business picks up a bit and inflation calms down so it can make the big donations it wants to. 

Amanda Woytus

The counter at Anchor Room

The idea for Anchor Room came to Centenary pastor Marie Griffin in 2017, when she began at Eden Theological Seminary in Webster Groves. She wanted a project that could connect the community. She felt like a coffeehouse could be a modern-day well, where people would meet up and see their neighbors, like those Griffin had witnessed during a visit to Mozambique in 2014. The church she attended at the time had funded a few wells, and a group of parishioners traveled to the East African country to dedicate them. 

“I saw firsthand what a difference clean water makes to the community,” Griffin remembers. “How the kids can go to school because they don't have to fetch water all day, and the women can seek out different economic opportunities.” People are no longer constantly sick from dirty water. They don’t have to share water sources with crocodiles. They can raise livestock. 

When Griffin met Centenary Rev. Kathleen Wilder, she shared her idea of a coffeehouse that would support safe-water initiatives—and found out that Centenary had a room they had been wanting to turn into a coffeehouse for a decade. The name Anchor Room, taken from a Hebrews verse that talks about hope as an anchor for the soul, was already there. Plans rolled along, but the pandemic put the opening on hold for a while. Griffin used the downtime to apply for nonprofit status and make more changes to the building, including putting in a door that leads directly from the parking lot into the coffeehouse. Now Anchor Room serves a full lineup of coffee drinks—the most affordable being a cup of the house brew for just $2—as well as pancakes, breakfast sandwiches, doughnuts, and pastries. Soups and sandwiches roll out around lunchtime. (See the full menu here.)

Amanda Woytus

The sitting area at Anchor Room

Griffin sees the Anchor Room as an opportunity to do good not just in Africa but in St. Louis as well. By practicing supportive employment, she’s able to offer a job at Anchor Room to those who have been previously incarcerated, are unhoused, or are just having a hard time finding a job in general. For inspiration, Griffin is looking to two companies—Bridge Bread and Laughing Bear Bakery, both nonprofits—that also started in the Centenary building before moving into their own brick-and-mortar stores. Bridge Bread employs those experiencing homelessness, and Laughing Bear re-skills ex-offenders. 

Griffin is also happy to see that the Anchor Room has become a way for downtown neighbors to meet one another. Most of the regulars don’t attend the church, though there is a worship service there at 5 p.m. on Sundays. “Not too long ago, there were two people who live in the same building sitting here talking, and I heard this other guy say, ‘Hey, I stay over there, too.’ And he went and sat down next to them,” Griffin says. “It's really cool the way neighbors are getting to know each other from the coffeehouse.”