ANDERSON — While Anderson isn’t the city that put the world on wheels, it was a city driven by the auto industry for decades. Until it wasn’t.
“With the exit of GM in the '90s, Anderson took it pretty hard,” Joshua Stafford, co-owner of Jackrabbit Coffee, said. It was a pivotal moment for the Anderson resident.
“It was like a lightbulb moment for me. What we needed to create down here in this neighborhood was reasons for people to want to be down here.”
That neighborhood, the West Central District, is the place Stafford has called home for nearly 20 years. It’s the same place he opened Jackrabbit Coffee alongside his wife in 2017.
“Our passion from the very beginning has been our community,” Stafford said.
And it’s a community that’s embraced the coffee shop. Stafford says Jackrabbit has a strong base of people that want them to succeed.
Stafford credits the shop’s success in part to its genuine hospitality. The caffeinated beverages help too. Stafford says the two most popular drinks are the house-made vanilla latte that uses organic Madagascar vanilla beans, and the blackberry dark chocolate latte.
Jackrabbit Coffee also features an assortment of local retail products that include honey, maple syrup and items from other roasters.
