Pour Coffee Pours Coffee Inside North City Park Hair Salon

What do haircuts and coffee have in common? They can both be found at 2331 East 28th Avenue, the space shared by Du Jour Hair Studio and Pour Coffee in North City Park.

For owner Elena Padilla, putting coffee in her salon just made sense. "I noticed a lot of people would stop at Starbucks before they come for their hair," recalls Padilla. "I was waiting for someone else to do a coffee shop [in the neighborhood], then I had a vision: That's what I need in here. It will work for both sides."

Padilla's mother grew up in the North City Park neighborhood, and Padilla says, "I always wanted a salon in a neighborhood just for the convenience, because it's easy for people to just walk by, and it’s more of a community — that’s what I loved about it, because I’m a people person — and it feels like home," says Padilla. Although her original plan included a boutique, not a coffee shop, she soon realized she needed help, and thought coffee would be the perfect way to add to the community she loves.

Pour Coffee's new owner, Jaimee Anderson, fell in love with coffee when she was fourteen. Before and after school, she worked as a barista at a mom-and-pop shop in Aurora. After graduation, she moved to Seattle. "That's where I super-geeked out on coffee," explains Anderson, who spent her time there learning everything she could about methods of roasting and brewing. Four years ago, she moved back home to Denver and worked at Starbucks before the opportunity to join forces with Padilla presented itself.

Padilla and Anderson met almost three years ago through a single mothers' group, but it wasn't until a year ago that they made the connection between Anderson's experience with coffee and Padilla's need for someone to take over the salon's coffee shop. Because the original owners became too busy to maintain normal business hours, Anderson has made it her goal to let people know that the shop is under new management with consistent hours from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. every weekday (8 a.m to 4 p.m. Saturdays and closed Sundays), while the hair salon operates from 10 a.m. to 4 or 5 p.m., depending on appointments.

"A lot of times, people think it's weird — they don't often realize it's two-in-one," observes Padilla. They hope foot traffic from nearby Airbnbs and the neighboring restaurant The Plimoth will help to build a customer base. Whether it's people new to the neighborhood coming over to use the free wi-fi, a Park Hill moms' group having a meeting, or someone getting a haircut, "it's never quiet," says Padilla.

The motto, "Pour love, pour joy, pour coffee" adorns the wall and reflects their shared mission to build community and inclusiveness beyond their walls. Recently they began hosting events like live music, henna classes, how-to hair-styling workshops, and daddy/daughter hair braiding, and plan to add more.

"We feel like it's brought a lot of people together," says Padilla.