Iconic coffee bar began small; over 25 years, growth exponential

When remodeling the buildings at 209 and 211 N. Main, in order to accommodate Java Jive, Linn Ayers came across this photo. It shows Solomon Joseph and his staff on Jan. 22, 1913, in the office of the Hannibal Mercantile Company, 209 N. Main. Linn used a copy of this photo in order to design the storefront which still characterizes Java Jive. This photo was contributed by Tom Maddox and is now part of the Montgomery Historical Collection.

MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

Linn and Steve Ayers had a vision when they first purchased the building at 213 N. Main St., Hannibal, in 1994. They aptly named their new business Fresh Ayers, which sold housewares, local art and Steve’s hand-thrown pieces, Ayers Pottery.

But they wanted more. They envisioned a place where locals could gather for coffee and conversation, a unique concept for the era. Inside the building, they removed a closet at the back, making room for a small galley kitchen, with room for a household refrigerator and a home-style coffeemaker.

There and then, Fresh Ayers was born, selling coffee, muffins and desserts to no more than 15 customers at a time, who crowded around four or five little coffee tables.

When they purchased the building, it had most recently been used as storage for Haydon Hardware, which was located in the three store fronts to the south. The building at 213 N. Main was fronted “with cinder blocks and a speakeasy door,” Steve said, “reminiscent of the 1960s when Charley Gunn operated Alibi’s Tavern inside.” (Rumor is that there was a brothel upstairs.) 

The building was in desperate need of a new facade. Linn and Steve accomplished that, a project that gave them a good taste of historic renovation.

In 1994, they met Dave Chauvin, who was third generation in the coffee business. “He was the one who taught us how to make cappuccino,” Steve said.

“St. Louis used to have a huge commercial coffee business, which started with the steamboats that brought up the coffee from South America,” Steve said. In St. Louis they roasted it, and the businesses stayed there.

Expansion

Six years after opening Fresh Ayers, Steve and Linn made a bold move, purchasing and renovating the two storefronts directly to the south of Fresh Ayers, at 209 and 211 N. Main.

The double-storefront would become what is known today as Java Jive.

The front was “70s plate glass and ugly,” Linn said, “no store front at all.”

In the Missouri Room at the Hannibal Free Public Library, Linn saw a 1920s interior photo of the old Hannibal Mercantile Company, 209-11 N. Main, owned by Solomon Joseph. Linn wanted to replicate that look.

Upstairs, they found one of the building’s original doors. River City Restoration, which did the renovation work on the buildings, duplicated that door, and those two doors remain in use today.

They also added large plate glass windows to match the look of the past, along with decorative trim.

Leading up to the opening of Java Jive, Linn was adamant that she wanted a bar in the coffee shop. “We drove into little towns, looking through boarded up windows, hunting, hunting,” she said. At an architectural restoration company in St. Louis, they found a bar that had been removed from the basement of a Catholic Church. “It still had the gold plate on the back of the bar, in the center; it says the name of the woodworking company, and the phone number, which was three or four digits,” she said.

The antique bar remains a constant in the establishment.

By this time, of course, they had invested in professional coffee making equipment.

Early days

When Steve and Linn first started selling coffee, they were on the cutting edge of the specialized coffee trend. Twenty-five years ago, people could pronounce cappuccino, but they didn’t know what it was, Steve said. Customers would come in and order a “latt,” mispronouncing the word latte.

Early customers included “all the newspaper people,” who worked at the nearby Hannibal Courier-Post office, Linn said, “and downtown people, the girls from The Famous. 

“We named our black coffee ‘Joel,’ after Joel Shults, who was security at HLG and in law enforcement,” Linn said. “We had a bunch of people who would order a decaf skim latte. We called that the “Why Bother.”

Other early regulars included Bill Morrison and Jim Waddell.

Chris Stolte and Lillian Jackson worked behind the bar during those early years. 

Evenings and weekends, the Ayers’ daughters, Katy, Lindsey and Lew Ann, worked the counter.

“There would be two or three customers,” all night, and (our daughters) would sit at the bar and do their homework. When they were in middle school, they thought it was cool that their mother had a coffee shop,” Linn said.

Even though evening business was slow, Steve and Linn recognized the need to be open consistent hours in order for the business to grow.

“Hannibal had a good business district in the 1990s,” Steve said, “but there was no night business.” To draw people downtown, “L.A, Seuss ran open mike, and we had a concert series featuring singers and songwriters. These musicians might have been traveling between Chicago and Kansas City, and would stop in Hannibal to perform.

Jason Dugger ran jazz nights, and there were poetry readings, “trying to build business up at night. If you’re not consistent with your hours, you won’t get the locals,” Steve said.

Finally, the night business started to pick up.

Claim to fame

Famous people have visited Java Jive, including presidential contender John Kerry, Democratic party nominee for president in 2004, who was accompanied by singer Carole King, songwriter and musician, who sang “You have a friend,” acapella, right there in the coffee shop.

Another time, Mike Moore was playing in front of the store. A man with Minnesota plates pulled up in a camper pickup, got out and “started strumming with him,” Steve said. It was Jeff Daniels. “They played together for a little while.”

Customers

Early customers who have remained loyal throughout the years include Sally Poole Kintz,  Kristy Trevathan and Lisa Shores.

At times, the Java Jive customer base consisted of Republicans, who came at one point during the morning, and Democrats, who came at another hour, all seated in turn at the same large table that still occupies a prominent spot in the coffee shop’s seating arrangement.

“Some years they kind of joined together,” Linn said, the Republicans and Democrats. “When my dad (Neil Utterback) was still alive, they might start arguing about politics. My dad would slap the table, and say ‘hey, what about those Cardinals,’” or what ever team was playing, depending upon the season.

They ultimately sold their original building at 213 N. Main, and it is serves as The Powder Room on the first floor, and The Travelers Rooming House upstairs.

Their daughter, Katy Welch, now owns the business.

Coming in the next installment: Java Jive, 25 years later.