Husband and Wife Open Downtown Tuscaloosa Coffee Shop Comfort Grounds

A couple who moved to Tuscaloosa nearly 10 years ago celebrated the opening of their downtown coffee shop with a Monday morning ribbon-cutting.

The new spot, called Comfort Grounds, is a venture by husband-and-wife Carl and Christi Bielstein. They said they came to Alabama from Texas and are looking to create a special space for students, locals, and people of faith to recharge and study.

The cafe is now open at 2218 University Boulevard, next to Sugo Italian, where the Fleet Feet shoe store operated before relocating across the river to north Tuscaloosa.

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Carl Bielstein is the Vice President of Operations for the Troon golf hospitality company and became the general manager of Tuscaloosa's NorthRiver Yacht Club in 2018. He said he was never a big coffee drinker personally, but noticed that his daughter, in her twenties, and the other young congregants at Calvary Baptist Church always seemed to have one in hand.

The young people they were mentoring frequently wanted to meet at a coffee shop, too, and Bielstein said he and Christi began to realize there might be a good economic opportunity in opening a cafe of their own.

"I came to realize what a great space a coffee shop can be, particularly for college students, but for anybody — people are generally happy when they come in," he said. "And there are several coffee shops in the area, very successful and very good at what they do. But they're all full. So we thought, okay, maybe there is an opportunity."

Comfort Grounds is in a long, large space downtown but set up for smaller parties. Bielstein said most visitors are either alone or with one other person, so two-top tables and comfortable couches fill the space.

"This is a warm, welcoming environment, and for us personally, it's a place where somebody could come in and bring their Bible and disciple one another, study, read, pray, whatever it happens to be, because there are very few public places that you can feel comfortable having your Bible open," Carl Bielstein said. "But it's also for anybody to come. You can have community and fellowship, or just come by yourself and do whatever you need to do and just enjoy coffee, espresso or a latte."

The Bielsteins said they chose the name Comfort Grounds to hint at a welcoming environment while also nodding to their family histories and faith.

Carl Bielstein said his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all lived in a tiny town called Comfort, Texas, and the first part of the name acknowledges that past while also promising rest within the coffeeshop.

"With 'Grounds,' of course, we can mean coffee beans, but also kind of that safe place," Christi Bielstein said. "You can come in, and it's comfortable, it's warm and inviting. We want it to be a place where people could just be here, hang out, and be grounded."

Comfort Grounds serves organic coffee roasted in coastal Florida, served up in a wide variety of presentations, and also features a rotating menu of weekly specials like the Front Porch Latte featuring honey, cinnamon, and vanilla.

The Bielsteins gave credit to their hard-working staff of mostly college students and said they'll miss those who are soon to graduate, but appreciate all who have worked at Comfort Grounds since their late-March opening.

A grand opening event is planned this Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., with special offerings including free drip coffee all day, 50 percent discounts on pastries when you buy a drink, raffle prizes, live music, and more.

For more exclusive coverage of restaurant and retail development in West Alabama, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.