Alumni Zach and Kara Sheets have opened a new coffee shop called The Front Porch Coffee Company and Bakery in downtown Abilene. The grand opening was on December 3 as students and the people of Abilene are excited for another coffee shop to come to Abilene.

Front Porch is located at 702 N. 2nd St., on the corner of North 2nd Street across from Frontier Texas. This is a family-opened and family owned coffee shop, and the Sheets family are big supporters of college students, especially ACU, and are looking to compete with places like Monks and Maslows. Monks is across from The Well Church in downtown Abilene, but now with that church moving locations across the street from The Front Porch, they are looking to gain customers from that community.

The slogan that Front Porch is using is “Chill Vibes, Warm Hearts.” Zach and Kara Sheets are the sole owners of the coffee shop, but they are also ACU alumni from the 2000’s. They said they were excited to get the place finally open and they feel blessed for this opportunity to open up their own coffee shop.  

“I am most excited to see all the people gather and we want to just be welcoming to Abilene because this coffee shop was part of a dream that we have and we love to show hospitality to this community.” Sheets said. “We love to make people smile and show God’s love to others, and Kara and I know a lot of the college community so that is why we wanted to hire college students.”

Front Porch also hired not only their family friends, but they hired tons of college students to work here. Mallory Stater, a junior psychology major from Amarillo knew the Sheets family from church and was blessed with an opportunity to be hired at this new coffee shop.

“ I am so excited to open up because we have been training for a long time and for college students to start coming in but also I want to learn how to make new drinks and to try some stuff out for myself, and I would love to learn latte art with the foam,” Stater said.

This is a great way for Abilene to reignite the small businesses downtown and Front Porch’s hours are 7 a.m.- 10p.m. on Mondays through Saturdays, and this will benefit the Abilene coffee lovers as well as college students looking for cool new places to study.