A new cafe is coming to Oxford later this year after a series of delays. RedLife Coffee will open in historic Alexander House and is owned by a local church.
Following three years of RedLife renovating the historic Alexander House into a hybrid church and coffee shop, Calvary Church Senior Pastor and general manager Tom Ellis said the doors will finally open in late summer or early fall this year.
In 2021, the project got delayed because of contractor issues, resulting in an eight-month process of hiring a new company. Ellis said construction was back on track in late 2022, though the project still isn't fully on schedule.
"From a delay standpoint it's been probably a confluence of a lot of different things, but we've tried to just stay the course," Ellis said. "You know, just keep moving forward doing what we can because we love being here [and we] love the idea of what the coffee shop can represent for the community."
Ellis said the church owns the building and is financially supporting the renovation with the help of donations.
Overall, he said the church has invested more than $1 million into the project.
"It's just a really great opportunity for people to connect in meaningful ways," Ellis said. "And then out of it, of course the faith element for us drives compassion, it drives love for humanity in this community. There are needs in this community and we feel like this place can provide a way for compassion to be felt and to feed the spiritual man as well."
Even though the building isn't operational, the business is. On its website, people can buy La Terza coffee grounds and beans, RedLife's supplier from Cincinnati.
During the week, the building will operate as a coffee shop with 10 to 15 employees, serving La Terza Coffee and crepes baked in-house. Ellis said the hope is to make the church fully operational by 2025 with weekly sermons.
The house holds many different spaces for people to work in. There's a dining room with restaurant style eating, a living room with couches and a coffee bar. The upstairs great room will primarily be used for church, but Ellis said the space can be rented out for events.
The name RedLife ties together the Miami RedHawks and the organization's Christian values. Ellis says red symbolizes the red words of Christ in the bible and the blood he shed on the cross.
"But a red life speaks to just the life of compassion of life and love, that, obviously, Christ represented on Earth," Ellis said.
After years of working on the project, two other articles about the opening of the cafe and major delays, Ellis said it's all about perseverance.
"If things don't line up, you know, can't give up or throw in the towel or whatever," Ellis said. "To me, it was it's kind of a lesson in perseverance in a lot of ways that we just keep at it."
