Love Jr.'s coffee shop to highlight African varieties at Visitors Center
BETSIE FREEMAN
WorldHerald Staff Writer
He has been a Nebraska football player, an IBM executive, the owner of Atlanta's first computer store, the director of Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign and a candidate for the U.S. Senate.
And now, at age 83, Preston Love Jr. is on the fast track to becoming a barista.
That might seem like a demotion, but it's not.
The gig is part of his new North Omaha Visitors Center, the culmination of his dream to create a nonprofit organization that promotes tourism and economic development in his childhood neighborhood near 24th and Lake Streets.
The center is expected to open in mid-November.
At first, he saw a coffee shop as a small part of the center, which will offer a space for community gatherings and house his already thriving nonprofit business that offers tours of North Omaha landmarks and has a bus available to rent for day trips.
"My view was narrow — a big bowl of coffee poured out of a pitcher with special services like cream and sugar," he joked.
But after consulting with Omaha coffee purveyors, he realized it could — and should — be way more. It will be the first thing you see when you walk in the door at 2205 N. 24th St., "and a visitors center should be welcoming," he said.
Love recently immersed himself in Omaha's thriving coffee culture and started to watch the coffee habits of his Black peers.
"It used to be McDonald's versus Burger King," he said, but thanks to young people, it's now espresso, lattes, cold brew and specialty drinks.
He started to investigate coffee beans and decided he wanted the shop to only use those grown in Ethiopia and roasted by Black-owned companies.
Miah Sommer, who operates Astute Coffee in downtown Omaha, hosted Love for a tasting so he could figure out which beans to buy.
Sommer said the tasting came about through Joey Wolfe, a mutual acquaintance who is into the coffee scene. Somme said he loved the idea because he has been into coffee sourcing lately.
"It's an African fruit, indigenous only to Africa, distant to where it ended up in the state it's in now," said Sommer, who is the founder and executive director of Astute, a nonprofit that employs young people who are aging out of foster care.
Wolfe investigated several beans roasted by Black-owned companies and the three of them gathered for the sampling.
"It was fun how down to earth (Love) was and how willing he was to learn," Sommer said. "He wanted to know everything about it (and) asked really good questions."
Love decided to use three roasters: CXFEEBLACK, a husband-and wife team that created an all-Black coffee chain from Ethiopia to Memphis, Tennessee; Three Keys Coffee out of Houston, named after the valves on a trumpet and chosen as a tribute to his dad, jazz musician Preston Love; and Portrait Coffee, run by three Black men in Atlanta.
Love said he learned a lot from Omaha's coffee afficionados.
"The coffee community has been super-welcoming to me and the idea of this kind of shop in Omaha," he said. "My career will come to the proper conclusion when I can make a (cream) heart."
The shop will have highend espresso makers and other equipment — and ample seating to foster community. It will also serve treats from Sweet Meatz, a company founded by Black baker Rhea Vinson.
Love plans to learn how to run the machinery and work behind the counter at the coffee shop when necessary.
The center, of course, is more than just coffee.
It will have a gift shop with local books and souvenirs; Heritage Hall, the community room that will have a timeline of Omaha's Black history and achievements, ending with the election of our first Black mayor, John Ewing; maps; and information about his tours, which go to 22 North Omaha locations including The Union for Contemporary Arts, Bud Crawford Gym, the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation and historic Black churches.
It also will highlight his free Legacy Tours for youths, seven-day excursions to national civil rights landmarks such as the Lorraine Motel, site of Martin Luther King's assassination and the Rosa Parks Museum. The next one, in 2026, will be his ninth.
The local tours boost revenue for North Omaha businesses, Love said.
He offered a recent example: "A tour for 35 prospective teachers ended with lunch at Big Mama's Kitchen, which put $1,000 into the area economy."
He also rents out the bus for day trips, such as a recent jaunt to Kansas City for women in an Omaha church group.
The front of the center, which is in a former post office branch building, has a photo collage of notable Black Omahans, including Ewing, Love's father, Crawford, actress Gabrielle Union, news commentator Simone Sanders, football star Gale Sayers, Major League Baseball hallof-famer Bob Gibson and many more.
A larger copy of the mural will be recreated on a 30-foot-long wall in the coffee shop. Love said he hopes the mural will inspire newfound pride in his community, which, in turn, could bolster its economic success.
The center building was completely gutted to create new walls, windows and more. That part of the construction is done, as are the plumbing, electricity and internet connections. The only thing left to do is to finish a tile wall that has been delayed due to supply issues, outfit the coffee shop and bring in other furnishings.
North Omaha businesses are primarily responsible for the project, he said. Blair Freeman, a North Omaha woman-owned contracting company, did the buildout. Stable Gray, another neighborhood operation, is the branding company.
The building is owned by the Omaha Economic Development Corp., a Black-operated nonprofit that has done revitalization work in North and South Omaha for nearly 50 years.
The center project was financed by a $950,000 grant from the Nebraska Economic Development Corp. from funds provided by President Biden's American Rescue Plan Act in 2021.
It currently has a three-person board of directors but plans to expand that soon, said board member Vince Lindenmeyer, who became an assistant to Love in 2018.
They connected after Lindenmeyer's wife Cynthia, then an associate minister at First United Methodist Church, urged him to visit Love, a fellow civil rights activist who had recently suffered a stroke.
The church had signed up for a Legacy Tour, and she wondered if Love would be able to handle it and if her husband could help.
"I was without a job and without a mission," said Lindenmeyer, who had recently retired from his position as a U.S. Air Force colonel. "Preston gave me just that."
He worked with Love to create the Black Votes Matter Institute for Community Engagement, and through that, realized that he could have a second career as a nonprofit advisor. He went on to found an agency that helps women, minorities and veterans start their own nonprofits.
"It has been a wonderful journey," Lindenmeyer said of his association with Love. "I saw how much Preston was doing. He had written five books and was talking about another. Every day mattered to him. He inspired me to say 'What am I doing? Where's my five books and my nonprofit?'"
Lindenmeyer handles statistics and paperwork for the visitors center project. He said they're actively seeking "pillars of the community" to join the board and strengthen the organization.
He and Love also bonded over Nebraska football. Love, of course, was a receiver for the team, and Lindenmeyer's son Luke was a walk-on who is now a staring Husker tight end. And yes, he's that Luke Lindenmeyer, the one who got engaged on the field last weekend.
Lindenmeyer is excited about the visitors center and is looking forward to its grand opening.
"It's gonna be a really nice facility. The coffee shop will be named after his wife, Martha Parker Love. On his tours, (Love) talks about sweet potato pies and small pies will be served at the coffee shop," Lindenmeyer said. "Miss Martha doesn't keep secrets. If you want her pie recipe, she'll give it to you."
For his part, Love is pleased to be doing something he thinks will make a difference for North Omahans. He said he holds himself and many of his peers somewhat responsible for the lack of economic growth in the area because they moved away from Nebraska as soon as they got college degrees, taking away brain power and money-making potential from his hometown.
He said he had a hard time convincing people that there's a link between tourism and economic development, but he's making progress. The grant and support for the North Omaha Visitors Center and the coffee shop are proof, he said, as are recent inquiries about collaboration from Visit Omaha and the Nebraska Tourism Commission.
"Do you know how proud I will be to say I got our coffee from Ethiopia," he asked. "I am chomping at the bit to be able to provide this oasis and to tell the story behind the beans and north Omaha."
elizabeth.freeman@owh.com, 402-444-1267
