Bluefield College Student to Open Local Coffee Shop

Bluefield College junior criminal justice major Collin O’Donnell traveled from his home in Buffalo, NY, to Bluefield College in southwest Virginia to pursue his passion for football and a college degree. Now that he’s here, not only is O’Donnell impacting the college community with his bright spirit, but he’s also making a difference in the Greater Bluefield community with his soon-to-be-open coffee shop, The Grind.

Before making his way to Bluefield, O’Donnell served in the U.S. Army nearly four years.

“I (was) in Afghanistan in 2014, and I got injured there,” O’Donnell said. “I was only there for four months, got injured, and then I spent two years in the hospital in Washington, D.C. When I (got) out of the military, I wanted to play football again. I was working a job, and I was like, ‘I got to do this.'”

So O’Donnell said he packed up his Jeep with what he could fit inside, put his dog in the front seat, and headed out on his new adventure. He said he wanted to get back to playing football for a number of reasons.

“Generically, I like football because it is a team sport and it is challenging,” he said. “Intrinsically, I like football because you have to put your mind in such a place that is almost nomadic, and you also have this opportunity to go on the field and say, ‘Hey, we’re going up against you and let’s see who wins.’ I just like the physicality, the routine, and the discipline. I also love the work structure and pushing myself.”

Even though O’Donnell is a criminal justice major, he is not focusing all of his energy in that area. O’Donnell is now a young business owner of The Grind Coffee Shop that is located in downtown Bluefield, VA.

“There is so much going on right now,” O’Donnell said about getting The Grind ready to open soon.

In addition to the local shop, The Grind will have an online presence at thegrindbluefield.com where patrons can buy local artisan coffee from all over Appalachia. The site features three companies and features coffee recognized as a “top roaster in the nation” by Forbes.

“We are creating this really unique e-commerce site that allows you to taste all these craft roasters from all over Appalachia that are super unique,” O’Donnell said. “Like 25/30 Expresso, their pitch is they only do women-owned farms in South America, fair-trade practices, and they have a cherry apple brown sugar roast. Like where do you find that?”

O’Donnell said that he did not care much for coffee before pursuing his small business. When asked why he chose coffee as his trade he responded by saying, “I ask myself this every day.” When making the decision to pursue this business, O’Donnell said he was inspired by a person that did the unthinkable.

“Elon Musk put his Tesla into space; he launched a vehicle into space!” O’Donnell exclaimed. “If he can do that, then I can figure out how to launch a coffee shop. So I did it.”

O’Donnell said The Grind plans to have community events, too, such as book clubs.

“I am trying to bring the college students in there and kind of create an evening life there,” he said.

O’Donnell said that he has practically worked “every job under the sun,” and that he decided he had to do something different with this new venture. He encourages others with similar or completely different dreams or ambitions to “just start and stop being afraid.”

“We are on a spinning rock right now, in case anyone forgot, hurling through time and space with absolutely nothing to lose in this lifetime,” O’Donnell said. “If we subject ourselves to our own fears of getting started, we’ll have a really bad time. So we might as well do it now.”

O’Donnell hopes to open The Grind by June 1, 2020.