He felt the undeniable pull to the Ashe County town of West Jefferson, though he couldn’t tell you exactly why. Since opening Hatchet West in May this year, though, some answers have started to emerge. Photography by Ken Robinson
Jeremy Bollman was dreaming of a space like this years ago as he served espresso shots and handcrafted coffee drinks from behind the counter of a place in Boone by a similar name. This is Hatchet West, downtown West Jefferson–not to be confused with the other–Hatchet Boone–out near the climbing gym Center 45.
In the early days of Hatchet Boone, the roastery and shop that Jeremy started back in 2015 with his good friend, also named Jeremy (Parnell), they shared a small space with Center 45.
The shop now resides in an enclave of land and is only yards away, bustling and branded for Appalachian State University and other younger clientele. It can feel like a party even on early weekday mornings.
Hatchet West, conversely, bears aromas of fresh-cut lavender and freshly-ground espresso beans. Its most pronounced sounds come from the espresso bar and from good conversation by the light of sun filtering in slant rays through large street-font windows reading “HATCHET”– subtle branding that’s placed perfectly so as to cast “HATCHET” shadows by morning sun across the shop’s western wall.
This Hatchet invites quiet and human connection, and that was Jeremy’s vision when he opened the West Jefferson shop in May.
“My family says that I’ve kind of come back to life. The youthful little kid in me has kind of come out again,” Jeremy said. “I enjoy the work and the time and the people. It’s enough for me. My soul is more connected. That nagging compulsion to do something huge was replaced with contentment.
“All I gotta do is show up. Make coffee. Open the doors. And then open my heart to whoever walks through the door.”
A Refuge to Gather, Recharge, and Caffeinate After Hurricane Helene
When Hurricane Helene surprised the southern Appalachians in September, Hatchet opened as normal. Despite Ray’s Weather forecasting a catastrophic storm, the region kind of shrugged at the warning.
“I was kind of cheeky about it that morning. I was saying ‘we might have a zombie apocalypse, so I’m gonna be here serving coffee. If going to be a bad day if you’re not caffeinated and you’re trying to fight zombies.’ Of course I had no idea. I thought this was just another one of these October storms come through.”
As customer arrivals thinned out, then stopped all together, and the lashing rain from Helene began assaulting West Jefferson, Jeremy could look through the large windows to see that this was no normal October storm.
The rain forced its way through those same large windows. Jeremy lined them with towels and for many hours after he patrolled the floor with a bucket and mop in a battle against water coming in wherever it could.
“While I was doing that I saw people out on the road walking in water up to their knees. I opened the door and told them to come in and take refuge. They walked in and sat down. I made them coffee. It was my treat that day,” Jeremy said.
“From downtown West Jefferson you couldn’t tell how bad it was, but on my way home to Deep Gap, I could see some of the devastation. I passed the South Fork of the New River and it looked like the Nile during rainy season. That’s when it started to sink in that something wasn’t right. That night, when we got power back, that’s when I realized the devastation visited upon our region that day.”
When Jeremy opened the shop the following day, there was a different purpose at play beyond the business and experiential retreat of downtown coffee. How are we going to use this to serve our community in our capacity to help our community get through what’s coming?
So Hatchet served the community with an open door, outlets for their phones, a bathroom, a place to gather, and free coffee all day. Jeremy decided to remove merchandise from view so people understood that making sales wasn’t their purpose in that moment. “That wasn’t a business day. That day was just for fellowship, community, and being here for each other.”
“I knew, no matter what, for as long as possible, for as many days as possible, we needed to be open,” he said. “We needed to provide power and a bathroom and a cup of coffee to people who didn’t have those things. And we needed to be ready to just come with an open heart to listen, because we knew at that point, people were grieving and had seen something unimaginable in the mountains.
“And that’s when we heard the stories of what the storm was like for them, their property, their neighbors, their community, their neighborhood, their relatives. We started understanding the full impact of the storm for our county and this region of Appalachia.”
The Right Place in Time
The storm was revelatory. Jeremy had wondered why he’d felt such a pull to open a quiet, well-lighted space for coffee back in May out in quiet West Jefferson. Those Hurricane Helene refugees provided at least one of the answers.
“I couldn’t tell you exactly why we opened a coffee shop out here,” he said. “I just had this vision to create a space for people. A space that isn’t work or home where people can connect and experience community around a good cup of coffee.
“I didn’t know it was going to be in the context of a destructive storm, and I don’t know what other storms are coming. But at the end of the day, I can go home and just be like, ‘that was a great day,’ even if the numbers were just kind of mediocre.”
Jeremy’s sometimes perplexed by his decades-long passion for the business and craftsmanship of well-made espresso shots and coffee drinks, for just the right crema and foam. But he channeled that passion into Hatchet West where customers can enjoy their favorites in just the right red porcelain house cup, because his espresso creations were made for taking away.
The staff at Hatchet West craft each delicious drink to enjoy in a space where reading and reflection and connection are honored. Where hurrying up is never encouraged. Where a few well-curated shelves books for sale greet you at the door before any of the usual merch comes into view. Where you’re invited to be human and experience community.
“I don’t know all the reasons why we’re here. We may not know until it’s all said and done,” Jeremy said. “I only know deeply that this is what I’m supposed to do.”