Urban Hikes: Energy Coffee's Guided Walks

“There’s been a little bit of crime,” she admits from her coffee shop in historic but still-transitional Home Park near Atlantic Station. “But you can still walk with a group.”

That’s where Energy Coffee comes in. Pedrick leads group walks out of the shop on Wednesday evenings at 6 and Fridays at noon. Jim Vinyard, the shop’s co-owner and founder, leads group runs on Tuesday evenings at 6 and Saturday mornings at 8.

As we head west on 14th Street to start a four-miler, it’s clear that safety is only a small part of why she and Vinyard do what they do. They are moved (literally) by their love of fitness – and coffee.

“It’s not that coffee is good or bad – it’s that the coffee shop environment is good for you,” she says as we walk past the dome of the Al-Farooq Masjid mosque and turn right on Hemphill. “We wanted to combine the ideas of a coffee shop and fitness, make it into a lifestyle.”

Energy Coffee, it seems, is a place for a book and a latte, for a morning run and smoothie. It’s a little bit college student, a little bit yoga bunny.

“We wanted everything to be sincere, nothing fake,” Pedrick says, pointing out that they buy from local coffee roasters and vendors and don’t serve anything with preservatives.

As we veer right on busy Northside Drive and I detect the scent of chlorine from the nearby walled-in water treatment plant, I see the appeal in “natural.” Even more pleasing is Kate’s assertion that Energy is not about bland food or empty calories.

“Once or twice people have said, ‘Everything here’s so healthy,’” she says. “I’m like, ‘No it’s not! Have a chocolate chip cookie!’”

Greeted by the imposing IKEA structure, we turn right on 17th and pass through rows of seemingly endless condos and apartments.

But Pedrick seems happy with their slightly removed location on 14th at State streets. She points out that the Home Park bungalows once housed Atlantic Steel employees, and the Energy Coffee building is the former home of the steelworkers’ union.

“I think people who live [in our neighborhood] are like, ‘We’re Home Park, dammit!’” she says, eying the chic boutique hotel Twelve.

At which point I’m reminded why Atlanta INtown takes these walks in the first place. Walking gives you time to ponder how neighborhoods evolved and how our city, prettier than many give it credit for, fits together. (It’s also gratifying to prance above the gridlocked Connector via the 17th Street Bridge.)

Usually there are five or six walkers in Pedrick’s parties, but today there are only three: Pedrick, myself and Pedrick’s close friend Lisa Campbell of Virginia-Highland. As it turns out, the no-shows must have seen something we didn’t: today’s weather report. At some point after we turned right on Peachtree, passing a band unloading equipment at Center Stage Atlanta (formerly Earthlink Live), we notice the sky has turned a funny, bruised color.

Alas, distant streaks of lightning and a few fat raindrops urge Pedrick to make the executive decision: We head right on 14th instead of continuing up to 10th as the route prescribes.

We walk briskly as Pedrick points out a closed-down Wolf Camera as a symbol of the forthcoming revitalization of 14th Street. We’re kind of run-walking as she shares with us the strange shows she’s seen on People TV, whose station we pass. I think it’s Lisa who lets out the first yelp as lightning strikes nearby and the streetlights blink off. The rain picks up, and Pedrick is again the decision-maker as we break into a run, Energy Coffee shining like a beacon in the distance.