Not Just Coffee
If you live in Indianapolis and are obsessed with coffee, there’s a chance you’ve heard of Scott, the Indy Coffee Guide guy. Seven years ago, Scott Soltys-Curry founded the Instagram account @indianapoliscoffee, which aims to highlight all of the local coffee shops Indianapolis has to offer. In addition to the Instagram account, Scott along with his husband of 5 years, Patrick Soltys-Curry, created a magazine, mimicking the same principles and aesthetic of their Instagram account, titled Batch. Scott serves as the founder for the publication with Patrick serving as the Editor-in-Chief.
Scott was born in Indianapolis but moved to Tennessee when he was 6-years-old. Then in 2011, he moved back to Indianapolis, originally planning on staying just for the summer, but never left. Scott’s love of local coffee stemmed from the abundance of local coffee shops surrounding him as he grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. He mentioned when he moved to Indianapolis in 2011, there were significantly less local coffee shops than there are today, showcasing a need for Scott to help highlight the local coffee scene. However, he could not have imagined the reaction he would get from the Indianapolis coffee community.
“[I thought] I’ll just make a little guide to find all of the local coffee shops, because there’s not one and it’s really hard to find them. And within 24 hours of starting the Instagram [account], I had at least a dozen roasters, cafe owners, baristas reaching out going, ‘Oh my god who are you, what are you doing, how can we help?’ And so it just immediately took off and turned into this thing that people wanted and needed. It turned into something that was bigger than I ever thought it would have been. Now, here we are seven years later,” Scott said.
As Scott was beginning this mission to create a local coffee guide, he was welcomed into the Indianapolis coffee scene with open arms.
“It immediately became clear to me that it’s not just the coffee, it’s the community behind the coffee,” Scott said.
The Instagram handle @indianapoliscoffee began with a simple post in January 2016 stating, “Coming Soon: A curated guide to Indianapolis coffee. Ahhh, yes.” Now, today, the page has over 20,000 followers. Patrick and Scott, along with several of their friends and various members of the Indianapolis community, have also worked together to release two issues of Batch magazine. The first issue of Batch was published in 2021, and the second issue was published in 2022. The magazines focus on stories of how local coffee houses promote community, stories of individuals making a difference in their neighborhoods as well as “behind the counter” stories narrating the process that goes into developing and selling coffee from baristas’ and coffee roasters’ perspectives.
Though many view ordering coffee as a simple transaction, Patrick and Scott have learned the challenges and struggles many coffee houses face running and maintaining their shops. Where people can park, what drinks coffee houses can serve and what the aesthetic of the coffee house can be, to some extent, are all overseen and determined by a larger governing body. These rules and regulations can ultimately impact these small businesses exponentially.
Indianapolis now has more local coffee shops than Starbucks. Though many people often turn to chain coffee houses for their caffeine fixes due to brand familiarity, affordability, consistency, etc., Scott and Patrick emphasize the importance of visiting and supporting local coffee shops. Emily Wray in her article “Why Your Latte Costs $7” in issue 2 of Batch discusses the grueling and extensive journey the crop takes to reach the hands of its consumers. She explains that coffee can only be grown in specific climates with specific harvesting methods to ensure a top-quality product. During the growing process, farms can be impacted by natural disasters, pests, and poor weather patterns, delaying the harvesting process and increasing the cost of the product. To cut costs, some farms are turning to more harmful harvesting procedures, negatively impacting the environment, for the sake of efficiency and lower costs. To avoid long supply chains, some local coffee shops turn to offering “single origin” or “fair-trade” coffees, which indicates the beans have been purchased from a local farm or small distributor. This partnership allows farms and small distributors to maintain the necessary products and technology to ensure a high-quality product without succumbing to destructive practices.
“When you spend $7 on a latte, that $7 has a global impact,” Scott said.
“You think about the why and what you’re getting and the special crafting and care that you get behind it, and I feel like that is what justifies it, whereas you could go to any chain coffee house and you don't get that same feeling,” Patrick said.
What began as a local coffee guide transformed into a platform to educate, inspire, and advocate for the members of the Indianapolis community. During the month of May (National Mental Health Awareness month), the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Indiana Chapter partnered with several Indianapolis coffee shops and Tactive, an Indianapolis marketing company, to distribute coffee sleeves explaining how to get in contact with support services if you or someone you know is struggling with mental health. With the help of these organizations, they were able to distribute 25,000 coffee sleeves to aid mental health awareness within the Indianapolis coffee community.
“Mental health is something we (referring to himself and his husband Patrick) both have struggled with and dealt with; it’s very important to us for a lot of different reasons…It impacts everybody,” Scott said.
Mental health, though, is not the only cause the Indianapolis Coffee Guide showcases on their platform. In June of 2022, Scott learned of a coffee shop located in southern Indiana promoting anti-Semitic images and anti-Semitic rhetoric. Gravesco Pottery (@gravesco) and the Indianapolis Coffee Guide partnered together to create a mug with the message, “Anti-Fascist Coffee Club.” A portion of the proceeds for every cup sold was donated to the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, provided by Gravesco Pottery and Six Ways Markets (@sixwaysmarkets). Those donations were then matched and also sent to the Indiana Jewish Community Relations Council, courtesy of CreativeMornings (@indianapolis_cm) and the Indianapolis Coffee Guide.
Though Scott and Patrick primarily focus on local coffee shops on their Instagram page, they often find themselves speaking out on issues impacting the Indianapolis coffee community, the Indianapolis community as a whole and the communities to which they identify. On the Indianapolis Coffee Guide page, Scott shares personal narratives about his life, his identity and his journey of how he got to where he is now. He mentioned he hopes to remain vulnerable to continue to create a community where everyone is accepted.
“I think it is important for people to know that there is a human behind everything, especially for when those hard conversations come up. I speak out about those things because it’s impacting real human people and I’m a real human person. It’s important because we’re all people and we’re all connected. It’s just a no-brainer,” Scott said.
The three pillars and guiding principles of the Indianapolis Coffee Guide are Indianapolis, coffee and community. These values guide what Patrick and Scott choose to post about, speak out about and promote. One of the mottos of the coffee club is, “no more bad coffee.” In an Instagram post, Scott explains, “‘Bad coffee’ is exclusionary coffee. ‘Bad coffee’ is anti-community coffee. ‘Bad coffee’ is selfish coffee.” Scott shared his main goal with the Indianapolis Coffee Guide platform.
“At the end of the day, it just comes back to getting people to love local coffee as much as we do. That has always been the goal as well as fostering the community and doing whatever we can, wherever we can for the community. [That] has always been the biggest thing, because they’ve done a lot for us. It all comes back to the community and taking care of the community,” Scott said.
With the following Scott and Patrick have amassed from the Indianapolis coffee community, they have been able to use their influence to help promote local businesses affected by hardships. When one of the oldest coffee shops in Indianapolis got broken into and fell on hard times, Scott made a call to action to the Indianapolis coffee community to come together and support the shop. After making the post, the coffee shop sold out of coffee. The shop had people from out of state calling and buying gift cards over the phone for the next time they were there and had local companies reaching out to them to figure out how they could partner together.
Highlighting over 50 local Indianapolis coffee shops, promoting community events and educating the community on issues facing their neighbors and neighborhoods may seem impossible, but Patrick and Scott continue to create and generate content to their followers that not only brings about change but helps people find their places within an ever-growing, ever-expanding city.
“I get DMs (direct messages) [and] it never gets old. [They will say something like,] ‘Hey I don’t want to bother you, but I just want to let you know I moved here, and I didnt know anybody. And I used your website and your profile to find all these places that are a huge part of my life now.’And that will never not be meaningful,” Scott said.
Scott also shared he has developed an extensive repertoire of skills through the development and evolution of the Indianapolis Coffee Guide. In 2017, he wanted to learn how to design and build an iPhone app, so he did. With dreams of channeling the Indianapolis Coffee Guide into a different medium, he learned more about writing, printing, distributing, and photography with the creation of Batch magazine. He also mentioned learning more about community and activism throughout the seven years of the Indianapolis Coffee Guide.
“Every bit of it has been a learning experience and a learning opportunity, and I’ve grown exponentially personally and professionally because of it,” Scott said.
The Indianapolis Coffee Guide is not just about coffee. It is a platform that encourages relationships among community members from all differing backgrounds with all different stories. It urges change to truly welcome and support those who are struggling, those who are underrepresented, those who are underserved, and those who need advocacy and allies.
Scott and Patrick are currently working on finalizing article ideas for the third issue of Batch. They shared the theme of the third issue will be “Rise of the Hybrid Shop.” They described a hybrid shop as a shop or space that serves multiple purposes. Batch is available at 20 different branches of the Indianapolis Public Library, or you can order it online here. Scott and Patrick also offer other forms of merch related to the Indianapolis Coffee Guide which you can view here. Additionally, Scott has a weekly newsletter called the Weekly Wave, which you can subscribe to here.
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