Classic Rock Coffee Company and Kitchen will close its downtown location at the end of April, according to a April 8 company Facebook post.
The downtown coffee shop, located at 535 W. Walnut St., announced its last day of business will be April 26, according to the post. The company opened the downtown store, in the Brewery District Flats, in 2019. The post is from Classic Rock Coffee Downtown, a franchise of the Springfield staple coffee business of the same name.
“In 2019, Brent and I decided to open a coffee shop in downtown Springfield,” Franchisee Ashley McGuire said in the the Facebook post, referencing her husband and business partner, Brent McGuire. “We loved Classic Rock Coffee and thought bringing a franchise downtown would be awesome. At the time, downtown was full of life and music and we wanted to join the party.”
In the post, the company references the hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic, when retail businesses, restaurants and bars shuttered amid stay-at-home mandates.
“Lots of hard work and creativity kept our little shop open and we made it through,” McGuire said in the post. “Life changes and we have to adjust and it's with heavy hearts that we have decided to close our little shop.”
The downtown location is a separate business than the flagship store, located at 1900 W. Sunset St. The company also has another local store in Republic, as well as a location in North Dakota and two stores in Texas, according to the company website. The company has even gone international, with franchise locations in eight countries.
The store closing follows a string of coffee shop change-ups in downtown Springfield. In December 2023, Black Lab Coffee Company closed it downtown location permanently and announced plans to open a new store in south Springfield. In January, Mother's Brewing Company opened the Cufflink Room coffee shop, facing Grant Avenue, in a new wing of the company's headquarters.
“As the curtain closes, we look back at the last five years with no regrets,” McGuire said in the Facebook Post. “We have loved every bit of this journey.”
