Nomad opens new location
Nomad Coffee Co. had the grand opening for their first stationary location at the Blackwater Creek Trail on Old Langhorne Road on Feb. 19.
While Nomad had partnered with Gilded, a boutique downtown, and offered their full menu there, owner Josh Davies said it wasn’t their place to own.
Over the summer, they began to discuss having their own stationary location, but Davies expressed how it needed to be the perfect situation. After multiple discussions, he said Blackwater Creek Trail would be the ideal place for them.
“When we’re out on the streets with our coffee trailers, we’re the nomadic ones,” Davies said. “When we’re serving people here, we’re serving the ‘nomads’ because they’re on the trails or biking or walking (or) running.”
To celebrate the new location, Nomad gave away discounts, T-shirts, coffee mugs and more. Every purchase earned customers a prize and a raffle ticket.
At the end of the day, the raffle winner was announced on their Facebook, and the customer was gifted free drinks for a year.
Davies' first memories of coffee was drinking sips of his mother’s weak coffee with lots of creamer and sugar. He described this coffee as “syrup.”
His passion for coffee didn’t grow until his sophomore year of college. After visiting and hanging out at different coffee shops in the area, he built a strong community of friends.
To him, coffee was the connector of that community.
This revelation encouraged him to learn everything he could about coffee. He began working jobs for different coffee shops and coffee roasters, understanding every aspect of coffee.
After these jobs, he started his own coffee company in 2017.
The company started out as a wedding catering company and grew into a traveling coffee shop when they bought their first trailer.
Davies said he chose the name Nomad because it fit with the way they do business. They moved from location to location to offer coffee all over Lynchburg.
But he said the name also reminded him of the song “In Exile” by Thrice that had always resonated with him.
“One of the lyrics in the song is ‘I am a nomad, I’m a wanderer,” Davies said. “This world is not our home. We’re traveling through this life to get to our ultimate destination.”
Since they started, Nomad has partnered with multiple nonprofits in Lynchburg like Salvation Army and HumanKind. On their website, they said they are committed to make a difference in the community and give back when they can.
“I believe that a healthy society freely gives to the brother and neighbor in need,” Davies said. “It’s small businesses and large businesses and an individual’s part to do what they can to help each other.”
One way they are giving back with their Blackwater Creek location is through a new drink, a rose latte called The Nightbirde. A portion of the sales for this drink is donated to MusiCares, a nonprofit that provides health resources to those in the music community, in honor of Jane “Nightbirde” Marczewski.
Marczewski competed on “America’s Got Talent” and received the Golden Buzzer in 2021. She had to drop out of the competition because of her battle with cancer.
Davies said he was friends with her in college and wanted to name a drink in her honor and donate a portion of the profit to a nonprofit of her choice.
For more information on Nomad, visit their website.
