The (re)Birth of the Creative Class

As the proprietor of Blacksmith, I get asked some relatively engaging and tough questions to answer on the fly, and as a starter, I felt this platform can be a great place for response.  A structural basis of forming Blacksmith was creating a format where work in the food service industry, and particularly, the specialty coffee sector did not mean working late hours.  Another goal was to encourage creatives to treat our concept as a hub for their extracurricular activities. For myself, the extracurricular aspect of my life also involves coffee (see Greenway Coffee) but for others it can mean so many different things. Our focus is to bring these creatives into an atmosphere of support for what they do. It doesn’t stop with just the staff however.  Engaging our community inside the walls of Blacksmith to encourage creativity in both the employee culture as well as the consuming culture is the ultimate goal.  I like to use examples like Ben, who writes screenplays in Blacksmith, or Maco who wrote his PHD dissertation about hip hop here.  Amina designs professional class luggage from within our walls. I could go on with more examples of inspiration we have felt as a staff and as a community. These are the heart of our culture, and I have been as inspired by our customers as I have been through our staff. In 2016, we will encourage and highlight not only the talents of our staff but those of our customers as well, to truly bring to light the new creative class being developed here in Houston!