24-Hour Coffee Shop 'Brews' Up Tunes

*Picture and article courtesy YNN

Good coffee can be tough to come by in the middle of the night, but that’s not the case at South Austin’s Strange Brew.

The coffee shop off of Manchaca Road is open 24 hours a day, serving up hot coffee to customers needing a midnight caffeine fix.

"We get all walks of life that come in here,” business owner Scott Ward said. “There are definitely people that come and go."

Many of those late-night customers are nearby hospital workers and emergency responders.
Before 2010, Scott Ward ran an insurance agency out of the building. He realized, though, that his heart was in coffee and worked to round up support for the coffee shop.

"Everything just came together,” Ward said. “The universe was really pushing me along, so I didn't fight it. I just did it."

In 2011, Ward opened Strange Brew Lounge Side—a live music venue—next door after their live music events outgrew the coffee shop.

At first it was tough for Kacy Crowley to book the venue's acts, but now musicians come to her.

"You have this sort of connection between the audience and the artist. That's just sort of rare at most places. You walk into the room and you feel like you're a part of something kind of special,” Crowley said.

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