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By Linda Baier

Sometimes things don’t seem to make sense, but they work. For instance breakfast for dinner, leather and lace, chocolate covered potato chips and comics and coffee.

It seems like an unusual pairing, but for Marty and Jade Burnham it seems like the perfect combination. That’s why in mid July of this year they opened a coffee shop right next door to their already established comic book shop — Hot off the Press Comics and Coffee in downtown Austin. So far business has been steady and the city of Austin has responded to them favorably.

The couple met and married in Chicago and their life was very hectic. They lived in the suburbs but worked in the city. Working opposite shifts and raising their son meant early mornings, late nights, day care, and plenty of train rides.

Jade said they soon realized when you are trying to raise a child that you need family and friends around you, so they moved to Rochester to be closer to them, but then they realized that Austin was a much more affordable place to live. They liked the community, and soon purchased a home here and enrolled their son in the school system.

“We don’t live very far from Bandshell Park, and just to see the festivities that happened down there and how people turn out (for activities and events) you get a solid sense of community” Marty said. “We fell in love with Austin.”

After dreaming of having a business for 20 years that shares each of their passions — for him it is the love of comics and for her a great cup of coffee — they decided to start looking for retail space. It took some time but they found what appeared to be the perfect location on the corner of Main Street and 1st Drive Northwest.

The Wagner Building dates back to 1928 and has been home to many businesses over the years, but is now a sturdy foundation in which Marty and Jade will grow their unique business.

With a number of franchise and local coffee shops in town, Jade said, “there’s plenty of room for all of us, we offer different items that you can’t find at the other locations. We have a lot of vegan options, as well as gluten free options, and we are the only place in town that offers lotus plant energy, which is a gluten free, vegan friendly energy drink.”

She also said that with the days of the week they are open and their business hours they are hitting target dead zones, when other businesses like theirs are not open.

Their menu is very extensive. They currently have five different drip coffees, which are made with a special blend of roasted beans unique to their shop. The Daily is a light roast, the Hawkeye is a medium roast, the Dark Knight is dark roast, the Sleeper is Decaf and last but not least Iceman is a cold brew.

On the expresso/latte side of the menu the choices are almost limitless with as many as 30 different options or more. For example the Swamp Thing is made with caramel and vanilla syrup and caramel sauce on top, Black Widow is a chocolate covered cherry latte, the Hulk is pistachio flavored, and the Archie is butterscotch syrup, caramel sauce, with cinnamon spice on top.

Lotus energy drinks are plant based and caffeinated. They are derived from the coffee fruit (cascara), green coffee beans, and green tea. The sugar is pure cane sugar and is vegan and gluten free. Hot off the Press Coffee can regulate the amount of caffeine used to each individual’s tastes. There are currently 43 different drinks options on the menu, but they all start out with six different base flavors in which they build upon:

• White Lotus (has no super fruits added)

• Gold Lotus (uses gold geisha coffee with tart cherry)

• Blue lotus (blueberry and acai)

• Pink Lotus (tart cherry and raspberry)

• Purple (Elderberry and black raspberry)

• Red Lotus (Red raspberry, black raspberry and tart cherry)

Because Jade is a bit of a history buff she has also included some “mock tails” on what is known as the Mildred Menu. Long ago, one of the first businesses that opened in this location was Mildred’s. It was a place to buy women’s finery in the 30s and 40s. The menu uses common women’s names from that era, and not wanting to leave male counterparts out, the more masculine named drinks are street names that were used before Austin went to the number system. A sample of that menu is:

Mary – A non-alcoholic version of a mint mojito.

Sandra – Hibiscus tea, strawberry and kiwi

Sullivan – Butterscotch, Milk, and Cream

In the summertime Marty and Jade feature fresh squeezed lemonade and limeade as well and Jade is currently perfecting a house made hot apple cider for the fall and winter season. Beverages from Hot of the Press are not just for adults either, parents often bring their children with them and the kids like to be able to have something to drink as well.

Jade has developed 20 different kinds of kid-friendly lattes, and any of the lotus drink flavors can be made without caffeine. Some of their choices are the “Lil” Venom which is steamed milk of choice with chocolate or the Bucky, also steamed milk of choice, with caramel.

Not to be forgotten, canines that visit can have a puppachino, which is whipped cream and also known as the Krypto at Hot off the Press Comics and Coffee.

The beverages on the menu are named after comic book heroes and characters, another way of tying the two businesses together

“It wasn’t really hard,” Marty said. “It was just kind of a fun exercise that we were able to do with our son, and give him some ownership over what’s on the menu.”

Jade also points out that comics and coffee actually go well together.

“Because it goes back to that community feel that we want,” she said. “Giving people the space to enjoy one hobby and another hobby together, where they can sit down and discuss with others what they have been reading, or what they are looking forward to reading, any of those things kind of go nicely together, just giving people that space to actually communicate with each other and have a little community space.”

The coffee shop has allowed people to meet up with friends or maybe even a date in an atmosphere that is quaint and quiet and allows them to talk in some other place than the bar scene.

Pocket Latte (edible coffee), Stroopwafels (traditional Dutch cookie), a variety of delicious pastries from Reisman’s Bakery based in New York, and their own ground coffee ready for you to brew in your home, is also available. In the future the couple has plans to offer their own in-house baked goods, as well.

Hot off the Press Comics and Coffee is located at 508 1st Dr. NW, Austin. They are open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Fridays, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and noon to 3 p.m. Sundays. Check out their menu for even more options at www.hotoffthepresscomics.com or give them a call at 1-507-606-8459.