Sinks Coffee: Our First Calix prototype

Sinks Coffee is our first Calix prototype. Located in Lander, WY, Sinks Coffee provides a place for us to put theory into practice, capture insights and challenges, and form the next generation of young leaders for the work of missional hospitality. 


Named after Sinks Canyon, adjoined to Wyoming Catholic College, and across the street from the World HQ of NOLS, Sinks Coffee is a place where people who are very different from each other in some ways can meet, connect through shared goods, and build real relationship in community. 


Headed up by our founder Andrew Whaley and former CFR Sean Wood, this project is breaking new ground and modeling a community driven method of mission in the post-Christendom era. 


The shop is largely staffed by our student intern program and local volunteers who are being formed in hospitality as a way to create community for the sake of mission- a new method for a new era. 



IT ALL STARTED WITH A PHONE CALL

In 2015 we received a phone call from Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, WY. The only space they were not renting in a historic downtown building was a coffeehouse which became available overnight. They awoke to find a very empty building where a coffee shop had been the day before. They had seen Tolle Lege, the shop Calix developed and contract managed for the Augustine Institute in Denver, and asked if we could help them put a shop into this open space. Andrew Whaley drove up to Lander over a weekend, took pictures and measurements, evaluated and identified shared goods that could anchor relationships, and headed back to Denver in love with Lander and the community he met.


Andrew designed the new shop, Crux Coffee, old school with a sharp pencil and a large grid pad spread out on his kitchen table, including the addition of a climbing wall,  and sent the scans off to WCC. Local Denver roaster Common Wealth Coffee (now Huckleberry) was brought in for equipment and coffee and the shop was built by a team on site in WY. An epic training and launch event took place early in 2016 and Crux Coffee became a reality! 


 

The Evolution of Crux Coffee

The initial plan for Crux was two fold. It needed to be a student space, as at the time there was not enough room for students on campus. It also was intended to be a front porch or living room for the whole community, in which relationships could be fostered  and the life and faith of the college shared with the town. 


From 2016 to 2023, Crux Coffee