Tucked into a shotgun-style slot in The Arbuckle mixed-use complex along Brownsburg’s new downtown core, Brown Skin Coffee had its grand opening on June 8. But owner Shana Tate opened the doors to her neighborhood business months prior to that. Customers would wander up to the counter, casually, for cups of coffee and introductions. “We have been welcomed to Brownsburg. Everyone came in here,” says Tate, a Chicago native and Nashville, Tennessee, transplant with a background in human resources. The brick-and-mortar version of her COVID-times mobile coffee service of the same name, Brown Skin Coffee specializes in single-origin coffees—a topic that Tate is especially passionate about. “I’m interested in talking to people about the culture behind the coffee,” she says of her revolving inventory, which might feature an Ethiopian coffee one week, a Turkish coffee the next. “That’s what I want to bring to the table.”
Prior to running her own coffeehouse, Tate joined her husband in operating a mobile cigar lounge, Ya Sigara. During an East Coast business trip, they visited a cigar lounge that paired coffee with its smokes. “The flavor of the coffee did something to the flavor of the cigar,” Tate says. “The gentleman explained to me that tobacco and coffee are grown in the same type of soil. So I started doing some research, and I found out that every coffee has a story.” She’s still learning, sometimes right alongside her customers. Each week, Brown Skin rolls out a featured coffee, often pairing it with some corresponding entertainment—a Brazilian band, for example, or a poet from Rwanda. Sometimes, the festivities are a little more homegrown. “I had one gentleman come out with his accordion,” Tate says. “He played, and I videotaped it. I have met some beautiful people.” 5724 N. Green St., Brownsburg, 317-939-3334
