Creative fuel for the distinguished taste
Story and Photos by Grant Vance
Writers and creatives are oft stereotyped for their studio away from home studio – the atmospheric and expresso-equipped shelter best known as the coffee shop. Quills Coffee fully embraces its place as the creative’s shelter, aptly naming the shop to embrace the writer’s antiquated tool. Certainly rolls off the tongue better than Keyboards.
Quills of Downtown New Albany, located on Market right across the street from The Grand, is a welcome treat to Southern Indiana, offering uniquely crafted brews every day of the week, even the well-known barren business day, Monday. Their other locations are located on Bardstown Road, downtown Louisville and Indianapolis.
Originally started in 2007, Quills branched from Germantown into the Highlands, eventually making way to New Albany. Although the name appropriately fits as an allusion to writing, it also derives from founder Nathan Quillo’s last name.
As far as options go, Quills offers just about everything you’d expect from your average, run-of-the-bean coffee shop: in-house coffee, espresso, Americano, cappuccino, latte, cortado —and then some. If you plan on staying awhile, you can even order a bottomless option for just a dollar more than a cup of the in-house brew.
The manual brew option, described as a “fuller, more precise expression of flavors,” 
offers seasonal brews of all different varieties to choose from. The back of the menu lists each, as well as the prominent tastes, including the farm and region the bean was grown, its process (washed, natural, etc.) and when it was harvested.
The manual brew is a fancy edition to the menu, but the fancy doesn’t end here. Like any well-accomplished coffee joint, Quills offer their very own signature drinks, including the Bourbon Latte, The Alchemist and Café Miele.
Quills’ predominantly wooden interior is as relaxing as it is aesthetically pleasing, decorated with old typewriters and an alternating wall displaying art for sale from local artists found adjacent to the barista’s headquarters behind the counter.
Opposite the wall on the other side of the counter is a shelf full of Quills’ merch, including hats, shirts and mugs, as well as bags of coffee for the home brewers out there. Also offered are delicious pastries, including but not limited to toaster tarts, muffins, donuts and bagels.
An additional feature that sets Quills in Downtown New Albany apart is the style of music. Baristas alternate vinyl records, adding to the vintage, analog feel of the shop. All thee who dig an album from start to finish, rather than the typical shuffled variety approach taken by most other shops, enter here.
The combination of unique atmosphere and great, distinctly cared for coffee sets Quills apart as a coffee shop going above and beyond the standard. Though it caters to the creatives in us all, you need not require the creative bug to enjoy all Quills has to offer.
But, after your second or third cup of bottomless coffee, who knows what can happen.
Quills
137 E. Market St.
New Albany
812.221.1778
