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In the early 1990s, a Baylor student pitched the idea of a coffee shop just off campus as a class project. Fast forward three decades, and that classroom pitch is now a campus community staple.
Happy 30th birthday, Common Grounds!
Wind the clock back to 1994: Jill Mashburn (BA ’95) wanted to create a coffee shop in Waco that would be a place for all kinds of people to meet up and hang out, and via a business school class project, the idea for Common Grounds was born. She soon rented a house right across from campus, refurbishing it into what we know today as the original Common Grounds location — serving the Baylor community since 1995.
For 30 years now, Common Grounds has stood strong in its comfy nook on 8th Street. Mashburn’s dream quickly took root, holding up as a long string of other coffee shops came and went. In 2012, she sold the business to fellow Baylor graduates Blake (BA ’08) and Kimberly (BA ’07) Batson — continuing CG’s Baylor Line, and launching a new era for the shop.
Over the past dozen-plus years, the “CG Family” has grown to include locations in the heart of campus (Bill Daniel Student Center), across Waco (in the suburb of Woodway, and now also on Franklin Avenue), and even in the shadow of TCU’s Fort Worth campus.
Baristas hired for all locations go through extensive training, learning what it takes to make a perfect Cowboy Coffee (and the rest of Common Grounds’ familiar menu). The shop also gives Baylor students opportunities to gain experience in their field — from social media, to marketing photography, to event planning.
Happy 30th, CG — here’s to many more!
Sic ’em, Common Grounds!
