Meeting and Event Planning Guide: Our favorite coffee shops for a work meeting

I’ve been working from coffee shops around here for years.

For a long time as IBJ’s North of 96th reporter, I worked from coffee shops in Hamilton and Boone counties, which served as a base as I traveled to and from meetings and interviews throughout the area. When I started working downtown more regularly as a city government reporter in 2019, coffee shops became a great place to meet sources for a quick catch-up, to conduct interviews or to get away from the office and do some head-down work.

Now as IBJ’s special publications editor, I don’t have nearly as many meetings with sources, but I still love to sneak away from the office for my favorite coffee order and coffee shop vibes whenever I can.

Below are my recommendations for great places to take a work meeting and what I order. (A note: I like my coffee sweet.)

Coat Check Coffee

401 E. Michigan St.
Hours: 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday; 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday 

Coat Check Coffee opened in 2017 as one of Indianapolis’ first craft coffee shops, in the Mass Ave area. It was the first venture of Small Victories Hospitality, owned by Neal and Paul Warner.

Coat Check operates in the Athenaeum restaurant, entertainment and events complex. It offers lots of indoor seating plus outside seating, making it a great place to schedule a meeting. 

It makes its sauces and syrups in-house.     

The Athenaeum Foundation, which maintains and operates the historic Athenaeum cultural center, has took over management of Coat Check Coffee this year and told IBJ last spring the long-term goal is to keep it at the Athenaeum permanently.

My recommendation: The butterscotch latte. I also recently tried a new food item: a cucumber sandwich, which was delicious. 

Provider

1101 E. 16th St.
Hours: 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday; 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday 

Provider, in the historic Tinker House building in the Kennedy-King neighborhood, has been serving up “coffee, cocktails and community” since 2018. It has a great, large patio for good-weather days, and inside, seating that’s a bit more cozy and intimate. 

Provider’s menu is similar to that of Coat Check Coffee, as both establishments were founded by the Warners. Tinker House Events took over management and operations of Provider this year. 

All of Provider’s sauces and syrups are also made in-house.

My recommendation: I love lattes and crave two of Provider’s: pistachio and butterscotch. Both are great hot or iced.

Command Coffee

2910 N. College Ave. and 55 Monument Circle
Hours: vary by location

Command Coffee’s first location opened in 2020 in the Mapleton-Fall Creek neighborhood. It’s locally owned by Danny Heller and, in addition to serving coffee and a limited menu of treats at two locations, Command has a coffee-bean subscription program.

Earlier this year, Command opened a downtown location, taking over the Monument Circle storefront Starbucks abandoned two years ago. 

The Monument Circle space is certainly smaller than the College Avenue location, but there’s still plenty of space for a meeting if you’re looking for an option in the Mile Square. 

My recommendation: On the summer menu is a Campfire Cold Brew that combines mocha cold brew with marshmallow sweet cream cold foam. It’s sweet but so delicious. Heading into the fall, Command last year offered a cookie butter latte that I really enjoyed.

Java House

115 E. New York St. and 225 W. Washington St. (plus locations in Carmel, Fishers, Zionsville and Lafayette) 

Hours: 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday

Java House specializes in cold-brew coffee. The process involves steeping beans in cold water for 12-plus hours, resulting in a smooth and rich taste. While the coffee is brewed cold, you can drink it any way you like: cold-brew nitro, cold-brew hot or as a latte.

The first Java House location opened at Clay Terrace in Carmel in 2019. Since then, it’s expanded to Indianapolis, Fishers, Zionsville, Lafayette and West Lafayette. 

Downtown, it has a location on Mass Ave and a new one in Simon Tower. There’s also a Broad Ripple location. I’ve often scheduled meetings at the Mass Ave location. It’s a fun atmosphere and a different kind of coffee than most people are used to. 

My recommendation: Java House offers a seasonal menu, but I find myself most often ordering off its regular menu. The nitro cold brew is so good, and the Brewski, which is an English toffee flavor, is my favorite. Don’t skip the whipped cream. 

Calvin Fletcher’s Coffee Co. 

647 Virginia Ave.
Hours: 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday

Calvin Fletcher’s opened in the Fletcher Place neighborhood in 2009 to “provide good coffee in a neighborhood where there was no coffee.” Since 2016, it has been roasting its coffee beans in-house. You can buy them for at-home brewing when you visit. 

One cool thing: The coffee company established the CFCC Charitable Foundation in 2019 to support small, local not-for-profits. The charitable funds have largely been raised through a portion of the tips given at the coffee shop. 

Parking in the area can be limited, so I recommend arriving early and being patient. It’s worth it.

My recommendation: There’s a rotating seasonal menu, so maybe give one of those drinks a try. My go-to order is an iced vanilla latte with oat milk. Calvin Fletcher’s did not disappoint.

Starbucks

30 S. Meridian St.
Hours: 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. Monday; 8 a.m. to noon Saturday and Sunday

I’ve kept my recommendations to local coffee shops. But bear with me on this final recommendation. Starbucks, which vacated its Monument Circle location in 2022 after two decades, opened a new store this summer a block and a half south of the old one.

It’s occupying about 2,700 square feet on the ground floor of the Kite Realty Group building, a space that was formerly home to the Napolese pizza restaurant but had been vacant since 2021.

Filling a restaurant site means the coffee shop is huge, with plenty of space for a work meeting. Additionally, there’s a great outdoor seating area that is somewhat secluded from the hustle and bustle of Meridian Street.

No matter how you feel about national coffee chains, I’m happy to have a nice place to quietly work or hold meetings so close to the IBJ Media office. 

My recommendation: I love Starbucks’ fall and Christmas seasonal drinks. The rest of the year, I’m probably ordering my usual: an iced vanilla latte with oat milk.•