Hammerhand plans to open new location with updated design by end of year

Hammerhand has been a go-to coffee shop for many William Jewell College students since its opening in 2016. The company brews its own coffee and offers everything from basic pour-over to espresso milkshakes. The shop had to close in June because of structural concerns and landlord disagreements. Alex Merrell, the owner and operator, has high hopes that they will be able to reopen at their new location soon with some exciting new features. 

In June, the original Hammerhand location started to experience structural challenges and landlord struggles.

“Ultimately what led to the closure was a conflict with the landlord. We had some constructional concerns, and historically have throughout the course of us being there,” Merrell said. “I started hearing what I thought was something crumbling inside the walls, which made me very concerned, and the landlord just wasn’t handling the concerns properly, and this also happened to be when we were in the middle of renegotiation.” 

Hammerhand chose to not renew their lease and to protect their customers and business by switching locations. 

The new location is at 249 West Mill Street, only blocks away from the old location. Some new exciting features of the new space are more seating room and a parking lot. The shop is also pursuing a new theme and menu.

“We’ve had this new location for about two and a half months now and we are working on getting contractors and city approval, which has been a very frustrating and difficult task due to [COVID-19] and the demand of contractors rising and permits being stacked up in the city department,” stated Merrell.

While Hammarhand can’t offer an exact timeline or date due to these complications, Merrell is hopeful that construction can be completed in the next month with the opening taking place by the end of the year.

“It’s a pretty unique opportunity actually. We’re effectively starting a brand new business, but we already have clients, so there’s certainly a bright side to it, even though it has been frustrating. We get to reinvent ourselves a little bit here,” Merrell said. 

At the new location, Hammerhand is excited to offer a full bakery with a  pastry chef making baked goods in-house – so customers can get breakfast and coffee at one location. 

With the new location, Hammerhand is redoing its aesthetic to be quite different from the previous location.  

“We’re doing brighter colors and fancy floral wallpaper. The layout will be different.” Merrell said. “But overall the core business will be the same,” 

With all of these new features, many are finding it hard to wait for the reopening. Until then, Hammerhand coffee is available at Liberty’s Hyvee and online on their website. Hammerhand coffee can also be found at PH Coffee in Pendleton Heights, Crepe KC in Gladstone, Paisley Perk in Karney and Cornerstone Coffee in Smithville.