In 2021, Christopher Brown had the idea to convert Poplar Hall, the oldest commercial building in Farmville, into a café where community members and students could hang out, study, and get some quality coffee. That idea is now named Poplar Sips — a specialty coffee shop located at 308 North Main Street.
Brown lives in New York City, but his mother, Angela Brown, was born and raised in the Farmville area. After moving back during the pandemic, Brown realized that there weren’t enough spaces for people to hang out. Soon, the family duo decided to buy Poplar Hall and transform it into a café.
Brown explained, “I decided that maybe we should do a café there [at Poplar Hall]. I felt like for the demographic that Farmville had, tourists and university students, the town didn't have a specialty, upscale coffee place that people like that would be accustomed to.”
The project started with learning how to make coffee. “First, where are we gonna get the coffee beans? That was number one,” Brown said. “It was kind of expensive just to get the wholesale amounts [of beans]. I just thought that there could be a better way,” he said.
It took some time before Brown had a breakthrough idea. “I just said, ‘All right, why don't we just get a roaster and learn and do it ourselves?,’” Brown told The Rotunda. “So, it actually started out just being us roasting coffee beans, going to conferences and educating ourselves about that aspect of coffee.”
Once they started roasting the beans themselves, Brown and his mother got the ball rolling. By 2024, they were renovating the historic Poplar Hall. “If you saw what it looked like before, it was just one big open space,” Brown said. “There was exposed brick everywhere. There was this weird divider in the back. So, the way it looks now is nothing like how it used to be.”
As for the name, Brown wanted to preserve the building’s original name and came up with “Poplar Sips.” Once the name and renovations came together, Poplar Sips was ready to open.
“We had a soft opening that first Friday in June, June 6,” Brown said. “And then our official opening was the next day.” The soft opening was the moment Brown knew his hard work had paid off.
Brown announced the official opening date on social media, secretly mentioning a soft opening date in the caption. He didn’t expect much. “I couldn't believe how many people [came to the opening]. There was actually a line at the door five minutes before we actually opened," Brown said.
While Brown said the café has been a success, Poplar Sips will continue to grow their offerings. Brown plans to expand services by offering pop-ups, hosting off-site events and supplying food and coffee catering to small businesses and Longwood partners.
Poplar Sips is open from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saturday, and 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Sunday. Visit their website, poplarsips.com, or their Instagram and Facebook, @poplarsips, to learn more.
