Submitted photo The Good News Cafe held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Aug. 29, after two months of operation, hosted by the Elkins-Randolph County Chamber of Commerce and attended by cafe owners, staff, supporters, friends and members of the Refinery Church.

ELKINS — The Good News Cafe offers “a warm space where people feel welcome” for those in the Christian community, those who have questions about faith and those who just want a cup of coffee.

Located on 900 Industrial Park Road attached to Seven Wellness, The Good News Cafe recently hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony through the Elkins-Randolph County Chamber of Commerce on Aug. 29 after two months of operation.

The first month of business saw the cafe operate as just a drive-thru window, but now the space is fully open for customers to come in and sit down.

The cafe is run by siblings Bryer and Maggi Ketterman, with the support and backing of The Refinery Church and Pastor Roy Schneider. Bryer Ketterman, who graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan College in May with a bachelors in science and biology and a minor in chemistry, said the group saw an opportunity they couldn’t pass up.

“My original plan was medical school, but we just had this awesome opportunity to open up this coffee shop and build a space for Christian community like we’ve been doing within our church,” Ketterman told The Inter-Mountain.

“Our church saw the potential here and we really decided to take advantage of the opportunity to serve people coffee and just kind of offer that space where people can come in and hang out. Just explore what it means to be curious about faith and ask those questions.”

Ketterman explained that, alongside him and Maggi, who just graduated high school herself, the cafe has hired students from the local high schools and Davis & Elkins College.

The Good News Cafe offers a lot of specialty lattes, with Ketterman stating that anything a customer dreams up can be made at the cafe. A collaborative espresso roast with Buckhannon’s Mountain Roasters is also on the menu, known as the Genesis Blend.

“We also really care about how our coffee extracts,” Ketterman said. “We pay a lot of attention to the coffee that we make. We make a lot of specialty drinks like the cortados, cappuccinos.”

Matcha is also on the menu. A surprisingly popular item, Ketterman explains that matcha is their second-biggest seller. Lemonade, teas and boba drinks are also available and are popular with younger customers. The cafe has set up a kid’s espresso machine, which Ketterman jokingly said was so the cafe can start training their baristas young.

Baked goods at the cafe change by the week and are locally sourced through Heritage Farms & Bakery in Buckhannon.

Ketterman added that the cafe has also been a collaborative effort with Dr. Kyle West and Sydney West, the owners of Seven Wellness and fellow members of The Refinery Church. As Ketterman explained, they’ve been working with the Wests on the cafe for a little over a year, and the space next to Seven Wellness has been a great location.

“Kyle and Sydney West have just been awesome as we started getting set up to start the business,” Ketterman said. “I met Kyle and Sydney at church… so I met them and they tried the coffee, and we just started brainstorming what it would look like to open up a coffee shop and then they gave us this awesome opportunity to open up here.”

When asked what was one thing he wanted new customers to know about The Good News Cafe, Ketterman said “we’re glad that they’re here.”

“That’s the main thing we want to do is have a warm space where people feel welcome to come,” Ketterman said. “To come and hang out, and whether they are a part of the faith, have questions about the faith, aren’t interested in the faith at all, they’re welcome here. They can bring any questions, any worries they have with them.”