Douglas Buckley packs a lot into a bag of coffee beans.
When the Columbus native lived in Tanzania, he co-founded a coffee-roasting company in the coastal city of Dar es Salaam that helped women earn salaries and enter the official government retirement system. When he returned with his family to central Ohio in 2019, he started his own business with the hope he could share the story of coffee’s East-African origins.
Buckley said he views coffee as a drink and coffeehouses as a place that bring people together, even in divisive times such as these. And, starting May 29, he’s moving his previously roasting-only business into the retail arena by taking over one of the highest-profile locations in Columbus.
Black Kahawa Coffee — kahawa is the word for coffee in Swahili — is to open at the corner of Broad and High streets in a spot where bigger coffeemakers have failed. The 2 E. Broad St. address became home in 2009 to a Dunkin’ franchise that was evicted two years later for failing to pay rent. Tim Hortons soon took over but closed in 2022.