New Love Coffee cultivating community with café in Liberty Lake

Amy Edelen, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
·3 min read

Apr. 13—Ike Bubna is hoping to cultivate a sense of community through New Love Coffee, a coffee roasting business and cafe in Liberty Lake.

Bubna, the commercial leasing manager for Greenstone Corp., opened the shop in February in the company's River District Welcome Center, 21802 E. Indiana Ave., Suite 102.

The building is also home to Greenstone's leasing and sales office, Spokane Business Attorneys, Maverick's Mens Hair, Lake Lashes LLC and 3 Ninjas Curbside and Catering.

Since opening, New Love Coffee has drawn a considerable amount of foot traffic from pedestrians walking on the nearby Centennial Trail and residents from the Trutina at River District community, Bubna said.

"We are already optimistic about what we are seeing out here," he said. "As the Maverick's barber shop continues to grow, it's pretty regular that someone will come over with a fresh haircut and get coffee ... We are even getting people who will come over from the south side of Liberty Lake to meet friends."

New Love Coffee serves Columbian, Ethiopian and Guatemalan coffees, which will rotate depending on season, Bubna said.

"We roast our own coffee and source it from a coffee importer that focuses on small farmers as much as possible ... the way in which they are growing their coffee is they are trying to use regenerative agricultural processes to bring health and life back to soil and that reflects in the quality of the coffee. And we are paying prices that pay a living wage to our farmers."

The coffee shop also serves pastries from Made With Love Bakery in Spokane and the Blissful Whisk in Spokane Valley.

Bubna has more than 17 years of experience in the coffee industry, starting as a barista at Starbucks in 2005. He was also an executive director of Seattle-based nonprofit Street Bean Coffee Roasters, which provides jobs and internships to at-risk and homeless youth.

"I was able to get them a roaster and set them up to roast their own coffee," Bubna said, referring to Street Bean Coffee Roasters. "That was my first exposure and experience in roasting coffee."

Bubna is also a former co-owner of Spokane-based Vessel Coffee Roasters, which was acquired by Ladder Coffee Roasters in 2020.

Bubna left Vessel Coffee Roasters in 2017. A year later, he became a commercial leasing manager for Greenstone Corp.

While working for Greenstone , Bubna was roasting coffee on the side at home and sought an opportunity to get back into the industry. That sparked the idea for New Love Coffee.

"Not only do I love coffee, I enjoy working with people, whether it's staff or customers," he said. "I kind of found a new love in terms of why I want to do coffee again."

Bubna is looking to build on the success of New Love Coffee with a second location in Kendall Yards. The Kendall Yards location is slated to open later this year in the Flatiron Building, adjacent to My Fresh Basket, Bubna said.

"It's a great location," he said. "It's going to be a unique space."

New Love Coffee's Liberty Lake location is open 7 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.