Triple Moon Coffee brews community spirit in the heart of Middie City

Middletown’s local government, nonprofit leaders and private-sector businesses are developing resourceful, collaborative ideas. Earlier, the series highlighted economic, education, and healthcare advances that improved quality of life. Find all the Partne r City Middletown series here.

The transformation that coffee has undergone within popular culture is remarkable. Today, a “coffeehouse” denotes a social or cultural experience where the brewed bean manifests as an ever-expanding repertoire of tasty concoctions. Lattes and cold brew might be the enticement, but they lead to experiences that make the coffeehouse neighborhood hubs.

Heather Gibson founded Triple Moon Coffee at the intersection of Central Avenue and Broad Street in the heart of downtown Middletown. Her cafe has become a busy hub of midday activity with recently expanded hours to become a weekend evening destination. Her life experiences have provided her with a unique perspective that fuels her commitment to her employees and customers.

Gibson’s father, a Native American from rural eastern Kentucky, was stationed in Britain during World War II, where he met her mother at a servicemen’s dance. After hostilities ended, she came to the U.S. with him, and they were married. However, living in the backwoods wasn’t to her liking.

“She told my father, ‘Either we move to a bigger town, or I’m going back to England’,” Gibson said. “My father got the message, he took a job at ARMCO Steel, and they moved to Middletown.”

After graduating from high school, Gibson gave into wanderlust. She ventured to the Virgin Islands and Florida, where she earned an associate’s degree in communications and took a job in advertising. After her father passed away, she returned to Middletown to be near her mother. She briefly took on an advertising role for WPFB when it was a repeater station for Northern Kentucky University’s radio station WNKU.

She decided she needed more stability and took on a role as a salesperson with Hamilton Fixtures, a local cabinetmaker, then assumed several roles for cabinet manufacturers and distributors, eventually becoming the general manager of a cabinetmaker in Miamisburg. However, her lifelong passion for coffee persisted. Gibson had long admired the vacant downtown building at the Central and Main intersection. Long ago, it had been Gallaher Drugs, one of many erstwhile independent businesses that had thrived during Middletown’s peak as a manufacturing hub.

Gibson had long admired the vacant downtown building at the Central and Main intersection. Long ago, it had been Gallaher Drugs.

In the mid-2010s, Heather was disappointed to see that a business planned to locate on the property. A dual dose of good fortune created an opportunity: the business that intended to locate there didn’t come to fruition, and Gibson’s partner, Michelle Tice, received a substantial financial sum from a long-forgotten retirement account accrued during her years working at AK Steel.

“It was unbelievably lucky,” Gibson recalled. “I asked Michelle if it would be enough for a down payment, and she said, ‘Yes, and the equipment.’”

In 2015, Triple Moon Coffee opened for business in downtown Middletown. A lunar reference may seem incompatible with coffee’s ubiquitous morning impact, but Gibson noted that it was a reference to her mother’s Wiccan beliefs and its reference to a woman’s lifespan as a young, middle-aged, and elderly woman – maiden, mother, and crone, in Wiccan parlance.

Perhaps the name helped enhance its mojo; Triple Moon’s business thrived from the outset. Gibson recalled that, on the Friday that Triple Moon opened, a line formed out the door almost immediately. She said that the restaurant’s success is largely attributed to embracing authenticity, quality offerings, and creating a comfortable space.

She collaborated with Seven Hills Coffee Roasters of Cincinnati to experiment and create a blend of beans that created a distinctive flavor. Triple Moon Coffee offers delectable pastries baked by Sweet Indulgence by Donna, located in nearby Trenton, and house-made lunch including a favorite egg salad wrapped in a spinach tortilla.

Options for picking up a cup of coffee to fuel your day abound. Gibson has embraced the importance of creating an atmosphere that differentiates Triple Moon from more transactional coffee retailers. The furniture provides a comfortable atmosphere, and décor conveys Gibson’s passions with a collection of artifacts that had belonged to her mother, artwork that reveals her passion for classic rock and the accompanying peace-and-love ambience.

“I want Triple Moon to be somewhere that people from all walks of life can enjoy good food and drinks with a warm sense of community,” Gibson said.

Gibson’s and Triple Moon’s team enjoyed comfortable success until COVID19 forced her to adapt. The building had a drive-through window that been used during its drugstore stint that had long been unused. The team shifted its workflow to be able to serve on-the-go customers during the social-distancing era. As pandemic worries subsided, Gibson eventually shuttered the drive-through windows and resumed its normal operations.

Angie Lipscomb – Gibson is optimistic about Triple Moon’s future, but notes challenges unique to the coffee business.

Triple Moon faced a more enduring challenge after Gibson suffered a stroke in 2022, which occurred while she was at work. As she convalesced, she was able to rely on Tice to handle its day-to-day decisions, as well as her trustworthy, well-trained team to keep its operation flowing smoothly. Over the course of two years of recovery, she gradually began assuming more of Triple Moon’s administrative duties. She’s optimistic about the shop’s future, but noted the challenges, some that are unique to the coffee business, whereas others are endemic to small businesses in her communities.

“Coffee shops run on tight margins in general, and the roughly 30% rise in coffee prices has made business more challenging,” she said. “Finding good employees and managing supply-chain snags is an ongoing problem for restaurants.”

Gibson offered a considerable list of recommendations for how local government could better support Middletown’s small business:

Expediting permit and license approval, ideally with an online portal, to better facilitate opening and renovating businesses.
Creating a program to simplify the conversion or updating of underused and vacant properties, especially in high-traffic downtown and public transit-accessible locations, through incentives for landlords to lease commercial properties at lower, growth-friendly rates.
Providing capital and resources to help create shared storefronts, pop-up shops, and co-working spaces to help promote low-overhead entrepreneurship opportunities.
Expanding microloan and grant programs that encourage underrepresented populations to become business owners.
Offering tax abatements or reduced taxation or fees for downtown and business-improvement districts.

Angie Lipscomb – Triple Moon’s well-trained team to keep its operation flowing smoothly.

For all the challenges Gibson has encountered running Triple Moon, her role has shown rewards. On a bleak, rain-soaked Tuesday, the arrival of four groups of students from Middletown High School and Butler Tech studying business and entrepreneurship provided a dose of energy. The visit was part of the schools’ efforts to introduce its students to a diverse array of businesses owners to instruct and inspire thoughts about their future careers.

In addressing two rooms full of attentive students, Gibson spoke earnestly about what professionals and entrepreneurs should prioritize. She emphasized the fundamental need to be responsive to customers’ needs and proactive in offering solutions, which she lamented had become a lost art in modern commerce. She exhorted her audience to courageously embrace opportunities and to continually seek ways to learn to improve their skills and professional growth. She didn’t shy away from discussing the commitment business ownership requires. “Even when I’m not here, I’m working on ordering, payroll, or looking for ways to improve the business,” she said.

One of the instructors, Jeremy West, Butler Tech’s entrepreneurship coordinator, serves as a mentor for students who run active businesses. West appreciated Gibson’s presentation, noting, “Her story in inspiring. Students can read about entrepreneurs in textbooks or online, but seeing, hearing, and engaging in person is so much more valuable. Heather’s authenticity and passion made entrepreneurship feel real and attainable.”

Angie Lipscomb – Gibson adds “Owning a business isn’t a 9-to-5 gig; it’s 5 (a.m.) to 9 (p.m.).”

As she looks ahead to Triple Moon’s future, Gibson plans to stay true to her vision.

“I’m not trying to grow into multiple locations,” she said. “It’s easy for a business to overextend and lose track of what has made them successful. I’m happy to be running my dream business and maintaining a commitment to my team and my customers.”

This Partner City Middletown series is made possible with support provided by: Cincinnati Commercial Contracting, the city of Middletown, the Middletown Community Foundation, and the Chamber of Commerce serving Middletown, Monroe and Trenton.