Ground-A-Bout acquires Baristas Coffee Bar in Cape Girardeau

Starting this week, Baristas Coffee Bar in downtown Cape Girardeau is no more.

The coffee house at the corner of Broadway and North Fountain Street opened as The Ground-A-Bout Marquette on Tuesday.

“Baristas has made a name for itself as a wonderful shop here in Cape,” Bob Schooley, co-founder of The Ground-A-Bout, said. “It’s the pinnacle of coffee shops here in Cape, in my opinion. We saw an opportunity to expand our business, and we went for it.”

This will be The Ground-A-Bout’s second location. Schooley first opened The Ground-A-Bout in 2016 with his wife, Serena, off East Adams Street in Jackson.

For the most part, the menu will stay the same at first, Schooley said. The Ground-A-Bout Marquette will keep the best of what Baristas offered and also serve some of The Ground-A-Bout’s signature eats. Eventually, the new location will serve lunch items as well.

The Ground-A-Bout Marquette will not source from Kaldi’s Coffee, a specialty coffee roaster in St. Louis, as Baristas did. Instead, the coffee house will serve coffee Schooley roasts weekly and will still offer Firepot Nomadic Teas.

Menu items cost either the same or less than what they did before, according to Schooley.

The Ground-A-Bout will also honor Baristas Coffee Bar gift cards and reward system, Mobile Bytes. Eventually, The Ground-A-Bout will roll out its own rewards system, Schooley said.

Acquiring Baristas is not the only new development Schooley has planned for this year.

The Ground-A-Bout will begin the process of opening a third location later this year.

Schooley anticipates breaking ground on a another shop in Jackson sometime in late summer. The new Ground-A-Bout will feature a double drive-through and be between Don Carlos and Wing Etc. off East Jackson Boulevard.