Outside of downtown Lexington sits a small coffee shop, serving love and kindness one cup at a time.
High on Art and Coffee owners Tim and Ellie Harman create everyday impacts for their customers through their love and compassion for Lexington’s communities.
Tim and Ellie opened High on Art and Coffee at 523 E. High St. 10 years ago and have spread their love to Lexington ever since.
Ellie moved from Buffalo, New York to Lexington in 1998 following a divorce that spurred a desire for change, while Tim grew up on the south side of Lexington near Southland Drive.
“I was going through a divorce and I had family here,” Ellie said. “It just made sense to leave New York once and for all.”
The couple met on Match.com in March 2002 and instantly clicked, Ellie said. Following her divorce, Ellie had a few reservations, but she knew Tim was a good guy and even introduced her daughter to him right away.
Tim moved in with Ellie in October and proposed on Valentine’s Day in 2003. Ellie said yes.
Ellie and Tim came up with the idea of owning a coffee shop when visiting Tim’s mother in Edisto Beach, South Carolina and seeing the cafes around town.
Before the shop, Tim designed restaurants and sold restaurant equipment, while Ellie worked in finance and made jewelry on the side. Once Ellie semi-retired from finance, she took her jewelry to boutiques to commission her work but had no luck and became frustrated.
“I was dressed nice and, you know, presentable but (the boutiques) just didn’t want to know anything,” She said. “When we do (the coffee shop), I’m not going to turn artists away.”
The High on Art and Coffee shop idea was put on hold as Tim continued working full-time in the restaurant industry, and the couple would do art shows every weekend. However, the amount of work that they were doing started to become too much for Tim.
“I got so upset at my job one day and went out to the parking lot and googled commercial real estate,” Tim said. “This place popped up, we came that night and as soon as we walked in, we knew this would be the place.”
Tim and Ellie signed the lease for the building in November 2014 and opened on Jan. 5, 2015. However, they couldn’t sell food until late February because of a snowstorm delaying their inspection. They made the most of this circumstance by giving away free coffee for six weeks to get their name out there and create regulars.
When they opened Ellie was 53 and Tim was 50. Their families questioned their decision to open a business late in life and criticized the area for crime and lack of parking near the building, among other criticisms, but Ellie and Tim were determined.
“‘You’re gonna fail, you don’t know what you’re doing,’ and we heard that five years in,” Ellie said. “But we just stopped talking to them (family).”
After they obtained their food license, Lexington experienced non-stop rain for four months, keeping customers at home. Tim and Ellie had to be open seven days a week and worked for three years since opening before they could take a day off.
“We worked seven days a week because we were open on Sundays then,” Ellie said. “The same people who were giving us negatives were like ‘You should just hire more people’ and it’s like how are you going to pay them.”
Once the coronavirus pandemic hit, the shop shut down for three months. When they opened again in June, they had to serve customers through a window in their patio area, and didn’t allow people to sit outside. They served their customers through their window for three years to be as safe as possible from the ongoing pandemic.
Despite their setbacks, Tim and Ellie are closer than ever in their 22-year relationship.
However, owning a business with your significant other is often talked about as a terrible idea and they wouldn’t recommend it for every couple.
“We don’t argue, we discuss,” Ellie said. “So unless you have a really strong relationship to begin with, I wouldn’t recommend going in business with your partner.”
As much as Ellie and Tim love each other, they love Lexington, its community and their employees even more with taking care of everyone who walks through their doors.
Maxwell Spanish Immersion Elementary School sits down the road from High on Art and Coffee and Tim and Ellie have seen the kids who came to the shop grow up over the years until they graduated high school.
“So the first year we were here, the class that was still at Maxwell, we’ve seen them grow up. They graduated from Bryan Station, they all came here and we all took our pictures,” Tim said. “You all (UK students) mean the world.”
UK students love the couple too. Tim is a Futbol Club Barcelona fan and a few sorority girls went to Barcelona and when they came back they gave Tim a Barcelona scarf.
Tim and Ellie have also received letters telling them that if it wasn’t for them and their coffee shop students would drop out of school. Tim and Ellie want everyone to feel comfortable and feel like they belong when they’re at the shop.
Ellie and Tim consider their employees like a second family. They would rather pay their employees than the government, so they get a living wage and tips.
“We got the greatest staff, I can’t say enough good things about our people. They’re just the best,” Tim said.
Tim and Ellie have established their business as one of comfort and love, accepting of everyone who walks in the door. No matter their political affiliation, social status or how much money a person has—everyone is loved equally.
“I’ve had a couple of Conservative customers say, ‘I don’t vote the way you do, is that okay if I still come here?’” Ellie said. “And my response was ‘I believe everyone has a right to eat.’”
Their generosity and kindness also extends to Lexington’s homeless population. They put together backpacks filled with hand-cranked flashlights, clothes, blankets and sleeping bags. They also feed them when they come to their shop and keep Narcan in case of any overdoses that may happen at the shop.
Tim and Ellie also donate to multiple charities throughout the year as well, both nationally and locally, but they prefer to keep local to help the Lexington community.
One of their favorite charities is Camp Beacon, an LGBTQ+ camp in Kentucky for younger people. They also love giving to charities that help animals like Paws 4 the Cause and 4 Paws for Ability.
“Why would we give to the United Way when we could give to something more local,” Tim said. “Let’s take care of right here, especially now.”
The United Way is an international charity that aims to address local needs like health, education and financial stability by giving access to clean drinking water and training communities in high-demand jobs. They have donated to the United Way previously but prefer to donate locally.
Tim and Ellie have about five years left before they take a step back from the business. They plan to give the coffee shop to their daughter and keep it running in the family through their granddaughters.
“I’ve got five more years in it. We want to give it to our daughter,” Tim said. “She was kinda iffy in the past but now I think she’s growing into the idea of taking it over, we hope, because we would like to see it with her.”
