Cave City Coffee & Creamery | A mother-daughter enterprise
Beth Greer has a motto: If your dreams don’t scare you, they’re not big enough. When Beth opened Cave City Creamery in 2019, she was dreaming big—and when her daughter, Sarah, got laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic, they dreamed even bigger. Sarah, who had been working as a dietician, went to barista school in Seattle and came back to start a new coffee component at the shop. After a pandemic shutdown, the shop reopened in 2021 as Cave City Coffee and Creamery—a hot-and-cold convergence that customers love.
When Beth moved back home to the Cave City area to care for her parents, she was working as a speech pathologist and had no experience in the hospitality industry—but she took the leap, and she’s enjoyed getting to know customers like Jeannie, a trucker who drives from Georgia to Chicago and regularly leaves behind a $20 payment to “pay it forward” for first responders.
“With all the tourism, you never know who’s going to walk through the door, and it’s really cool,” Beth says. “I’ve met the most interesting people, and they all have a story. And I love to hear that and connect with them.”
Served by Farmers RECC, Cave City Coffee and Creamery is surrounded by winding country lanes and well-kept farms. It’s no wonder, then, that the business sources its all-important milk and cream for shakes and coffee beverages from Legacy Dairy, a fourth-generation family farm just down the road in Hiseville.
“It’s so great to have that,” Sarah says. “We really think it makes a difference in our drink, and they just won first place at the Kentucky State Fair for their milk.”
During the busy summer months, the shop buzzes with tourists visiting nearby attractions like Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky Down Under Adventure Zoo, Dinosaur World, Crystal Onyx Cave and much more. As fall lengthens into winter, customers enjoy the shop’s full coffee service, bistro-style seating and warm atmosphere—though the ice cream remains delicious year-round.
Best-selling coffee drinks include espresso, a range of lattes—popular flavors include pumpkin spice and peppermint mocha. Favorite ice cream treats include the upside down banana split (recipe below), hot fudge sundae, and 15 flavors of hand-dipped ice cream, accompanied, if you like, by handmade waffle cones. If you can’t choose between coffee and ice cream, enjoy both as an affogato—a scoop of ice cream topped with hot espresso.
If you’re hungry, Beth and Sarah have that covered too, with sandwiches available daily: chicken salad, pimento cheese, peanut butter and jelly, Nutella and banana and peanut butter and banana.
Cave City Coffee & Creamery, located at 201 Hubbard Lane in Cave City, is open Tuesday–Sunday, 7 a.m.–6 p.m.
