LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Tabet Wilson said the words I never thought I’d hear a coffee shop owner say.
“Honestly, I don’t even like coffee!!,” says Wilson, the owner of Genesis Coffee House and Eatery.
Despite that, she’s always known she would end up right here.
“Let’s go back 20 years ago when I first received the vision to do this. So it has been 20 years. So even up to those three years – bringing you forward – it has been a thinking process.”
After almost two decades of thinking and planning, and saving, Tabet finally decided to put her plan into motion in 2019. And then, the pandemic hit.
“March 2020 was when I was actually supposed to open the doors. And that’s when the governor shut down all the businesses. Like two weeks before my opening date,” says Wilson. “I waited for a little bit, and then I was like ‘you know what…pandemic or no pandemic, I’m opening the doors!’ and so here we are.”
Where we are is in Wilson’s quaint coffee shop and eatery off Leestown Road. Dozens of hot beverages on the menu and a wide enough variety of sandwiches to make even this non-foodie stop for lunch.
“I’m just a firm believer that when something keeps nagging at you, then it’s for a purpose. It’s for a reason. So here we are now with an established coffee house!" Wilson says with a laugh.
It’s the culmination of years of dreams and visions, scribbled ideas in notebooks and on scratch pieces of paper.
“But that was the easy part, getting here. The more difficult part is remaining. So that’s where we are now.”
Even the name binds it all together, a God-given vision and the faith to believe in a fresh start.
“The beginning. And that is our slogan: ‘where everything begins with a cup of coffee’,” says Wilson.
Even if you don’t like coffee.
It’s been an unbelievable journey, one with plenty of life lessons along the way.
“You can’t give up on something that is small or minute. You’ve gotta keep on because if it’s been planted and if it’s been watered properly, it will grow. And so, that’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned – despise not small beginnings.
