By Kaitlin Candelaria
Bebe Goodrich loves a lot of things about Birmingham.
She loves the fact that she can see Vulcan from her back yard and cites it as the main reason she and her husband, Thomas, purchased their Mountain Brook home. She loves that people don’t live as close together as they did in her hometown of New Orleans. She loves that her two sons, Henry and Walter, will be able to walk to school from the day they start kindergarten all the way through junior high school.
However, she doesn’t love the city’s coffee selection.
Goodrich has always had a thing for coffee. When she was attending college in Virginia, her girlfriends raved about her homemade cold-pressed coffee, which she grew up drinking straight out of her parents’ icebox in New Orleans. So when she moved to the Magic City and realized Birmingham’s coffee quandary, she decided to do something about it.
“We started Icebox Coffee in our garage with pantyhose and buckets,” Goodrich said. “We used Pepper Place Market to test the concept to see if people liked our product as much as we did. Western Supermarket was our first client, and we now sell Icebox Coffee in grocery stores from Texas to Florida all the way up to Virginia.”
Customers can also find Icebox Coffee in Birmingham at Carrigan’s Public House, Brick and Tin, and Paramount. The company moved into the Innovation Depot in Birmingham in August 2012 and now has seven employees.
The New Orleans influence that inspired Goodrich to start her own business also inspires her home, which she said is always open for company.
“In New Orleans, it’s always about entertaining,” Goodrich said. “We are always ready and willing to receive people. Our bar is always stocked, and our pantry is always full. We keep music playing all the time. I want to people to feel comfortable the moment they enter our home — our entire house is a front porch.”
Goodrich creates comfort by using unique pieces that have been handed down through both her and her husband’s families. In their sitting room alone, the large secretary that dominates the room was designed and built by her great-great-great grandfather, while the original Herman Miller bar, end table and Eames chair were handed down from her grandmother. Her younger son’s room spotlights two hand painted bed frames that belonged to her godmother.
Many of the items have fun stories behind them. A table and chairs came from her husband’s childhood home and are a sister set to the table and chairs in President Andrew Jackson’s childhood home.
“We’re eclectic,” Goodrich said. “We have a lot of great pieces, and we’re all about making people feel at home here.”
Her eclectic mentality also stems from her time in New Orleans.
“New Orleans is such a melting pot of culture with a lot of influences dating back to the Spanish and French influence, and I think our home is similar,” Goodrich said.
Goodrich’s parents are Lebanese and English while her husband’s family hails from all over the South.
Artwork from New Orleans artists such as Clementine Hunter hangs in almost every room as well, adding bright colors and folky scenes to the backdrop of the Goodrich home. The living room showcases a 1976 Jazzfest advertisement, while her son Walter’s room has riverboat drawings by New Orleans artist Robert Rucker.
“I think it’s important to remember where you come from and what makes you unique,” Goodrich said.
Goodrich said when she was planning out her home, she focused on the concept of functional beauty.
“You want the best you can put forth without it becoming overbearing to your lifestyle,” Goodrich said. “Our objective is the same with both our home and our coffee — we want to create convenience and affordability in your life so that you can take your time and money to do something else besides standing in line at the coffee shop. We look at our house the same way — how can we maximize our enjoyment here without our house becoming a burden?”
Because of that approach, Goodrich said she often focuses more on spending time with family and friends rather than trying to create the “perfect” home.
“My mom gave me the best advice,” Goodrich said. “She told me I could spend every Saturday and Sunday cleaning up after my kids and husband, or I could realize that there’s only so many Saturdays and Sundays we all get to spend together before they grow up.”
