Local Coffee in Prospect, Please

Hello: Please & Thank You - River

If you haven’t driven down 42 recently for an event out at the Hermitage, an appointment at a family dentistry, or just a nice Sunday drive, a new sign may throw you off on your way. Upon rolling into the well-established Louisville suburb of Prospect you see the Kroger, McDonalds, and Starbucks all in a row like clockwork for nearly any suburb. After a couple of suburban villages and manors, a familiar, but not too familiar black sign appears and I had to re-orient myself to make sure I wasn’t in Nulu.

The Louisville-local coffee chain Please & Thank You has opened their 4th location across Louisville-Metro. We had to check it out just because of shock-value alone. It’s housed in what was most recently a Homemade Ice Cream & Pie Kitchen. In what seems to be a major scaling-back for the Louisville dessert chain, P&TY stepped right in to what is a surprisingly cool location. It sits directly on US-42 in a corner unit shared with a florist, a chiropractor’s office, and a Domino’s. Despite less-than exciting company, P&TY made this location fit their dark, loud, no-decaf vibe.

We’ve all had Please & Thank You coffee by now, and if not, then you probably live in Prospect, in which case you’ve now had Please & Thank You coffee. It’s locally roasted and bagged by Good Folks Coffee in the Shelby Park neighborhood. It’s good coffee. Nothing more and certainly nothing less. P&TY collects their chips dishing out cookies (indeed the best in Louisville) and experience. Hands down this is the best work yet from the P&TY design team.

The building offers a medium size knockout sunroom surrounded by windows on 3 walls and seats 12 people comfortably. In the main seating area sits a large oval group table and some lounge seating for singles and smaller parties. There’s a killer outdoor patio that hopefully will inspire a beer and wine offering once the weather heats up. It sports 6 picnic tables and 2 smaller seating areas for plenty of room for everyone to enjoy a fully-caffeinated joe in the sun. P&TY has captured a more traditional coffee house feel while integrating their unique style to stay on-brand. The staff was helpful, friendly, and as unique as the Floyd, Mark, and Frank locations.

The new Please & Thank You gets a huge thumbs up from us and seemingly everyone else too. On a Wednesday morning the shop was packed with people coming in and out and plenty of lingerers enjoying the new digs. The next time you’re out on an extended drive on River Road we suggest making it a point to stop in P&TY River.