Albion students in need of a caffeine fix – especially on the weekends, when The Grinds café is closed – needn’t look any farther than 0.8 miles away.
Stirling Books & Brew is located on N Superior Street, a 15-minute walk from Albion College’s campus. The store has several shelves full of new and used books, a full cafe and a selection of local products including hats, honey and greeting cards. After a brief hiatus this November, Stirling is back with more products and a lineup of new and returning events for 2025.
Committed to the Community
Stacy and Jim Stuart opened Stirling Books and Brew on Aug. 1, 2017. When Dorothy Dickerson closed her store, Books and More, the Stuarts bought the building from her. Jim Stuart said that when he and his wife bought the building, Dickerson asked them to keep it as a combination coffee shop and bookstore – so they did.
The Stuarts’ life mission, according to Jim Stuart, is to “love actively.”
“If we can help with something, we want to do that, and that’s a way of showing love to people,” Jim Stuart said.
Jim Stuart added that he wants Stirling to be “a place where people can come together.” Making the store a positive place for everyone in the Albion community is important to him.
“We want (Stirling) to be inviting, and we want it to be safe,” Jim Stuart said.
Benefiting the community is more important to him than financial gain, Jim Stuart said.
“We’re not in the black; we’re in the red,” Jim Stuart said. “We do it because it’s nice for the town.”
Before he retired, Jim Stuart worked in IT at Albion College, and he said he is a “big supporter” of the college.
“It’s important to the town, and the town’s important to the college,” Jim Stuart said. “And I am a huge fan of both.”
Jim Stuart said business has been down for Stirling since the pandemic, and he sees fewer Albion College students come in than he used to.
“We don’t get a lot of Albion College right now, hardly at all. But, I’m not crying about it,” Jim Stuart said. “I’m gonna figure it out.”
Student-Friendly Environment
Albion first-year Anthony Carter has worked at Stirling for two years; he was in a soccer program that Stuart ran,and he offered him a job.
Since Stirling is such a small business, Carter said, its employees often do several jobs within a shift, like making drinks, ringing up books, stocking shelves and cleaning. His favorite job is to make drinks – and his favorite drink is the caramel frappé.
Carter said he would “absolutely” encourage Albion College students to come to Stirling.
“It’s just a quiet study place,” Carter said. “And, I mean, we have coffee. Who doesn’t love coffee?”
Dallas sophomore Alexander Gonzalez said he’s been a fan of Stirling since he stumbled upon it downtown last year.
“I saw that they had coffee, so I went in,” Gonzalez said.
He likes it there because it’s quiet and because Jim Stuart’s “a cool guy,” Gonzalez said.
“It’s a very welcoming place,” Gonzalez said. “I would recommend it to first-years if they ever feel like they don’t belong.”
Managed with Care
From Jim Stuart’s career in IT and the private sector, he has a lot of experience with business processes. When he retired a few years ago, he said he took a good look at Stirling and realized, “Jeez, we don’t really deliver very well.”
After that realization, Jim Stuart said he stopped being so hands-off with the service side of Stirling. He decided, “Okay, I’m going to be the best barista here.”
“I got in behind the counter and I learned everything and I learned how to do it right,” Jim Stuart said. “Then, I made sure we were all doing it the same way.”
Becoming more immersed in the everyday jobs of Stirling helped Jim Stuart a lot, he added.
“I learned how to track my quantities better, how to price more accurately,” Jim Stuart said. “It was really good for me.”
Jim Stuart has two favorite things about being an owner of Stirling: getting to interact with so many different people and making his own choices.
“I love owning this business because I can do whatever I want,” Jim Stuart said. “I don’t have to answer to anybody.”
An Event for Everyone
In addition to books, coffee and local products, Stirling offers a wide range of free events for the community. Jim Stuart is planning to start up, or restart, several series of events starting in January.
According to Jim Stuart, Stirling will host talks by “creative people” – authors, poets, artists and musicians – on Sundays at 2 p.m.
On Friday nights, Stirling is bringing back trivia – with a slight twist.
“It’s going to be topical, themed,” Jim Stuart said. “We’ll do ‘Star Wars,’ or ‘Star Trek’ or Saturday cartoons or something. I don’t know what.”
Jim Stuart wants to have themed trivia nights to draw in different audiences. The old trivia, he said, had a core group of people who always attended, and it became a more closed community.
“That’s not really what I’m going for; I want to build community, and I want the communities to be open,” Jim Stuart said.
There will also be an euchre club, meeting on the second Saturday of every month, and a chess club, meeting on the fourth Saturday of every month.
Jim Stuart is also bringing back story time for kids 5 and under, on Mondays at 10:30 a.m.
Jim Stuart said he is “always open to ideas” for things people want to see at Stirling.
“If you have some ideas, I don’t care how off the wall they are, or mundane they are; either way I still wouldn’t mind hearing them,” Jim Stuart said. “Maybe I’ve heard them before, but maybe I haven’t. Or, maybe it’s time for me to hear it again.”
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