Emergency coffee: Mudhouse serves sans power

One bright spot for the coffee-deprived on an otherwise  power-less Saturday morning in Crozet was the open door at Mudhouse. Inside, "Build Me Up Buttercup" played with the baristas dancing and hand-grinding the coffee beans.

Some would-be patrons had to abandon their quest for caffeine because of the cash-only June 30 operation. A gas stove in the back of the coffeehouse provided the hot water for drip coffee.

"We did not tell them to open," says local chain owner Lynelle Lawrence. "I just assumed they had power."

"It's always important that the Mudhouse is open in the face of no power or in a snowstorm," says Crozet manager Nick Cardoni, who explains that providing such a community service is part of the Mudhouse culture.

"People in line volunteered to help us grind the coffee," he says. "People were so happy they could get their coffee."

"This is the only coffee between here and West Virginia," said one man standing in line, who asserted that the windstorm known as a derecho had hit the Mountain State around 7pm Friday night, June 29, before slashing its path of devastation eastward en route to Charlottesville and most of the rest of the state.