The Olde Bartley House Coffee & Donuts

The Sampler

I know just how you feel.

You hit the town early, determined to experience every shop, eyeball all the merchandise, take in every breath of color and culture that Indiana’s coolest little village has to offer.

About mid-morning, after exploring a few dozen stores and blocks of scenic small-town wonder, you start to feel ready for a little break, a little pick-me-up before soldiering on to the shopping conquests that lie ahead.

Have I got a place for you!

It’s old Nashville, but it’s been made new. It is cool, clean, well-appointed and has a bunch of interesting stuff to look at as you refresh yourself. It’s a little place where people can come in and sit down, get something cold to drink, maybe a small bite, get off their feet and relax a bit before going back out into the wilderness of the public marketplace.

And, best of all, especially if you are a restaurant enthusiast like myself, you will have the opportunity to snack on something new, something special, something you or I have never eaten or even heard of before—the Volant.

A Volant is a “French Americana layered donut” unique to the recently opened Olde Bartley House Coffee and Donuts. Offered in many different permutations and incarnations, it is the mainstay food offering along with about two dozen coffee variations and non-coffee caffeinated drinks.

Filled with curiosity and practically overcome with donut desire, I made my way down to the Olde Bartley House which prominently occupies the corner of Van Buren and Franklin streets.

This wonderfully preserved building was built in 1886 by a local grocery store owner and landowner, Charley Gibson. Ambrose Bartley owned the home from 1903 until 1929, leaving it with his name.

Over the past couple of years, the building has been beautifully and meticulously restored, making it worth the visit just to take in the new improvements to this lovely old structure.

Plus, you’ll get donuts. And not just any donuts, but Volants.

These unusual, delicious treats are served in 17 different creative varieties, ranging from strawberry blonde and blueberry crumble, through pistachio dream and chocolate hazelnut, to locally-themed favorites like the Abe Martin Apple and the Brown County Breakfast (maple glaze and cinnamon sugar).

And if you think their donuts are innovative, get a gander at their Volant sandwiches: a plain or “everything” Volant with ham, egg, and cheese; avocado, egg, and cheese; or the “wild turkey” with bacon, avocado, and pepperjack cheese. Or a “Monte Cristo” with ham, Swiss cheese, aioli, mustard and mixed berry jam on a caramelized maple volant.

Visitors make their way through a little cafeteria line where they view the tasty delights inside a glass case, choose their favorite(s), and order any of a plethora of available drinks.

Coffee? There’s drip, espresso, Americano, cappuccino, cortado, latte, dark or white mocha and hot chocolate. Tea lattes include matcha, Chai and London fog; steeped teas include jasmine, lavender mint, chamomile and the dreaded Earl Grey.

You can get a “nitro cold brew” with any of a dozen syrups, including sugar-free choices, and add cold foam for a dollar-fifty. All drinks are double shots. Not to mention the house specials: hot or iced “campfire macchiato,” Salt Creek caramel macchiato, white peach iced matcha, and “vanilla Bean Blossom,” cold foam or nitro.

Olde Bartley House offers “Moonshiners,” sparkling energy drinks with caffeine from green coffee beans, guarana, and botanicals, including “Fools Gold,” gold hibiscus with cardamom, ginger, and bitters, “Huckleberry Heaven” with lavender, huckleberry and lemon, and “Tangerine Dream” with lemon, tangerine, vanilla bean, and sweet cream.

Cold drinks include strawberry limeade freeze, elderberry hibiscus iced tea, mango calamansi refresher, and strawberry or chocolate milk.

The donuts were good, but I have to admit that my favorite thing about this new coffee shop is its Frank Hohenberger theme. The historic house has been transformed into a virtual shrine to the iconic photographer who put Brown County on the radar of potential tourists.

Hohenberger, as much as anyone, created the modern tourist industry in Nashville, especially through his weekly column “Down in the Hills O’ Brown,” which appeared in the Sunday edition of The Indianapolis Star between 1923 and 1954.

Hohenberger’s columns roused the curiosity of readers all over Indiana and around the country about the quaintness of Brown County folkways and the work of the famous art colony.

Hohenberger lived at the Bartley House for 20 years, until he died in 1963, leaving his huge cache of Brown County photographs to the Indiana University Lilly Library so that we may all continue to enjoy them.

Hohenberger’s photos are displayed all around the Bartley House’s first-floor dining area, including a huge mural of his famous “Liars Bench” photo. The coffee and donut shop also features his original camera and other memorabilia.

I munched contentedly on my blueberry crumble Volant, sipped my just-a-regular coffee, and thought about Frank Hohenberger. And, by and by, I was renewed in spirit and quite ready to plunge ahead into my busy day.

For a profoundly satisfying rest stop, The Olde Bartley House Coffee and Donuts doesn’t just serve coffee, they offer an experience.

The Olde Bartley House Coffee and Donuts is located at 96 South Van Buren Street in Nashville. You can view the menu at oldebartleyhouse.com , call 812-200-1311, and look them up on Facebook.