- April 18, 2024
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Corrie Herbruck knew from a young age that she wanted to make an impact.
But she didn't initially think she would do so through coffee.
Herbruck, of Ormond Beach, opened Beautiful Gate Cafe at 142 N. Nova Road four months ago, with the aim to create a nonprofit coffee shop to support both local and global humanitarian efforts. She hopes her cafe serves as a welcoming space for people from all walks of life — a place of refuge where people may find fellowship.
“It’s more than just coffee," Herbruck said. "It’s making an impact in both the community and in the world."
The concept of the cafe was inspired by the third chapter of the book of Acts in the Bible. Herbruck, who majored in Biblical studies in college, said her business name derives from the passage where two of Jesus' disciples were heading to the temple for prayer, and noticed a crippled beggar at the "Beautiful Gate" of the temple. The disciples healed him, and the beggar went with them inside the temple. On the side of the cafe's bar is a quote from Acts 3:6: "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give to you."
For Herbruck, that passage represented her passion in helping others through faith.
After college, Herbruck attended a Living Hope International ministry-based training school in Mexico for two years where she worked with orphans, refugees and helped offer different forms of humanitarian aid. She later took a trip to Turkey where she assisted with refugee camps. It was a heartbreaking experience, Herbruck said, but at the same time, it inspired her to immerse herself in a new culture. She longed to learn more.
“As soon as you entered their house, tea was on the table and everything," Herbruck said. "We came there to offer aid, right? But they’re offering way more to us than we could ever.”
Beautiful Gate Cafe has touches from Herbruck's travels, from a floor seating area to the placemats adorning table tops. In December 2020, Herbruck almost moved overseas, but after some prayer, she said she realized she needed to stay stateside. Herbruck made the decision to open a coffee shop the following month, and while initially she was hoping to open her nonprofit cafe in a bigger city, she eventually decided to remain in her hometown.
“When we came across this place with my parents, I was like, ‘Ok this is the one. I don’t know why,’" Herbruck recalled. "Everything fell into place.”
Since opening, she's gotten the chance to speak to people from as far as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the Philippines, and business has been picking up in the last month. While Herbruck selects a specific mission to support every month, Beautiful Gate Cafe — which makes all of its syrups and alternative milks in-house — is a partner with Rapha International, a Missouri-based nonprofit that works to end the trafficking of women and children.
"The whole goal and mission here is to encourage our young generation to be passionate examples of the one," Herbruck said. "And who is the one? That’s the one that’s lost, and that’s also the one that found us, which is Jesus.”
Visit beautifulgatecafe.com
