New E.V. Coffeehouse: "It Came Out of Nowhere!"

Vibrant Coffeehouse and Kitchen opens under the radar in the East Village.

Note: This post was updated on 8/10/2023 to mention the cafe’s ties to a credit union.

My friend who lives in the East Village was making her rounds Monday and happened to spot an all-new venue: Vibrant Coffeehouse and Kitchen (520 East Grand Avenue).

“It came out of nowhere!” she said.

Actually, it opened a week ago, and it didn’t exactly come out of nowhere: It’s an offshoot of the Vibrant Coffeehouse in Moline, Illinois.

And here’s a surprise: A restaurant-industry insider told me that This is all part of the Vibrant Credit Union.

Vibrant already has a coffeehouse/credit union branch in Moline, and they’re currently transforming their Bettendorf branch into a coffeehouse. The reasoning: “We started looking at other ways we could maintain a presence in the community that went beyond traditional banking.”

In Des Moines, it looks like the coffeehouse came first, and the banking part may be yet to come (I saw no evidence of banking when I went there on Monday!). I’m trying to get the lowd…