Leadership Center reopens Espressions

The Leadership Center expanded its reach and mission this week by reopening a downtown coffee shop as a venue which now offers far more than beverages and entrees.
As of Monday morning, the well-known eatery at 1117 M St. is operating as The Leadership Center at Espressions, offering coffee, community and more.
“Espressions will be just an extension of what we do at The Leadership Center, where we create moments that matter,” explained Maile Ilac Boeder, TLC’s executive director. “We really, really want this to be a place where people create, find and belong to community.”
When she learned in November that Espressions would soon be closing, Ilac Boeder said she thought long and hard about the possibilities before finally sharing an idea with her husband, John.
“I said what if The Leadership Center had a space on the square where we could serve our community day in and day out, doing what we do for the guests that come through our doors, for our town,” she recalled, noting that only about 5-7 percent of the center’s business involves clients from Hamilton County. “What if we could meet our community members where they are at, because we hear this a lot that we’re out on the edge of town.”
The more she thought about it, the more Ilac Boeder liked the idea.
“Between the two of us, John and I have over 25 years of coffee house experience, so what if we just do what we do with our team, hosting guests at our camps and conferences, and what if we do it up town?” she said.
John liked the idea, which was eventually approved, unanimously, by the The Leadership Center’s board of directors. After two months of planning and preparation, the doors opened Monday on a new era of service for both The Leadership Center, and its coffee house namesake, Espressions.
As for the menu, the new venture will serve coffee provided by Cultiva, a Lincoln-based coffee company, as well as teas from The Tea Smith out of Omaha.
“They started out as a coffee house and now they are roasters,” Ilac Boeder said of Cultiva. “Their coffees are phenomenal. As for the teas, we have spent the last month trying probably two to three dozen of their teas before we made our selections. We’ll have to-go options for people, but really with community being at the heart of what we’re doing, we’re okay not having a drive-through because we want people to be intentional about coming in here and spending time.”
The entrees for meals will be prepared at The Leadership Center, including caramel pecan rolls, cinnamon rolls, breakfast burritos, overnight oats and yogurt parfaits. The lunch/dinner menu will feature, for example, grilled cheese sandwiches, panini wraps, and lavosh (a style of cracker pizza).
“Our menu will have plenty of things for people who love cheese and meat, but we will also have a fairly large selection of gluten free, dairy free and plant-based options,” she said.
Brisket, one of the favorite entrees at TLC according to Ilac Boeder, will also be on the menu, as well as cookies and pastries.
“We’re keeping our menu fairly simply, knowing that allows us a chance to expand and try new things,” she said.

Community programs
Food and beverages will not be the only things served up in The Leadership Center at Espressions as the goal is to create moments that matter by hosting a variety of programming designed to be both educational and fun. Leading up that effort will be Lisa Montoya, a former teacher at Hampton Lutheran School who will serve as shop manager and lead Espressions educator.
“I’m going to be managing the shop, but I’m also in charge of community programs like story time and book clubs,” she explained. “Maile and I are both going to be brave and each run a book club, but we’re also encouraging other people to come in and use this space for their own book clubs where we’re not the moderators.
“We want to get writers in here, bring in craft clubs, we have game nights scheduled and we’ll have some music events as well,” she added. “I’ve got things on the schedule for the whole month of April and then we’ll go from there.”
On April 21, Brian Sutherland is booked as the first house concert at the new venue, with musicians to be on the calendar in June and August as well.
“A lot of our house concerts, especially in the summer, will be at The Leadership Center because we have our patio, but absolutely we’ll have music here,” Ilac Boeder said.
Though the new venture will have a different feel for the familiar locale, she said it’s a tip of the hat to former Espressions owners and operators as well.
“The other thing about this is that the original founders, Heidi (Walters) and her mom, and later Harry and Wenda Eckerson (who ran the business from 2001-17 before moving to Kansas City), created spaces for people to just come and be and have a moment or have an important conversation or a business meeting,” Ilac Boeder added. “It just broke my heart at the thought that it might not be here. I also knew if we were to move all of the machinery to The Leadership Center it wasn’t going to be the same. Everyone I kind of brought the idea to said it just makes sense to do this here.”
The Eckersons said they are both pleased with the latest development.
“We’re just really excited that they’re going to be in there and serving the community,” Wenda said. “They are taking over Espressions and being of service to the community like we had originally intended. Maile is really generous and has a lot of great ideas, so we’re excited.”
“I don’t know how long Maile’s been in Aurora now but she’s just done such an outstanding job at the Leadership Center and she has so many great connections in the community,” Harry added. “It’s really nice to see them coming downtown with all that.”
Walters added her endorsement as well.
“I’m really happy for them,” she said. “I think it’s a great fit.”
The hours of operation are scheduled for Monday through Thursday, 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The facility will also be available for rent in the evenings, with small meeting rooms also accessible during regular hours.
“We’re just really excited to welcome our new friends in our community through the doors and we hope that this is a space that they can appreciate and that they feel welcome in,” Ilac Boeder said. “We also hope that the community will understand that we want our teens to come here, to hang out, drink coffee and talk to their friends. So when we say community, we mean community for everyone.”