Inspiring a Decade More
Waller’s Coffee Shop, located at 240 Dekalb Industrial Way in Decatur is a great local spot to grab a cup of coffee. It is a warm and cozy environment filled with an eclectic array of furniture, games, books, inviting nooks 
and crannies, and, of course, great coffee! When you walk in you feel like you are coming over to someone’s house, to their family room, like you have been invited to come hangout. Where you can just be.
Even the first time you go in, it feels welcoming, laid back, and chill. The employees and the customers who fill the place are friendly, greeting each other like old friends, and strike up conversations with each other. Waller’s has become a neighborhood institution with a loyal following. But how does a coffee shop become an institution and how does a coffee shop gain a loyal following? Great coffee? Sure. Scrumptious pastries and treats? Of course. But the driving force behind the following is more than that. It is Jason Waller himself.
Meet the man behind the following.
He is a business owner, a family man, an advocate for those struggling with mental health concerns, and an avid musician. First opening in February of 2019, Jason decided to open a coffee shop when he saw a for-lease sign in the window. “I was like, oh, that’d be nice, to rent that place,” says Jason, “and it just came into my vision of what the end result would be, and I love coffee shops. I love the atmosphere, I love the community aspect of it.” But Jason 
did not have experience owning or running a coffee shop. In fact, he didn’t have any real experience with coffee at all. But he had a vision and says that “So instead of being a coffee person deciding to open a coffee shop, I just dedicated myself to learning how to make a coffee shop and then became a coffee person. I dedicated myself to learning, to researching how to make a coffee shop, researching and going around to different coffee shops.”
did not have experience owning or running a coffee shop. In fact, he didn’t have any real experience with coffee at all. But he had a vision and says that “So instead of being a coffee person deciding to open a coffee shop, I just dedicated myself to learning how to make a coffee shop and then became a coffee person. I dedicated myself to learning, to researching how to make a coffee shop, researching and going around to different coffee shops.” It has not been an easy journey. Jason acknowledges that he had to “figure out how to reverse engineer” his vision and admits “I’ve struggled, I’ve stumbled, I’ve made all these mistakes, but the thing that has kept me going is just a determination, and grit, and the belief in a vision of the world.”
Jason has always wanted the coffee shop to be a place for the community, a place that benefits people, but he says, “my new goal is to make this benefit my family as well.”
According to Jason “Wallers has three prongs: some music and art, coffee and community, and then mental health advocacy.” The coffee and community is alive and well, obvious to all who stop in for a cup. But there is so much more going on at Wallers.
Music and Art
Jason Waller is a lover of music. Music has been a major focus of his life since he was a teenager. “I started in a punk band when I was 16 years old and played throughout high school and college,” says Jason, “Being in bands with friends and those musical relationships have been a big part of my life. There’s a magical connection that happens when a group of people get together to make music.” Jason used music as a way to reach at-risk youth he worked with in North Georgia, sharing that he would hike for eight days at a time with a mandolin. Jason mused that “I would make up songs and sing John 
Prine and Johnny Cash songs to these kids. Pretty much getting on their nerves” and definitely getting their attention. Jason was a musician long before he was a small business owner, and he says, “a lot of my supporters are musicians, and they appreciate the atmosphere and the environment to come and play music.” Jason has played in a couple of bands including Georgia Mountain String Band, Ryan Sheffield and the High Hills, and even one called Waller. He has released a couple of albums and he has played on some friends’ records. Making music is so much a part of his soul, saying “It’s getting to create something that’s greater than our individual selves—Music is magic.”
So no surprise that Wallers is also a venue for musicians to perform in the evenings. Wallers has not only interior space to perform but also a large shaded outdoor space (called #OuterSpaceAtWallers) where folks can gather in a rustic natural setting. Jason stresses on his website that these spaces are for community events—not large commercial events. The musicians who play at Wallers are from all kinds of styles and genres with many being folk or acoustic musicians. “We have a lot of high school kids coming in,” Jason says, “One organization I try to work with as much as possible is the Decatur Education Foundation, and they will have some fundraisers here.”
Mental Health Advocate
Jason is a fierce mental health advocate in large part due to his own journey. He is a straight shooter about his own mental health saying, “I have always struggled with anxiety or depression on one level or another, definitely during different seasons of my life which have presented me with different challenges.” He has even created a Youtube channel called “Waller’s Wellness” in which he posts videos of himself and others sharing their stories. His series called “Mental Health Mondays” reveal Jason’s willingness to be honest, real, and vulnerable. He works hard to overcome anxiety and depression and has found that trying to balance his life has a positive impact. “trying to feed my mind with positive affirmations, beautiful art, wonderful songs—that kind of stuff feeds my mind and helps me to combat come of the negative thoughts.”
Jason doesn’t get a whole lot of time off, only about once or twice a month. “I like to go fly fishing. I like to go hiking. I like to just hike into the middle of nowhere and where my phone won’t have any cell service and lay down in a creek and just kind of watch the mountain do its thing.” Mountains and music—two of Jason’s favorite resources to maintain his mental health.
Serving the Community
Jason has found a way to really serve the community. He has created an environment where everyone feels welcome. “We don’t judge anyone who walks through our doors,” says Jason. “Everyone’s welcome. Even people that think differently from us, and our mission is to be kind and to be helpful.” Jason acknowledges that serving others always returns the blessing onto him. “I can wake up in a bad mood, I can come in, and I can see just one smiling face and it will switch my brain.” He continues “If I get bummed, I just go do something for somebody else, and I get a little selfish dopamine hit of being kind and helpful to someone else.”
Even during COVID Waller’s stayed open, setting up a tent right outside the building so people could drive up or walk up and get coffee without going into the building. As the world started opening up again, so did Waller’s. The kindness definitely goes both ways. It hasn’t always been smooth or easy. When both espresso grinders broke at the same time, Jason turned to the community to ask for help. Jason recalls thinking, “Alright, community, I hate to ask, but could you all donate some money so that we could stay open? Every time we’ve needed money, it has appeared.” Jason is genuinely appreciative of all the community support, never taking it for granted. Jason acknowledges, “We have gathered such a great community of givers who have donated their time, their money, their efforts, or just their thoughts or just sharing a social media post has helped this place to become what it is.”
granted. Jason acknowledges, “We have gathered such a great community of givers who have donated their time, their money, their efforts, or just their thoughts or just sharing a social media post has helped this place to become what it is.” For Jason and Waller’s, community is everything and it is for real. Jason says, “We do stand up for each other. And we show up for each other.”
