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After a fire destroyed Revival Motors and Coffee Company in December 2021, owners Jimmi Davies and Audrey Henley found and kept a glass window that had survived the blaze.
About a dozen other businesses and an apartment building under construction were also destroyed. Investigators believe the fire was intentionally set; no arrests have been made.
“It was one of the last remaining, whole pieces of anything left from the fire,” began Henley.
“Everything else was broken, waterlogged, destroyed … and we held on to it in our backyard from 2021 all the way until we moved in here.”
Renamed as RevMo Choppers & Coffee and reopened at 606 Union Ave. SE, Olympia in December 2023, the shop balances a blend of the warm, welcoming aroma of coffee and a working motorcycle garage.
The two areas are separated by a wall, but the large surviving window — Henley called it “the Looking Glass” — lets customers watch Davies work on motorcycles.
“This is what we do … and we get questions about our business,” continued Henley, “but I would say in what we’ve come from — the big fire and how we’ve grown — this has become a community space.”
For Henley and Davies, community is central to the reason they are in business.
“For us, this is a place where everyone is accepted. You don’t have to like motorcycles, you don’t have to like coffee, but for us — what we were in need of — is a place for us to gather,” Henley explained.
“Whether it’s for motorcycles, music, coffee or the arts, we wanted to create a place where folks felt accepted.”
She added that they wanted to create an accessible community, which is a place that brings riders together and feel comfortable.
“We ride with a lot of BIPOC riders; we ride with a lot of LGBTQ riders,” explained Henley. “Even if you’re not a motorcycle rider, we find a lot of people attracted to what it is we’re doing; we love the curious community; it’s much like the arts where we want people to ask, ‘What’s that?’”
The belief in acceptance of others and curiosity about what RevMo Choppers & Coffee is not only apparent in the café; it is also very much alive in the shop.
“I’m machine smart,” began Davies. “I bought my first chopper was I was 20, and I’ve never looked back.”
He explained that “chopper” means more than just a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, that it’s a 1960s term that can be applied to any motorcycle.
Post World War II pilots, who were used to going fast, bought Harleys. In order to increase the bike’s speed when there were no aftermarket performance parts, they started to remove weight.
“So you ‘bobbed’ the fenders; you take the bars and shorten them up; you take as much heavy metal stuff off … and eventually this action morphed into the word “chopper.”
And it can be anything — it can be a Honda, a Ducati, a Kawasaki, a Suzuki — it can be anything.”
So how do coffee, choppers and community coalesce?
“Our mission is to create a place for all who love the outdoors, being on two wheels and being together,” answered Henley.
“The most important thing about this place,” concluded Davies, “is not caffeine and it’s not choppers, it’s people. We created this place for people to come together in a place that is safe for everyone. And given the current political climate of the country, community is something we all need.”
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sunshine39
Audrey's decor is so interesting and fun. Antlers and bearskin, stained glass and plants.
Thursday, March 6 Report this
Snevets
Have enjoyed quite a few cups of coffee while meeting up with friends. My kind of place, plenty of room for everybody.
Thursday, March 6 Report this
griffithga
Thanks for the great article about Revmo. So refreshing that "people" are the top priority in your business. Thank you Audrey and Jimmi for giving back to our community in all you do.
Thursday, March 6 Report this
Terribw
I love RevMo. I was a customer before the fire and love the new place.
Thursday, March 6 Report this