When Downtown Credo opens its new location inside the Downtown YMCA, it will debut a new food program that has not been part of the other locations.
Avery Fields, one of the fair-trade coffeeshop’s seven owners, said they recognized that being in a fitness facility would mean moving beyond the baked goods they offer at the two current locations, in the North Quarter and Health Village.
“We’re excited to be in there,” Fields said of the Y. Credo will be taking over the space that had previously been a Tropical Smoothie.
The expanded food program will include healthful options such as overnight oats and granola options as well as prepared sandwiches that can be heated up on site or taken home after a workout. “Something healthy but filling,” Fields said. The menu will also include kid-friendly items. If the new food offerings are successful, she said, they’ll be expanded to the North Quarter location.
Fields said that they’ve ordered lounge furniture for the space, which will also have conventional tables and chairs.
Credo will keep in place the “name your price” concept, which has been its business model since it first opened in College Park in 2010. That location, pictured at top, closed in May of 2020 due to constraints by the pandemic.
January 2 is the “hard open” date for the YMCA Credo. Fields said that the cafe will open softly with limited hours the week of Dec. 18.
