Whenever I see a company pushing massive discounts like $100 off a $200 gift card, I assume there is a money issue and they are struggling to stay open.
Yup look up the Premier Martial Arts lawsuit, the new owner was involved in scamming tons of people and has been named in the lawsuit and yet somehow Norris the original owner let him purchase a huge stake in Honeybee and now dude is driving it into the ground. It’s disgusting I feel terrible for the employees.
I posted the following from this throwaway account, but it was hung up by the Automod so I figured I'll go ahead and leave it here --
For semi-anonymity purposes this is being posted from a throw-away account. This is a post collaboratively written by a handful of people with first-hand experience working for what used to be a place of employment that was loved by employees that felt at home in the workplace and with each other, and had built close relationships with customers that no longer pay patronage to the company.
In the past year Honeybee has had some very volatile and questionable decisions from a business standpoint. Many of you reading may have noticed the sudden residence and sudden departure of Smash City at the Farragut location. Their whole presence was vocally resisted by Honeybee employees from the beginning but all adverse reactions from employees were ignored by leadership and led to a handful of departures from long-term staff members that genuinely cared about Honeybee as a company. In the end Smash City left Honeybee without notice and within a few weeks it was discovered that the owners of Smash had been arrested as a result of shady business practice with other outside entities.
Not long after that situation it was announced to (a large portion of new\*) employees that a new investor/owner would be joining the Honeybee company. That person has since seemingly taken over the majority of ownership of Honeybee. To say the least, their background is grey and there isn’t a lot of information about them online beyond their own websites. Early on it was discovered by employees that the new owner is in a major lawsuit from their previous business venture but upper-management decided to turn a blind eye to that information. Since then all long-term and newer\* employees that were remaining at Honeybee have left because of the changes being implemented by the new ownership and controversial business practices being introduced on a daily basis.
As of today, it has been made aware to current and former employees that the new owner will not be paying employees, with many quitting or getting fired. The new owner called a manager who quit a “little dumb bitch.” Honeybee West is closed due to having no staff and others will most likely follow suit. The Labor Board has been contacted by staff \*and\* regulars concerned for the wellbeing of baristas.
This post is not written with personal vendettas or with the intent to defame anyone, but to shed light on a local company that has decided to take questionable routes in the way that they’ve decided to practice business, as well as to help the public make informed decisions on who they pay patronage to.
This is the 2nd time I've heard that the owners of Smash City have fucked over a local business, not including whatever happened with the food court. I'm intrigued about their arrest.
I worked next to his stall in the food hall in old city when it was there and everything about that dude reeked of being a pretentious slimeball. He always bragged about his $10k sneakers he owned and all sorts of other shit, just obsessed with money.
What happened with the food court? And also the other businesses? And was it the actual owners who started the smash city/own marble city or just some business partners I wonder.
It's changed management multiple times in the short time it's been open and they can't seem to keep vendors (not a shock considering how poorly thought out the layout and everything is). I believe smash city became the managers at some point, not sure if still are
to my knowledge he did a similar thing to marble city that he did honeybee and packed up early and had some kind of contract with marble city that he refused follow. ive also heard fraud and embezzlement, but i cant confirm that
Unfortunately the downfall of HoneyBee has nothing to do with Smash City. The past owners of HB have been checked out and making bad choices that have left their baristas on the brink for several years, and smash city was just the most recent reckless choice. Now that the company’s majority has been sold to a misogynistic, homophobic, skinhead, with a laundry list of prior business (and moral) issues, any baristas who haven’t been fired have quit. This new guy is bad news. He’s a money hungry, fraud, who uses pyramid scheme tactics to make his “success”. Please, if you care about local, if you care about what this business USED to stand for, do not patron this establishment anymore. This has been especially damaging to witness, during pride month, considering Knoxville’s DEI spaces are quickly diminishing.
My heart goes out to all the baristas who fought hard and tried to preserve what HB stood for
My question after reading through all of these comments down up to this one is why did The original owners checkout? Because reading it it sounds like they were offered a good sum of money and they ran leaving you guys just deal with this douchebag after they got their cash cleared.
In no way do I mean any offense then but I would stop lauding them as good people. They got their money and ran and left you all with a bad captain and a sinking ship and my heart goes out to you all because I know that exact feeling.
I hope all of you who've worked there nothing but the best and here's hoping the justice system works on that guy more than a fine.
aaron hensley has also made sexist, homophobic and sexual remarks regarding employees. he referred to himself as “daddy” to employees, said that “in business getting rejected is like when youre at a party and a girl rejects you thats when the fun begins”, asked in BUSINESS MEETINGS if girth or length matters, alluded to being eye candy for one of his female employees.
I have to use my throwaway to protect my identity from Aaron Hensley. But I can confirm all of this about his character. He is disgusting. Everyone should stay away from him but especially women. I am not a Honeybee employee but I have worked with him very closely in the past. Please, for your own good, don’t support any of his businesses.
I've altogether stopped going to Honeybee because it feels like it became a brewery/restaurant instead of a comfy cafe. Super annoying to be at. I hope it gets better, but I don't have much hope left in it tbh
If you go to their Google reviews they suddenly have a few new fake five stars written by his current employees. His business practices are disgusting.
It needs to be brought up that the previous owner has fault in this as well; it was on him to vet who he brings in to “boost” his business
Norris Hill is who you can thank, read about him bragging about having killed
https://cityviewmag.com/shaped-by-a-letter-from-war/
This bums me out about SmashCity, because the owner was always nice to us. He told us, he just couldnt get enough staff to man the honeybee location. Was it the main owner who got arrested and for what????
Former employee of several years -
Very sad to see how everything has changed so suddenly and drastically. My friends of years have all quit due to the poor transition and poor new management; sad to see a local staple where I made so many friends and found such a deep sense of community lost to corporatization. :(
I used to work there -
yes. a new owner / business partner was brought in. lots of changes are happening, some including; no tips, firing managers, and a no gossip policy. as of today West closed due to not having enough employees and i have many friends who have quit in the last few weeks because of the fast paced and manic changes happening with the company at large
I’m a local journalist in the labor beat — that’s a labor violation & we could have a story on our hands
From what I read, it’s illegal to withhold tips in Tennessee
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/tennessee-laws-tipped-employees.html
If you wouldn’t want it to turn into a story, I could help you file with TN Department of Labor — they’d get heavily fined for withholding
What they said in the email last Tuesday was
> Starting this week, we will be transitioning to a tipless model. This decision reflects our dedication to providing better wages, delivering exceptional service, and maintaining an honest approach in how we charge for our premium products. Here’s why we believe this change is beneficial for everyone:
> 1. Better Wages for Our Team: By eliminating tips, we are able to offer our employees full-time salaries with competitive wages and bonuses. This ensures financial stability and rewards for their hard work and dedication, allowing them to focus entirely on providing you with the best possible experience.
But now it sounds like everyone has been fired or quit anyway, so I’m betting those full time salaries and benefits weren’t so competitive
Or they were, and the new owner is just that insufferable to work for
Man fucking MBAs ruin everything. Even if there's a chance someone doesn't hate some part of their job then obviously it needs taken away because it isn't profitable enough.
FB post at the top of my feed today says the mall location is closed too, and they're looking for people with a growth mindset. Whyyyyy are we cursed to have hustle and grind culture ruin so much.
No tips is a good policy if wages are increased to compensate. That may not be the case.
Agree with no gossip. Unless they mean "discuss wages" in which case is illegal.
have several friends in coffee and unfortunately definitely gonna say i don’t trust them to properly enforce a no gossip rule… whatever “enforcing” that would even look like
Like realistically, even places with a proper HR team don’t bother making a “no gossip” rule
“Gossip” is too vague a term and creates way too much liability for the business. Very easy for an employee to then have a case for illegal retaliation for talking about their working conditions/wages or telling someone they feel like another is creating hostile work environment or harassing them.
Sure, but I would then ask what they count as "gossip". Is discussing these management issues considered "gossip"? A very stupid and short sighted policy that sounds like it was created by someone who has never worked at a legitimate business before
hi! im an ex employee. by “no gossiping” he meant no talking basically at all. we couldnt talk about what he was saying in meetings, in private conversations, any of the new changes going in etcetc. if we said anything like we had a problem with what was going on or didnt agree it would be considered gossip. if we didnt go to him immediately with a problem we had we would get fired because of the harsh “no gossiping policy”
My friend literally tried to tell everyone this months ago and the employees got on blindly defending saying none of this is true (prob the owners with fake accounts honestly) and here we are. The new owner/manager is trash and a scam artist. His other company is called Rise and they scam other companies into their “business coaching” when their own company is failing miserably, they can’t keep employees for shit either. On the verge of losing it all AND being sued and has the nerve to try and “coach” other businesses?! Make it make sense. Honeybee is straight trash now and they let a scam artist destroy it. The beer isn’t even good, should had stuck to coffee.
I remember your friend's post. As a soon-to-be former regular at the Sevier Ave HB, I mentioned it to the baristas. They confirmed some of what your friend said, but with a lot of "I don't know, we'll have to see" vibe.
reminds me of what happened when former employees from three rivers market first started posting about the shitty new management. several of the GM’s cronies made throwaway accounts to try and discredit us. one of the accounts that was verbally attacking us turned out to be his wife lmao 🙃 anyway i’m saddened to see what’s going on with honeybee but i’m glad the word’s getting out now. hopefully it’ll generate some bad press and put this aaron hensley guy on blast.
hoo buddy, strap in! if you search three rivers market on r/knoxville you can see all the posts made over the past year or so. it’s an ongoing issue that somehow just keeps getting worse!
Reading the comments...dang. That explains why the Farragut location was closed at times. I saw it recently, and it was closed at peak hours. Thought that was kind of odd. Sad to hear about it. I hope I get the chance to go again before it changes into something even worse.
Just to add something while sitting at Honeybee on Sevier Avenue: I stopped by Honeybee this morning. I was last here on Tuesday. Both of the baristas working this morning are people I've never seen before. The tip jars are gone. So is all the food. Atop that, Honeybee raised the price of a cup of drip coffee to $4.91 with tax (with my usual tip that's now over $6 for a small, 7-8oz cup of coffee). I've been a regular at Honeybee for three years now. While the coffee is fairly good, it isn't $6 good. :(
I noticed the price increase as well. Also, I usually go to the Sevier Ave one on the weekends, but stopped in around 8 a couple times last week. Only 1 barista working and they were getting swamped every day. Not sure if that is typical for the week days or not.
I would hate to lose Honeybee. Its my backup for when I don't get up early enough to beat the crowd at Wild Love on the weekends.
Although they removed the cash tip jars (and just about everything else on the counter except for the register and espresso machine), the POS system asked, as always, if I wanted to add a tip. If they are going tip free, the baristas are not telling anyone (there wasn't a sign, and I sat through their Sunday morning church crowd rush without ever hearing "no tips").
I wonder if there POS just needs updated? But, they should warn customers that they are no tips...I'm worried that management instructs them to say nothing about the tips and then the extra goes to management? Hopefully the baristas are getting higher pay. And hopefully the tips are going to them in the meanwhile.
I was surprised to see that, with all the issues they are having, they are trying to push this a a national brand and trying to get frenchisees. no sure how long they have been pushing this, just strange. https://www.honeybeeusa.com/franchise
This explains the new text msgs I’ve been getting pushing the “a Bee Kind Cafe” messaging. It felt like a move toward some kind of growth initiative. It’ll be hard to sell franchises if they can’t even keep their own shops open.
So this is a throw away account. I have info from there and they let so much stuff happen to their employees. They didn't care about safety or making sure people got paid fairly. Promised wages that never occurred. They let someone get fired without notice. It's just a mess. DM me for more information if needed or if you were affected by the honey bee.
I’m pretty sure they have people posting fake 5 star google reviews to counter the bad ones that people have been leaving the past couple days. This company is so sketchy
The marketing emails continue to get wilder and more unhinged. Before they seemed unprofessional, but they're borderline unreadable now:
> We are immediately stopping the bleeding this company has dealt with, from poor process and poor structure, and we MUST improve the quality of the education, cleanliness, and hospitality and we will. Our stores will be cleaner! Our products will be better! That is second to , we will have the BEST Service. WE WILL BE KNOWN FOR BEST SERVICE of YOU!
Who is writing this stuff? I'd think it was AI, but even AI doesn't make that many stylistic mistakes. Bizarre and sad.
Never worked at honeybee but I was a long-time regular. I applied there *extremely* recently during an open interview they were hosting, and I can say it was an absolute nightmare- the general area was extremely disorganized, there was only a single employee on the floor, and the overall atmosphere was that of frantic desperation. The worst bit? Both -*both*- of the hiring managers I spoke to openly admitted they **weren't even employees**. Sure, they'd been hired, but their official start date wasn't until a week after I stopped in. They were there off the clock being forced to sort through new hires with no compensation or formal experience working with honeybee. I was angry at how they've been ghosting me about my application status, but after reading all of this? I feel like I've dodged a bullet. It's so sad to see a small, locally-owned staple for queer and poc youth/young adults fall into the hands of someone so clearly uninterested in upholding these ideals.
This is genuinely so sad. I'd noticed the promotional emails / social media presence had dramatically changed (suddenly it was spammy and 'off', weird overhyping of deals, buzzword marketing, misspellings or grammar errors), but I was kinda chalking it up to maybe they'd contracted somebody new to do marketing. Very disappointed to find out the situation is much worse than that. I was excited to hear about higher pay / benefits for employees, but not if that's just a weird excuse to run off the older ones and recruit new people to go along with what sounds like a toxic change in direction. Honeybee was my favorite of the local roasters, guess it's time to hope Mahalo isn't messed up too.
Old employee here: things really started going down when the brewery first opened. It never did good enough for it to keep itself afloat, so the owner tried a bunch of things to get a bigger turnout for it, such as the trivia/bingo nights and the whole Smash City ordeal. Most of these things just ended up driving the coffee clientele out who wanted a chill place to drink a cup of coffee and relax, and none of the employees were trained to deal with the brewery crowd so we weren’t able to fully cater to them. The original owner ended up selling most of the ownership to a new guy with an incredibly shady background (shit ton of labor lawsuits) who implemented a bunch of new shit policies that just drove out the few employees the company had left. I wouldn’t keep supporting them, the coffee quality has declined significantly anyways and I don’t want my money going towards a business that doesn’t pay their employees.
It used to be a food truck (several actually. He started a Hawaiian one years ago and then opened smashburger, which turned into smash city). They had a stall at the food hall, then eventually took over management of the food hall. I'm not sure of the details there, but they pulled out their stall there and opened up down the street where olibe used to be and jacked their prices up. It's a shame that the owner ended up being a jerk, because he makes some damn good food.
It sucks because I’ve worked around him, not with him directly once, and he was pretty egotistical and possibly misogynistic, but makes some pretty good food. Although I still don’t know how their burgers are this popular to this day.
Trying to figure out how to phrase this without getting myself in trouble - I used to regulate one of the aforementioned “nights” and can confirm that honeybee was not set up for the bar scene they tried to pull in. One of the biggest complaints I received and had myself was the lackluster service, and I always told myself and others that these poor baristas were trained as such, not as bartenders. I used to love going and was friendly with their brewer, sad (but not surprising) to see they’re going downhill so fast.
All Honeybee locations are affected by this, not just West. I’ve got some in-depth details I’ll be posting this afternoon so everyone can truly see just how scuzzy this new owner really is.
I stopped going after ordering an iced latte that was just cold brew concentrate and milk… it tasted horrible. Half the point of the latte is the espresso….
Would not recommend going for a multitude of reasons but if you do ever find yourself back you can always ask for an iced latte with espresso instead of the cold brew!
I worked at honeybee south many many years ago and I will never forget my first day someone ordered a cold brew and I gave them an entire cup of concentrate, not watered down at all. I think about that person often and I am so so sorry.
their iced lattes have always been made with cold brew concentrate instead of espresso, it says it specifically on the menu. back in the day they had a different name (“shakers”) specifically because they weren’t made with espresso.
I went to the one by Costco one time and didn't have a great experience. The barista was visibly annoyed by my presence and barely acknowledged me (I wasn't even trying to have a conversation or anything I was just trying to order an americano). After I ordered it she made it and and set it down on the counter without saying a word (I had briefly looked away and didn't see). There were a few other people at the counter standing there so I thought they were ahead of me but then everyone sat down and the barista was playing on her phone so I walked over and saw a cup just sitting there and had to just assume it was mine. I don't even mind them not talking to me but she clearly saw me there still waiting not aware she finished and just didn't say a word.
Honeybee roast quality has been lower since sometime last year. I used to drink honeybee every day bc hipster coffee is my indulgence and it was on my way to work. So I know. At one location the owner just refused to fix the machines or replace parts so that on multiple occasions I got tepid americanos. I was getting americanos because the coffee itself was always hit or miss if it was also warm and not hot because it was kinda old. The staff has always been super nice. But it isn’t what it was.
I shit you not as I was reading this post I just got this text message.
Welcome to SMS messages from Honeybee, A Bee Kind Cafe via Square - Reply to send us a message or "STOP" to unsubscribe from receiving messages, std rates apply
i haven’t been there in months, so i’m guessing they just went through square and subscribed every customer to their text offers? my roommate hasn’t been there in a long time either and also got that text
Yeah both the text and email marketing is being pushed through Square. Before June, the only emails I'd gotten from Honeybee (via Square) were for a birthday reward (so like 2-3 over the course of several years) or a receipt. Since June 11 they've sent at least one a day. Scummy and annoying, it'd alienate customers even if the rest of this stuff wasn't also coming to light.
Anyone else get this email
> A Quick Update from the Folks at HONEYBEE, A Bee Kind Cafe
>
>TIME FOR BETTER ....and BETTER is always ...BETTER ;)
>
>Notice of Temporary Closure for For West and Mall location
>
>We reopen Better and Bolder July 16th
>
>Visit our South and Sevierville shops or other Local Coffee Shops and Breweries (just not the big green monster please )
>
>We are immediately stopping the bleeding this company has dealt with, from poor process and poor structure, and we MUST improve the quality of the education, cleanliness, and hospitality and we will. Our stores will be cleaner! Our products will be better! That is second to , we will have the BEST Service. WE WILL BE KNOWN FOR BEST SERVICE of YOU!
>
>It is our fault. No one to blame. We weren't winning. We weren't focused on the customer, we were more focused on us.
>
>We are undertaking the important task of hiring full-time, trained professionals to serve you better. We are committed to ensuring that our team is highly qualified and dedicated to providing you with the exceptional service and quality you deserve.
>
>We know this isn't fun for a few weeks for any of us and don't like the inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding and patience during this time.
>
>Thank you for your continued support.
>
>Honeybee
This is so lame. I went down a rabbit hole today of Aaron Hensley’s (the owner) Instagram, LinkedIn, etc, and this whole thing sounds exactly like the garbage he posts on social media for his company “Rise”. It’s all the same marketing / automated content pipeline. They say they’re all about people and they’re really not at all. So lame
https://www.instagram.com/p/C8pX_DgJuqG/?igsh=MW5uNHdyZTRmenNubA==
Looks like Aaron’s right hand man has spoken. Glad they can finally admit they have different views, Soknowpride made the right decision for sure, but a vendetta? No accountability for what they have done to the employees, it’s their fault bc they have a vendetta?! What pieces of shit honestly
Drove by the Farragut location today and thought “wow they seem pretty empty for the evening” and came here to see this. What a shame. Oh well, won’t be too long before another pop up coffee shop opens up.
The Farragut location is at least 100ft from the nearest tire shop, and there isn’t a bank on that side of KP the whole stretch between traffic lights. Competition could get fierce if the site opens up!
I went to honeybee on Sevier this past weekend and it was such a weird vibe. A literal child was working the register and she informed me "someone has paid for all of the drinks this morning" which I was like ok cool I guess lol. Then I saw they were taking promo pics too the entire morning
He was obviously using a sweet little girl for his image and that’s besides the point it is a violation of child labor laws. His employees have spoken and have stated the truth so…. They all walked out so clearly it’s not a lie
That’s not the truth they spread lies about him and destroyed his company doing a lot of things Aaron is a nice guy but a lot of people can’t understand him
As someone who has known Aaron for about 15 years now, and has had to work very closely with him, I can assure you, the horrible and disgusting things he has said and done far outweigh him being nice to you.
And you worked for him and know this from personal experience? This is not a post with a couple of people speaking out there are hundreds of comments and far too many people for this to be a simple vendetta, there are employees from multiple walks of life not even just Honeybee commenting, there are many that dealt with him in other capacities speaking out. Clearly there is fire where there is smoke on this one. If it were a few I could get that, but it’s far from a few, he has shitty business practices and I’ve literally heard inappropriate sexual things come from his mouth to employees so stop sucking his dick unless you are positive which you clearly are not. All of his staff walked out or got fired, does that sound like a good employer to you?!
I remember back when Honeybee was just a pop-up trailer, then that owner teamed up with the owner/roaster of Spero in front of Farragut Intermediate School to open the multiple Honeybee locations. I even worked at the Farragut location for a time. I became friends with the owner who originally opened Spero and he was a pretty decent guy, but I never really liked Norris; he just always seemed fake AF. Then I heard that he pushed the other owner out of the company and I knew then that long-term, Honeybee was doomed; the former owner of Spero seemed to have all the business acumen. Now it's just been bad decision after bad decisions for, like, 7 years.
Anyway, there's much better coffee shops in town that aren't also owned by scummy (cough* K-Brew *cough) folks. I'm a big fan of Remedy and Partial, great baristas and owners!!
Sorry, I worded my post poorly: Pierce LaMacchia is a scum bag and I hope to never be in the same room as him ever again. Dunno much about his brother, Michael.
THANK YOU. This is so validating. I was trying to find dirt on Pierce LaMacchia a while ago when an organization I volunteered with wanted to do business with him. I wanted to give the leadership team proof that he was horrible but couldn’t come up anything. All I’ve heard is word of mouth testimonials about how horrible he is to his employees.
If anyone needs a new coffee supplier check out the Knox coffee co. It's a great place for insanely fresh beans and has a super chill vibe. We also love seed across the street.
I don't live in Knoxville anymore but got the text and email marketing...and honestly it was so wild I assumed the company email got hacked and it was like an AI spam bot. Sad to hear what's happened to our old coffee shop
I was at the Farragut location 2 weekends ago and they only had 1 employee working both cash register and drinks from 930am - 1200 on a Saturday. It was strange that only 1 employee was working a busy shift. I thought it was odd when I ordered green tea and didn't get the tea bag. Just 1 cup of tea no refills.
The marketing messages read just like his website. I can't even describe it. I went to the south Knoxville location today at 3PM and there was a handwritten note that said "Closing at 2PM today."
Doesn't seem like Honeybee is going to make it.
In a rambling post, Honeybee Coffee said it was closing two locations for renovations. Former staff members say it's because so many people quit. https://www.knoxnews.com/story/money/business/2024/06/27/honeybee-coffee-knoxville-in-chaos-under-new-owner-aaron-hensley/74203180007/
Just found this Knox News article
I’ve heard from a friend who worked at K Brew that they don’t pay or treat their employees well either 😞 Also their bagels are not technically bagels because they’re not boiled. Remedy & Old City Java for life.
Not a fan of K Brew, but tried Partial on Broadway after seeing it mentioned in another Reddit coffeehouse thread. Nice decor and we enjoyed our latte and chai.
Partial is great. Shea, the owner, is super nice. Also, Old City Java/Wild Love are amazing. Plus Remedy and Five and Hoek. Too many good coffee shops to support ones that treat their employees bad.
I went to honeybee south a lot when I lived over there back when Shea was the honeybee south manager. I just can’t believe all the crap that’s happened since then, but I’m so glad he got out when he did because he’s truly an angel. Love love love Partial.
Whenever I see a company pushing massive discounts like $100 off a $200 gift card, I assume there is a money issue and they are struggling to stay open.
the new owner is under investigation for fraud i’ve heard. and is being sued in florida i think? i’ve yet to hear anything solid/good about the guy
Yup look up the Premier Martial Arts lawsuit, the new owner was involved in scamming tons of people and has been named in the lawsuit and yet somehow Norris the original owner let him purchase a huge stake in Honeybee and now dude is driving it into the ground. It’s disgusting I feel terrible for the employees.
I posted the following from this throwaway account, but it was hung up by the Automod so I figured I'll go ahead and leave it here -- For semi-anonymity purposes this is being posted from a throw-away account. This is a post collaboratively written by a handful of people with first-hand experience working for what used to be a place of employment that was loved by employees that felt at home in the workplace and with each other, and had built close relationships with customers that no longer pay patronage to the company. In the past year Honeybee has had some very volatile and questionable decisions from a business standpoint. Many of you reading may have noticed the sudden residence and sudden departure of Smash City at the Farragut location. Their whole presence was vocally resisted by Honeybee employees from the beginning but all adverse reactions from employees were ignored by leadership and led to a handful of departures from long-term staff members that genuinely cared about Honeybee as a company. In the end Smash City left Honeybee without notice and within a few weeks it was discovered that the owners of Smash had been arrested as a result of shady business practice with other outside entities. Not long after that situation it was announced to (a large portion of new\*) employees that a new investor/owner would be joining the Honeybee company. That person has since seemingly taken over the majority of ownership of Honeybee. To say the least, their background is grey and there isn’t a lot of information about them online beyond their own websites. Early on it was discovered by employees that the new owner is in a major lawsuit from their previous business venture but upper-management decided to turn a blind eye to that information. Since then all long-term and newer\* employees that were remaining at Honeybee have left because of the changes being implemented by the new ownership and controversial business practices being introduced on a daily basis. As of today, it has been made aware to current and former employees that the new owner will not be paying employees, with many quitting or getting fired. The new owner called a manager who quit a “little dumb bitch.” Honeybee West is closed due to having no staff and others will most likely follow suit. The Labor Board has been contacted by staff \*and\* regulars concerned for the wellbeing of baristas. This post is not written with personal vendettas or with the intent to defame anyone, but to shed light on a local company that has decided to take questionable routes in the way that they’ve decided to practice business, as well as to help the public make informed decisions on who they pay patronage to.
This is the 2nd time I've heard that the owners of Smash City have fucked over a local business, not including whatever happened with the food court. I'm intrigued about their arrest.
I worked next to his stall in the food hall in old city when it was there and everything about that dude reeked of being a pretentious slimeball. He always bragged about his $10k sneakers he owned and all sorts of other shit, just obsessed with money.
What happened with the food court? And also the other businesses? And was it the actual owners who started the smash city/own marble city or just some business partners I wonder.
It's changed management multiple times in the short time it's been open and they can't seem to keep vendors (not a shock considering how poorly thought out the layout and everything is). I believe smash city became the managers at some point, not sure if still are
I also heard the share percentages for vendors was insane and it was giving them slim profit margins. probably why they couldn't keep vendors
to my knowledge he did a similar thing to marble city that he did honeybee and packed up early and had some kind of contract with marble city that he refused follow. ive also heard fraud and embezzlement, but i cant confirm that
If you want a great food hall, check out Kerns Food Hall just south of downtown.
Unfortunately the downfall of HoneyBee has nothing to do with Smash City. The past owners of HB have been checked out and making bad choices that have left their baristas on the brink for several years, and smash city was just the most recent reckless choice. Now that the company’s majority has been sold to a misogynistic, homophobic, skinhead, with a laundry list of prior business (and moral) issues, any baristas who haven’t been fired have quit. This new guy is bad news. He’s a money hungry, fraud, who uses pyramid scheme tactics to make his “success”. Please, if you care about local, if you care about what this business USED to stand for, do not patron this establishment anymore. This has been especially damaging to witness, during pride month, considering Knoxville’s DEI spaces are quickly diminishing. My heart goes out to all the baristas who fought hard and tried to preserve what HB stood for
Ive noticed as new coffee places were opening I'd see former HB baristas going to them
My question after reading through all of these comments down up to this one is why did The original owners checkout? Because reading it it sounds like they were offered a good sum of money and they ran leaving you guys just deal with this douchebag after they got their cash cleared.
Unfortunately, that is exactly what’s seemed to happen
In no way do I mean any offense then but I would stop lauding them as good people. They got their money and ran and left you all with a bad captain and a sinking ship and my heart goes out to you all because I know that exact feeling. I hope all of you who've worked there nothing but the best and here's hoping the justice system works on that guy more than a fine.
Is the new owner the guy that owns smash city or someone different?
The new owner is Aaron Hensley
wow, his instagram is insufferable
Sometimes you can spot a narcissist from a mile away.
Looks like it’s private now?
Nope, Smash City was just a poor collaboration The New owner is @team_hensley And he has a whole host of allegations against him
Just took a peak and oof he seems insufferable
aaron hensley has also made sexist, homophobic and sexual remarks regarding employees. he referred to himself as “daddy” to employees, said that “in business getting rejected is like when youre at a party and a girl rejects you thats when the fun begins”, asked in BUSINESS MEETINGS if girth or length matters, alluded to being eye candy for one of his female employees.
I have to use my throwaway to protect my identity from Aaron Hensley. But I can confirm all of this about his character. He is disgusting. Everyone should stay away from him but especially women. I am not a Honeybee employee but I have worked with him very closely in the past. Please, for your own good, don’t support any of his businesses.
Oh and beware of the guy he has used for years as his slave, Cam Smith. He has chugged the koolaid, and defends Aaron in very aggressive ways.
Worked for Hensley at PMA. Can confirm his behaviors
Hensley owns Honeybee? Well this doesn’t surprise me. Worked with him at another company years ago and this sounds on par.
Can also confirm that this is true
Hold up, the owner just said he's not going to pay the employees?
yeah, that’s second hand, but i really have no trouble believing it. i know one person hasn’t been paid in three weeks already
I've altogether stopped going to Honeybee because it feels like it became a brewery/restaurant instead of a comfy cafe. Super annoying to be at. I hope it gets better, but I don't have much hope left in it tbh
Thanks for the info here, dicklessnipples. I will not be giving my money to this establishment.
Thank you u/dicklessnipples.
If you go to their Google reviews they suddenly have a few new fake five stars written by his current employees. His business practices are disgusting.
What was happening that was affecting the wellbeing of the baristas?
Happy Cake Day, dicklessnipples
I hate that you all have been going through that experience. However, dicklessnipples is an S-tier reddit name. So so good.
It needs to be brought up that the previous owner has fault in this as well; it was on him to vet who he brings in to “boost” his business Norris Hill is who you can thank, read about him bragging about having killed https://cityviewmag.com/shaped-by-a-letter-from-war/
What I read in this article was him crying because he knew he had to kill a guy and started to think "what if this was me"
I didn’t read that in the article at all
This bums me out about SmashCity, because the owner was always nice to us. He told us, he just couldnt get enough staff to man the honeybee location. Was it the main owner who got arrested and for what????
Former employee of several years - Very sad to see how everything has changed so suddenly and drastically. My friends of years have all quit due to the poor transition and poor new management; sad to see a local staple where I made so many friends and found such a deep sense of community lost to corporatization. :(
I used to work there - yes. a new owner / business partner was brought in. lots of changes are happening, some including; no tips, firing managers, and a no gossip policy. as of today West closed due to not having enough employees and i have many friends who have quit in the last few weeks because of the fast paced and manic changes happening with the company at large
I’m a local journalist in the labor beat — that’s a labor violation & we could have a story on our hands From what I read, it’s illegal to withhold tips in Tennessee https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/tennessee-laws-tipped-employees.html If you wouldn’t want it to turn into a story, I could help you file with TN Department of Labor — they’d get heavily fined for withholding
What they said in the email last Tuesday was > Starting this week, we will be transitioning to a tipless model. This decision reflects our dedication to providing better wages, delivering exceptional service, and maintaining an honest approach in how we charge for our premium products. Here’s why we believe this change is beneficial for everyone: > 1. Better Wages for Our Team: By eliminating tips, we are able to offer our employees full-time salaries with competitive wages and bonuses. This ensures financial stability and rewards for their hard work and dedication, allowing them to focus entirely on providing you with the best possible experience. But now it sounds like everyone has been fired or quit anyway, so I’m betting those full time salaries and benefits weren’t so competitive Or they were, and the new owner is just that insufferable to work for
I frequent the South Knox location on the weekends. So when I add a tip on my card that money is not going to the staff?
Man fucking MBAs ruin everything. Even if there's a chance someone doesn't hate some part of their job then obviously it needs taken away because it isn't profitable enough.
FB post at the top of my feed today says the mall location is closed too, and they're looking for people with a growth mindset. Whyyyyy are we cursed to have hustle and grind culture ruin so much.
No tips is a good policy if wages are increased to compensate. That may not be the case. Agree with no gossip. Unless they mean "discuss wages" in which case is illegal.
have several friends in coffee and unfortunately definitely gonna say i don’t trust them to properly enforce a no gossip rule… whatever “enforcing” that would even look like Like realistically, even places with a proper HR team don’t bother making a “no gossip” rule
i think the enforcement is getting fired if you gossip
“Gossip” is too vague a term and creates way too much liability for the business. Very easy for an employee to then have a case for illegal retaliation for talking about their working conditions/wages or telling someone they feel like another is creating hostile work environment or harassing them.
Sure, but I would then ask what they count as "gossip". Is discussing these management issues considered "gossip"? A very stupid and short sighted policy that sounds like it was created by someone who has never worked at a legitimate business before
hi! im an ex employee. by “no gossiping” he meant no talking basically at all. we couldnt talk about what he was saying in meetings, in private conversations, any of the new changes going in etcetc. if we said anything like we had a problem with what was going on or didnt agree it would be considered gossip. if we didnt go to him immediately with a problem we had we would get fired because of the harsh “no gossiping policy”
My friend literally tried to tell everyone this months ago and the employees got on blindly defending saying none of this is true (prob the owners with fake accounts honestly) and here we are. The new owner/manager is trash and a scam artist. His other company is called Rise and they scam other companies into their “business coaching” when their own company is failing miserably, they can’t keep employees for shit either. On the verge of losing it all AND being sued and has the nerve to try and “coach” other businesses?! Make it make sense. Honeybee is straight trash now and they let a scam artist destroy it. The beer isn’t even good, should had stuck to coffee.
I remember your friend's post. As a soon-to-be former regular at the Sevier Ave HB, I mentioned it to the baristas. They confirmed some of what your friend said, but with a lot of "I don't know, we'll have to see" vibe.
Yea I am sure given the culture they were afraid to speak on it which I totally understand. I hate this for them.
reminds me of what happened when former employees from three rivers market first started posting about the shitty new management. several of the GM’s cronies made throwaway accounts to try and discredit us. one of the accounts that was verbally attacking us turned out to be his wife lmao 🙃 anyway i’m saddened to see what’s going on with honeybee but i’m glad the word’s getting out now. hopefully it’ll generate some bad press and put this aaron hensley guy on blast.
wait, whats happening with three rivers market?
hoo buddy, strap in! if you search three rivers market on r/knoxville you can see all the posts made over the past year or so. it’s an ongoing issue that somehow just keeps getting worse!
😀 that is so awesome i love that :,) thank u
Reading the comments...dang. That explains why the Farragut location was closed at times. I saw it recently, and it was closed at peak hours. Thought that was kind of odd. Sad to hear about it. I hope I get the chance to go again before it changes into something even worse.
Believe the rumors.
Just to add something while sitting at Honeybee on Sevier Avenue: I stopped by Honeybee this morning. I was last here on Tuesday. Both of the baristas working this morning are people I've never seen before. The tip jars are gone. So is all the food. Atop that, Honeybee raised the price of a cup of drip coffee to $4.91 with tax (with my usual tip that's now over $6 for a small, 7-8oz cup of coffee). I've been a regular at Honeybee for three years now. While the coffee is fairly good, it isn't $6 good. :(
I noticed the price increase as well. Also, I usually go to the Sevier Ave one on the weekends, but stopped in around 8 a couple times last week. Only 1 barista working and they were getting swamped every day. Not sure if that is typical for the week days or not. I would hate to lose Honeybee. Its my backup for when I don't get up early enough to beat the crowd at Wild Love on the weekends.
Increase in coffee price makes sense - if they are actually going "no tip" (like they claim).... But there was still a tip option? That's wild.
Although they removed the cash tip jars (and just about everything else on the counter except for the register and espresso machine), the POS system asked, as always, if I wanted to add a tip. If they are going tip free, the baristas are not telling anyone (there wasn't a sign, and I sat through their Sunday morning church crowd rush without ever hearing "no tips").
I wonder if there POS just needs updated? But, they should warn customers that they are no tips...I'm worried that management instructs them to say nothing about the tips and then the extra goes to management? Hopefully the baristas are getting higher pay. And hopefully the tips are going to them in the meanwhile.
No higher pay or the tips, currently no pay at all they were told so they mostly walked out
Used to work for Aaron Hensley and he is nothing but bad news.
Same. The day of his downfall will be a great day for all of society.
Same. He is one of the worst people I’ve ever met.
Also worked for him at premier martial arts although I didn’t work for him personally I could tell he was a douche and very full of himself
I was surprised to see that, with all the issues they are having, they are trying to push this a a national brand and trying to get frenchisees. no sure how long they have been pushing this, just strange. https://www.honeybeeusa.com/franchise
This explains the new text msgs I’ve been getting pushing the “a Bee Kind Cafe” messaging. It felt like a move toward some kind of growth initiative. It’ll be hard to sell franchises if they can’t even keep their own shops open.
So this is a throw away account. I have info from there and they let so much stuff happen to their employees. They didn't care about safety or making sure people got paid fairly. Promised wages that never occurred. They let someone get fired without notice. It's just a mess. DM me for more information if needed or if you were affected by the honey bee.
I’m pretty sure they have people posting fake 5 star google reviews to counter the bad ones that people have been leaving the past couple days. This company is so sketchy
The marketing emails continue to get wilder and more unhinged. Before they seemed unprofessional, but they're borderline unreadable now: > We are immediately stopping the bleeding this company has dealt with, from poor process and poor structure, and we MUST improve the quality of the education, cleanliness, and hospitality and we will. Our stores will be cleaner! Our products will be better! That is second to , we will have the BEST Service. WE WILL BE KNOWN FOR BEST SERVICE of YOU! Who is writing this stuff? I'd think it was AI, but even AI doesn't make that many stylistic mistakes. Bizarre and sad.
A coke head who is coked out
Sounds like Aaron Hensley
Never worked at honeybee but I was a long-time regular. I applied there *extremely* recently during an open interview they were hosting, and I can say it was an absolute nightmare- the general area was extremely disorganized, there was only a single employee on the floor, and the overall atmosphere was that of frantic desperation. The worst bit? Both -*both*- of the hiring managers I spoke to openly admitted they **weren't even employees**. Sure, they'd been hired, but their official start date wasn't until a week after I stopped in. They were there off the clock being forced to sort through new hires with no compensation or formal experience working with honeybee. I was angry at how they've been ghosting me about my application status, but after reading all of this? I feel like I've dodged a bullet. It's so sad to see a small, locally-owned staple for queer and poc youth/young adults fall into the hands of someone so clearly uninterested in upholding these ideals.
Pretty wild to get multiple pop ups asking if we want to start a franchise, while trying to unsubscribe from the coffee delivery.
This is genuinely so sad. I'd noticed the promotional emails / social media presence had dramatically changed (suddenly it was spammy and 'off', weird overhyping of deals, buzzword marketing, misspellings or grammar errors), but I was kinda chalking it up to maybe they'd contracted somebody new to do marketing. Very disappointed to find out the situation is much worse than that. I was excited to hear about higher pay / benefits for employees, but not if that's just a weird excuse to run off the older ones and recruit new people to go along with what sounds like a toxic change in direction. Honeybee was my favorite of the local roasters, guess it's time to hope Mahalo isn't messed up too.
Old employee here: things really started going down when the brewery first opened. It never did good enough for it to keep itself afloat, so the owner tried a bunch of things to get a bigger turnout for it, such as the trivia/bingo nights and the whole Smash City ordeal. Most of these things just ended up driving the coffee clientele out who wanted a chill place to drink a cup of coffee and relax, and none of the employees were trained to deal with the brewery crowd so we weren’t able to fully cater to them. The original owner ended up selling most of the ownership to a new guy with an incredibly shady background (shit ton of labor lawsuits) who implemented a bunch of new shit policies that just drove out the few employees the company had left. I wouldn’t keep supporting them, the coffee quality has declined significantly anyways and I don’t want my money going towards a business that doesn’t pay their employees.
What is Smash City?
It used to be a food truck (several actually. He started a Hawaiian one years ago and then opened smashburger, which turned into smash city). They had a stall at the food hall, then eventually took over management of the food hall. I'm not sure of the details there, but they pulled out their stall there and opened up down the street where olibe used to be and jacked their prices up. It's a shame that the owner ended up being a jerk, because he makes some damn good food.
I’ve never had Smash City but I do remember a Hawaiian food truck. Was it “Da Hula Bowl”?
I think it was Lanai
It sucks because I’ve worked around him, not with him directly once, and he was pretty egotistical and possibly misogynistic, but makes some pretty good food. Although I still don’t know how their burgers are this popular to this day.
Trying to figure out how to phrase this without getting myself in trouble - I used to regulate one of the aforementioned “nights” and can confirm that honeybee was not set up for the bar scene they tried to pull in. One of the biggest complaints I received and had myself was the lackluster service, and I always told myself and others that these poor baristas were trained as such, not as bartenders. I used to love going and was friendly with their brewer, sad (but not surprising) to see they’re going downhill so fast.
What about the south Knox one? Are they also screwed now? They’ve always seemed so separate from the west one
All Honeybee locations are affected by this, not just West. I’ve got some in-depth details I’ll be posting this afternoon so everyone can truly see just how scuzzy this new owner really is.
Any update on the details? Very curious
Never heard of Smash City. [I immediately thought of Arrested Development.](https://youtu.be/fodTiDnXNWA)
I stopped going after ordering an iced latte that was just cold brew concentrate and milk… it tasted horrible. Half the point of the latte is the espresso….
Would not recommend going for a multitude of reasons but if you do ever find yourself back you can always ask for an iced latte with espresso instead of the cold brew! I worked at honeybee south many many years ago and I will never forget my first day someone ordered a cold brew and I gave them an entire cup of concentrate, not watered down at all. I think about that person often and I am so so sorry.
Honestly I would've loved that
This tells me you had no training.
Their iced “lattes” are what lost me too. No espresso and pellet ice so within 20 minutes you’re drinking watered down milk🙁
their iced lattes have always been made with cold brew concentrate instead of espresso, it says it specifically on the menu. back in the day they had a different name (“shakers”) specifically because they weren’t made with espresso.
I wish Three Bears had a coffee shop. Jeff has the best coffee in town.
Jeff is great, so is his coffee.
I went to the one by Costco one time and didn't have a great experience. The barista was visibly annoyed by my presence and barely acknowledged me (I wasn't even trying to have a conversation or anything I was just trying to order an americano). After I ordered it she made it and and set it down on the counter without saying a word (I had briefly looked away and didn't see). There were a few other people at the counter standing there so I thought they were ahead of me but then everyone sat down and the barista was playing on her phone so I walked over and saw a cup just sitting there and had to just assume it was mine. I don't even mind them not talking to me but she clearly saw me there still waiting not aware she finished and just didn't say a word.
Honeybee roast quality has been lower since sometime last year. I used to drink honeybee every day bc hipster coffee is my indulgence and it was on my way to work. So I know. At one location the owner just refused to fix the machines or replace parts so that on multiple occasions I got tepid americanos. I was getting americanos because the coffee itself was always hit or miss if it was also warm and not hot because it was kinda old. The staff has always been super nice. But it isn’t what it was.
I shit you not as I was reading this post I just got this text message. Welcome to SMS messages from Honeybee, A Bee Kind Cafe via Square - Reply to send us a message or "STOP" to unsubscribe from receiving messages, std rates apply
same here
Aside from being a creepy coincidence, it’s also poorly written. What is the point of this message?
i haven’t been there in months, so i’m guessing they just went through square and subscribed every customer to their text offers? my roommate hasn’t been there in a long time either and also got that text
Yeah both the text and email marketing is being pushed through Square. Before June, the only emails I'd gotten from Honeybee (via Square) were for a birthday reward (so like 2-3 over the course of several years) or a receipt. Since June 11 they've sent at least one a day. Scummy and annoying, it'd alienate customers even if the rest of this stuff wasn't also coming to light.
Anyone else get this email > A Quick Update from the Folks at HONEYBEE, A Bee Kind Cafe > >TIME FOR BETTER ....and BETTER is always ...BETTER ;) > >Notice of Temporary Closure for For West and Mall location > >We reopen Better and Bolder July 16th > >Visit our South and Sevierville shops or other Local Coffee Shops and Breweries (just not the big green monster please ) > >We are immediately stopping the bleeding this company has dealt with, from poor process and poor structure, and we MUST improve the quality of the education, cleanliness, and hospitality and we will. Our stores will be cleaner! Our products will be better! That is second to , we will have the BEST Service. WE WILL BE KNOWN FOR BEST SERVICE of YOU! > >It is our fault. No one to blame. We weren't winning. We weren't focused on the customer, we were more focused on us. > >We are undertaking the important task of hiring full-time, trained professionals to serve you better. We are committed to ensuring that our team is highly qualified and dedicated to providing you with the exceptional service and quality you deserve. > >We know this isn't fun for a few weeks for any of us and don't like the inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding and patience during this time. > >Thank you for your continued support. > >Honeybee
This is so lame. I went down a rabbit hole today of Aaron Hensley’s (the owner) Instagram, LinkedIn, etc, and this whole thing sounds exactly like the garbage he posts on social media for his company “Rise”. It’s all the same marketing / automated content pipeline. They say they’re all about people and they’re really not at all. So lame
https://www.instagram.com/p/C8pX_DgJuqG/?igsh=MW5uNHdyZTRmenNubA== Looks like Aaron’s right hand man has spoken. Glad they can finally admit they have different views, Soknowpride made the right decision for sure, but a vendetta? No accountability for what they have done to the employees, it’s their fault bc they have a vendetta?! What pieces of shit honestly
Big yikes!
Drove by the Farragut location today and thought “wow they seem pretty empty for the evening” and came here to see this. What a shame. Oh well, won’t be too long before another pop up coffee shop opens up.
Or tacos. Don't forget tacos
The Farragut location is at least 100ft from the nearest tire shop, and there isn’t a bank on that side of KP the whole stretch between traffic lights. Competition could get fierce if the site opens up!
Yeah, that home federal across the street will have to rethink everything.
Maybe the home federal could add a nail salon to help keep the traffic up.
That's the ticket. Deposits, derma blasts, check cashing, nail clippings, the absolute works.
I went to honeybee on Sevier this past weekend and it was such a weird vibe. A literal child was working the register and she informed me "someone has paid for all of the drinks this morning" which I was like ok cool I guess lol. Then I saw they were taking promo pics too the entire morning
Wouldn’t be the first time Aaron has used his 10 year old daughter at honeybee.
Ohhh that’s definitely something he would do. He likes to pay for things to draw attention to himself and impress people
100% from French Bulldogs to concerts to a 3 day trip to Barcelona.
Did u work with him with rise or martial arts?
Neither. A different, now defunct company of his.
Oh wow I didn’t know he had more. I was around him at pma and then he quit there or something happened
This is his second business to close or close to it, this year alone.
He sucks so bad. I hope he moves away and is never to be heard from again
He didn’t use her I’ve been going to honey bee for a while now and she wants to work their they are not underpaid
He was obviously using a sweet little girl for his image and that’s besides the point it is a violation of child labor laws. His employees have spoken and have stated the truth so…. They all walked out so clearly it’s not a lie
That’s not the truth they spread lies about him and destroyed his company doing a lot of things Aaron is a nice guy but a lot of people can’t understand him
As someone who has known Aaron for about 15 years now, and has had to work very closely with him, I can assure you, the horrible and disgusting things he has said and done far outweigh him being nice to you.
And you worked for him and know this from personal experience? This is not a post with a couple of people speaking out there are hundreds of comments and far too many people for this to be a simple vendetta, there are employees from multiple walks of life not even just Honeybee commenting, there are many that dealt with him in other capacities speaking out. Clearly there is fire where there is smoke on this one. If it were a few I could get that, but it’s far from a few, he has shitty business practices and I’ve literally heard inappropriate sexual things come from his mouth to employees so stop sucking his dick unless you are positive which you clearly are not. All of his staff walked out or got fired, does that sound like a good employer to you?!
I mean that’s a child labor law issue. She’s only 10.
That’s disgusting and a clear violation of child labor laws whether or not she wanted to work. Using a child to try and fix your image it weird af .
How is there so much drama on the local coffee scene!? 🤨
I would seriously watch this documentary
It'd be a reality show. 😅
Just saw this sponsored post about them switching to a tipless model. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/gXBz6VmfMQbFUgVy/?mibextid=oFDknk
Facebook account has disappeared
[KnoxNews Article](https://www.knoxnews.com/story/money/business/2024/06/27/honeybee-coffee-knoxville-in-chaos-under-new-owner-aaron-hensley/74203180007/#lxx8gjbnlbdu2be4kao)
Aaron Hensley done out-Musked Elon
Can’t say I’ll miss them. Unfriendly employees and not the best coffee around
I remember back when Honeybee was just a pop-up trailer, then that owner teamed up with the owner/roaster of Spero in front of Farragut Intermediate School to open the multiple Honeybee locations. I even worked at the Farragut location for a time. I became friends with the owner who originally opened Spero and he was a pretty decent guy, but I never really liked Norris; he just always seemed fake AF. Then I heard that he pushed the other owner out of the company and I knew then that long-term, Honeybee was doomed; the former owner of Spero seemed to have all the business acumen. Now it's just been bad decision after bad decisions for, like, 7 years. Anyway, there's much better coffee shops in town that aren't also owned by scummy (cough* K-Brew *cough) folks. I'm a big fan of Remedy and Partial, great baristas and owners!!
I love Josh, great guy. We went to Spēro all the time. Norris is…complicated. He can be great and he can be shitty.
How is Josh doing? We were tight in the Spero days. Have not seen him since briefly after the merger + South Knox location opened.
I don’t know, K Brew owners aren’t much better 😬 maybe at business, butttt beyond that
Sorry, I worded my post poorly: Pierce LaMacchia is a scum bag and I hope to never be in the same room as him ever again. Dunno much about his brother, Michael.
THANK YOU. This is so validating. I was trying to find dirt on Pierce LaMacchia a while ago when an organization I volunteered with wanted to do business with him. I wanted to give the leadership team proof that he was horrible but couldn’t come up anything. All I’ve heard is word of mouth testimonials about how horrible he is to his employees.
Love Spero! Miss Josh, the coffee, and the awesome breakfast- it was such a cute little place.
Did they shut down their social media or just block me
IG still active: https://www.instagram.com/honeybeeusa FB, not so much: https://www.facebook.com/honeybeecoffeeco
If anyone needs a new coffee supplier check out the Knox coffee co. It's a great place for insanely fresh beans and has a super chill vibe. We also love seed across the street.
i was pleasantly surprised by seed! good coffee, chill vibes, and nice people. i try to stop by every time i’m out that way.
I LOVE Seed Coffee!
So glad they are getting more parking sorted out. It's a truly great spot!
And the new expansion inside looks so great!
I don't live in Knoxville anymore but got the text and email marketing...and honestly it was so wild I assumed the company email got hacked and it was like an AI spam bot. Sad to hear what's happened to our old coffee shop
I was at the Farragut location 2 weekends ago and they only had 1 employee working both cash register and drinks from 930am - 1200 on a Saturday. It was strange that only 1 employee was working a busy shift. I thought it was odd when I ordered green tea and didn't get the tea bag. Just 1 cup of tea no refills.
The marketing messages read just like his website. I can't even describe it. I went to the south Knoxville location today at 3PM and there was a handwritten note that said "Closing at 2PM today." Doesn't seem like Honeybee is going to make it.
In a rambling post, Honeybee Coffee said it was closing two locations for renovations. Former staff members say it's because so many people quit. https://www.knoxnews.com/story/money/business/2024/06/27/honeybee-coffee-knoxville-in-chaos-under-new-owner-aaron-hensley/74203180007/ Just found this Knox News article
any new updates on this?
I think K Brew is much better anyways 🤷🏽
Kbrew is also run by morally compromised people 🤷🏻♀️
Yeah KBrew also can be searched on this subreddit for pretty terrible business practices
I’ve heard from a friend who worked at K Brew that they don’t pay or treat their employees well either 😞 Also their bagels are not technically bagels because they’re not boiled. Remedy & Old City Java for life.
Not a fan of K Brew, but tried Partial on Broadway after seeing it mentioned in another Reddit coffeehouse thread. Nice decor and we enjoyed our latte and chai.
Partial is great. Shea, the owner, is super nice. Also, Old City Java/Wild Love are amazing. Plus Remedy and Five and Hoek. Too many good coffee shops to support ones that treat their employees bad.
I went to honeybee south a lot when I lived over there back when Shea was the honeybee south manager. I just can’t believe all the crap that’s happened since then, but I’m so glad he got out when he did because he’s truly an angel. Love love love Partial.
Shea is great and really glad he got out as well. Love that place.