Ghouls & Grinds : Hot Find, Cool Place

Driving along, a sign catches my eye: Ghouls & Grinds.

What the heck is that?

A quick Google later and I find out. It is a horror themed coffee house in Hanover, Pennsylvania. My wife drinks coffee by the gallon. I don’t drink coffee, but do love a good tea. We returned a few weeks after the initial sighting to explore what a “horror coffee house” would be like and damn it was awesome.

If you’re asking yourself, “wait, isn’t this how Life Changing Yard Sale began?” Thank you for being a fan! And yeah, it was just like that. When learning how to drive, my truck driver dad made me read every sign we passed. So, I guess blame him for all the story ideas and cool finds. 😊

Let’s start with pictures (sorry, I thought I took more) :

What I Loved 🔪❤️

The art and decor of this place was insanely good. I loved the colors and the overall aestethic of the place. It was super horror / fantasy (think Harry Potter) focused. Everywhere you looked there was some little horror thing, or a big horror thing, or something tied to like vintage horror. There was a Harry Potter corner (or two) where the darker side of the stories were represented well. Check out the old school horror color pallettes here. LOVE!

And the brownies were Victor approved. He loved them. Devouring quickly and without sharing. I stole a bite. Got a side eye, but hey, isn’t part of my job as a dad to get side eyes? I thought the little tiny bite I had was pretty damn good too. I’d like to get a larger bite at some point. There were other treats but magically they kept disappearing from my plate when my son came over to see what was going on.

My wife, my son, and I met up with my mom and step-dad there. It was a great place with quiet corners to escape. But not so quiet that it was a problem for Victor to pace and let some steam off as he stimmed. I always appreciate a place where he has space (both physically and acceptance) to be himself. I love that and deeply appreciate having places where this is not something that I get side-eyes from others about (side eye from the kids okay, from adults, not cool). And before anyone chimes in on the comments about how other people have the right to a quiet coffee, I agree and we bend over backwards to support that but it is a hell of an awesome feeling to be in a place (with customers & staff) that suports families like mine.

The Strawberry Lemonade was AWESOME. So delicious. I could have drank like three if I wasn’t trying to be better about my health. They were appropriately sweet but I always assume drinks like that are loaded with sugar. I should have confirmed. It was super yummy and I recommend it be your #1 drink if you’re not a coffee person.

What Wasn’t For Me ☕️

There are a ton of different types of coffees there. So many coffee drinks that my mom and wife loved but I’m not a coffee person. The Strawberry Lemonade was delicious, but I’d love a wider selection of teas. Yeah, I’m being selfish - and I’m picky with my teas too so this isn’t really something the team at Ghouls & Grinds should listen to, because it is a coffee shop. Someone who doesn’t like coffee can’t complain about wanting more than coffee at a coffee shop.

My wife said the was awesome and we brought some home. We got some hot chocolate too but I need to go back and ask how to cook it because it isn’t dissolving for me like the hot chocolate powder I’m used to. I can’t deal with fancy hot chocolate! This is a knowledge gap on my end - again, nothing against the shop but this section is about what’s wasn’t for me…and apparently knowing how to cook fancy hot chocolate mix isn’t for me.

Judgement ☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️

I give Ghouls & Grinds in Hanover, Pennsylvania 5 skulls (out of 5). The place was fast, friendly, fantastic, and full of fun. If it wasn’t so far away, I’d make it a regular writing spot. Maybe I’ll see if they do signing events there for when my next book comes out? If you’re looking for a horror themed stop in south central PA, you gotta hit this place. I’d even recommend it be part of your horror themed road trip if you’re heading to Gettysburg, PA for my talk in February.

Hit this place up and tell others! Support small business, especially awesome ones like this.

 

Got other horror themed places I should check out? I do a lot of travel with work so let me know where I should go and I’ll hit it up.

Thanks for reading!

Tim