Sometimes, the more you travel the world to find the things important to you, the more you realize that you left those things at home where you started.

Katy Bounds graduated from Westlake High School in 1995. She moved to the West Coast; she moved to the East Coast. Now the personality behind Lola Savannah’s, one of the most popular coffee hangouts in the Westbank, is back in home territory raising her young daughter.

“I was so ready to get out and explore the world,” she said from behind the bar at Lola’s early Thursday morning.

There’s a lengthy line of groggy faces leading to the Lola’s cash register. People come in – some stay, some take their steaming paper cups back out the door. A lot of the regulars nod at Bounds or call her by name. She smiles and casts a calm eye over the early morning hustle unfolding before her.

“I never thought I would be happy being back where I started, but it feels right,” she said. “I don’t think I could get what I have here in New York or Los Angeles or D.C. Here, I’m in a village of people who really care. That’s important. It’s a neat way to start out your day, remembering that.”

After graduation from the local high school, Bounds spent a few years earning her barista stripes in coffee shops across California. She came back home to Austin in the late 1990s long enough to study macrobiotics at the Natural Epicurean Culinary School at Casa De Luz and start a bakery for then-fledgling Austin Java restaurant. Always looking for more, she moved on to study at the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City, focusing on vegetarian meals.

After working as a private chef for a time, she returned once more to her roots in 2004, taking on the challenge of pastry chef at highly touted Jeffry’s Restaurant. A new mom in 2008, Bounds found herself rethinking her working environment. Friends suggested she contact Reed Clemmons, co-owner of The Grove, which had been open six months. They had heard his team would soon open an adjacent coffee shop.

“All of us at The Grove are huge coffee aficionados,” Clemmons said. “Latte art was our goal for the coffee program – if you can make designs in the foam, it means the baristas are doing coffee right. The key was getting the right person to run it.”

That’s where Bounds came in, Clemmons said.

“Katie has all that’s important to run a place like Lola’s – great people skills, a great sense of style and very good food knowledge,” he said. “She is a natural leader. The family atmosphere that she helps nurture, I believe, is appreciated in this area by a very loyal clientele base.”

Bounds carved a richly comfortable, tech-savvy neighborhood coffee shop out of the empty concrete space next to The Grove. She helped design Lola’s menu and picked the staff – including the team of baristas that make the coffeehouse increasingly popular. She hits the place weekdays as early as 7:30 a.m. to help handle the morning rush and stays to manage lunch at The Grove.

“It’s honestly been my home away from home,” she said. “I’m so comfortable here. I love my staff – they have fun, and I have fun. And I love having regulars. We’ve become close; we know a lot about each other’s lives.”

One of those regulars is Austin filmmaker and philanthropist Turk Pipkin, who, along with his wife, Christi Pipkin, runs the Nobelity project.

“Reed either got really lucky or really knew what he was doing when he brought Katie aboard,” Pipkin said. “She’s always smiling and open to new ideas, and she does it all while being a great single mom and while making time to help out with things she cares about.”

Bounds said she loves getting to know her regulars, figure out what they do and help them network.

“I like how she connects like-minded people in the coffee shop, helping them meet each other,” said Donald Winslow, editor of News Photographer magazine and another loyal Lola’s fan. “The network gets bigger when you hang out there.”