Specialty Coffee Retailer is a publication for owners, managers and employees of retail outlets that sell specialty coffee. Its scope includes best sales practices, supplies, business trends and anything else to assist the small coffee retailer.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/96901
REGIONAL UPDATE Minimizing waste at Actual Cafe is a comprehensive endeavor. No cans or bottles are used; everything is served in cups or glasses; beer and wine is draft. And the majority of orders are eaten in the cafe from real china. When somebody does order to-go, they get their food in packaging that is 100 percent compostable. All of those practices mean much less packaging ends up in the landfill. Actual Cafe prides itself in its neighborhood focus. The shop has an extensive calendar of events to entertain the community, from bingo nights to art exhibits to live music performances. Weekends at Actual Cafe are "laptop-free," a concept that encourages "real interactions, not just the virtual kind," according to the shop's website. Many of the customers coming for the "real interactions" get to Actual Cafe on bikes; the cafe provides indoor bike parking. "And most of our staff rides to work," Bednarz says. Naturally, the coffee Actual Cafe serves is organic, as is much of the food. "We use organic produce as widely as possible...and our baked goods are mostly organic," Bednarz says. "Our dairy is conventionally produced, but antibiotic and hormone-free." Does the cafe's environmental emphasis cut into profits? Bednarz says that the organic ingredients do add cost, and the 100 percent compostable packaging is quite a bit more expensive than regular packaging. Their coffee cups and lids are almost triple the cost of regular wax-lined cups with plastic lids, he says. But Oakland is a progressive community, and people expect businesses to minimize their environmental impact, Bednarz says. Some customers appreciate it, while others are unhappy when prices go up because of it. But being "green" has been part of Actual Cafe's modus operandi from day one. "We built waste reduction, composting, energy efficiency, reuse in construction, etc. into our plan right off the bat," Bednarz says. "We've had to balance cost concerns against our desire to minimize our environmental impact, but we do that consciously when we do, and we're open about the choices we make." SO UTHEAST Bold Bean Coffee Roasters Jacksonville, Fla. Jay Burnett started Bold Bean Coffee Roasters in 2007, when he tired of his 30-year journalism career and wanted to find something else to do. "And I had had 30 years of bad newsroom coffee," Burnett laughs. Bold Bean, which went from being just a roaster to a full-fledged retail coffee shop in 2011, maintains a solid environmental focus. That commitment to "green" starts with the coffee they roast. "One of our first objectives was to become organic certified," Burnett says. That certification has helped the 30 roaster become a supplier to 17 Whole Foods Markets in Florida and many other accounts. Today the food also reflects Burnett's principles. His son Adam, who has a culinary background, prepares the food. Specialties include jelly made from Datil peppers, a Northeast Florida specialty. Adam uses the jelly on some of the shop's sandwiches, which also feature bread baked on the premises. "Many of the ingredients are grown in our garden in the backyard," Burnett says. The garden is comprised of four 4 x 8 foot raised beds, and they plan to soon expand the garden to a space next door. Bold Bean's building also speaks to the business's green commitment. The building was constructed in 1923, and the exposed bricks and rafters add a rustic charm to the coffee shop. "The chairs are made out of 111 recycled plastic Coke bottles," Burnett says. "Our bar is topped with recycled steel, and a lot of the woodwork is made with sustainably harvested wood." Bold Bean, which was recently named the Best Coffee Shop in Jacksonville by a local alternative newspaper, is located in a hip neighborhood that also includes two craft breweries and a yoga studio. Burnett's other son, Zack, runs the shop. "We have been very fortunate," the elder Burnett says. "We have a good formula and the right location." E A ST Kaffa Crossing Philadelphia, Pa. When Habtamu Kassa took over the Kaffa Crossing coffee shop in Philadelphia three years ago, he thought back to his home country of Ethiopia. There small businesses predominate, and the economy depends on the success of the many entrepreneurs who ply their trades. "Ethiopia is the land of small business owners," Kassa says. "So we had the idea to support small businesses here." That philosophy means Kassa sources its food locally. "Our vegetables are from local markets, and the meats we use we buy from small farms in the Tri-State area," Kassa says. Kaffa Crossing, which is described as a hybrid of a coffee shop and an Ethiopian restaurant, was founded about seven years ago by Yonas Kebede, a long-time Philadelphian of Ethiopian descent. He and his family and friends renovated a boarded-up convenience store into Kaffa Crossing over the span of a year, and then opened "a place where people from all sorts of cultures gather, where you have great conversations, make new friends, and celebrate Ethiopian culture," according to the shop's website. The environmental sensibility of Kassa and his colleagues is most evident in the locally sourced food and the fair trade coffee they serve, but Kassa is also careful to maintain other environmental principles. "We recycle as much as we can," he says. The environmental issues "are a little bit of a challenge, but we work around it." SCR