Room for roasting

BOULDER -Caffe Nostro is growing its own little coffee empire.

As the parent company of Table Mesa’s Caffe Sole and Sole Roasters, Caffe Nostro is expanding its reach in several directions.

Sole Roasters started roasting beans in Boulder in 2003. This summer the company moved into a larger space to be able to accommodate its increased business and future growth plans.

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The new location off 63rd Street in Gunbarrel measures in at 5,300 square feet – much larger than its former 1,000 square feet space on Walnut Street. “Now we have plenty of room for growth,´ said Ashkan Angha, co-owner and vice president.

In addition to adding new accounts for Sole Roasters’ coffee beans, reasons for the growth include the purchase of two other coffee shops, including one of Boulder’s mainstays: Trident Booksellers and Cafe.
Caffe Nostro’s three owners each hold 25 percent of the Trident while former owner, Mike Smith, maintains 25 percent.

The other recently acquired coffee shop is a small roaster in Chicago. Both changed hands in January.
“The Trident is an institution of Boulder – we really don’t want to disturb that,” Angha said. “It’s basically been the same since 1982. We’ll make some ergonomic changes but only with consensus from the staff and customers.”

“Aside from the Trident, Caffe Sole is at the top in volume in Boulder,´ said Suter Dubose, Sole Roasters co-owner and president. He was one of CaffÇ Sole’s founding partners 12 years ago.

“Roasting our own coffee was a wise business move that really added to our bottom line,” he added. “We could do it because we had enough volume.”

Dubose credits alliances with two local coffee leaders as the boost that’s taking the company to the next level. Paul Songer, formerly with Allegro coffee, was one of the original owners of CaffÇ Sole and is now working with Sole Roasters as a consultant.

Kevin Knox also was with Allegro. “Kevin was one of the original people in Starbucks in the early ’80s,” Dubose said. “He’s also published books and articles on coffee. Both of these gentlemen are world leaders in coffee.”

A primary benefit of working with Songer and Knox, according to Noah Westby, general manager and Sole Roasters co-owner, is their connections in coffee bean countries. “Paul has connections to farms all over the world – places like Bolivia, Nicaragua and Guatemala,” he said.

“The big picture is that we want to have the buying power to bring good containers of coffee into the country,” Angha said.

Containers hold about 35,000 pounds of coffee beans. For companies that don’t have capacity for that much coffee, co-ops tend to go in together to purchase containers and split them up, he explained.

The new Sole Roasters space includes a tasting room and a lab, which will be used to train customers in what Angha calls Coffee 101. “Our training facility will be for clients and their staff to get away from the work environment and learn the basics of coffee and drink making,” Angha said.

“We cup coffees from all over the world every morning,” Westby said. “It’s so we can source the best beans we can. Anyone can roast coffee – even in their oven at home – it’s all about who can find the best coffee in the world for their clients.”

Current Sole Roasters customers include Laudisio Ristorante, Red Lion Inn, Foolish Craig’s Cafe, Golden Buff, Mickey C’s Bagels and all the Walnut Cafes.

“Our intention is to go into grocery stores, too,” Angha said.

“I think Sole Roasters has the potential of being a superb roaster of superb premium products,” Dubose said. “This plant is the physical platform for that growth strategy.”

Sole Roasters currently employs four people and brings in about $2 million in annual revenue, according to Angha.

“It’s been a slow organic growth to get to this point,” Westby said. “We plan to later add sales and marketing teams.”