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    Brioso Coffee Opens on Long Street

    Two years ago, the owners of Cafe Brioso on Gay Street announced plans to open a new roasting-facility-slash-coffee-bar location on East Long Street in a building that formerly housed the Faith Mission homeless shelter. After several delays, the new operation is officially open as of 7am this morning.

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    Brioso Coffee President & Roastmaster Jeff Davis said that the delays are due to a series of unanticipated waiting periods with everything from equipment deliveries to installations to construction timelines to inspections. In the end, he’s excited to have the doors finally open and said that the timing worked out well for kicking off a new year with a new chapter of Brioso’s expanding business model.

    “Our motivation was always to increase our production ability, because trying to run a wholesale business from our existing location became impossible,” he explained. “The coffee brand has grown since 2001 from Cafe Brioso being known as a lunch spot into the development of a wholesale business.”

    The installation of a 15 kilogram roaster in the new space offers Brioso triple the capacity of the old five kilogram model inside 14 East Gay Street. Additionally, the Long Street location offers better access for deliveries and logistics.

    It doesn’t makes as much sense as a warehouse with a loading dock, but we can’t interact with customers in a warehouse environment,” explained Davis. “We want to keep retail customers where the roasting happens until that’s just not doable anymore.”

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    In addition to roasting, the new Brioso Coffee on Long Street includes a coffee laboratory that will be used to train staff, oversee quality control, educate wholesale clients, and entertain the public through cupping events that will be scheduled in the future. Of course, anyone looking for a more traditional coffee shop offering will also find what they’re looking for here.

    “We’re going with a highly focused coffee menu,” said Davis. “We’re not trying to appeal to everyone — we’re not trying to make the most or fastest or cheapest cups of coffee — only the best cups.”

    Brioso Coffee features single cups made to order, lattes and espressos, and a limited menu of baked goods delivered from Cafe Brioso daily. The shop seats approximately 40-50 guests, and Davis said that they’re still determining future plans for weekend brunch events with food trucks, and a small patio setting for the summer. Customer feedback provided during two days of soft openings this past weekend is helping to determine some of those details.

    “We were hoping for a little chaos, and we got that,” said Davis in reference to the soft opening. “It felt a little disorganized, but I felt really great about the cups we served. I wish we could give away free coffee all the time.”

    Brioso Coffee is located at 315 East Long Street, and open from 7am-4pm Monday-Friday and 8am to Noon on Saturday and Sunday.

    For more information, visit www.cafebrioso.com.

     Photos by Mark Steele Photography. Interior design by Sketch Blue.

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    Walker Evans
    Walker Evanshttps://columbusunderground.com
    Walker Evans is the co-founder of Columbus Underground, along with his wife and business partner Anne Evans. Walker has turned local media into a full time career over the past decade and serves on multiple boards and committees throughout the community.
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