We have very excited news to share with you. Today October 12 2015 we have kicked open doors to their brand new state-of-the-art cafe and headquarters complex. Located on 4th Avenue and Cherry Street, just blocks from the heart of downtown Olympia, this cafe gleams with custom flourishes, bells and whistles, and details to drive a coffee nerd to rapture, merging Pacific Northwest interior design with a mid-century modern aesthetic sensibility.
The gear list at Oly’s new space includes a La Marzocco Strada EE espresso machine (customized by Espresso Parts), a Poursteady brewer, grinders by Baratza, Mahlkonig, and Nouva Simonelli, plus two roasters: an Ideal Rapid Gothot 23kg and Diedrich IR-12. Guests in the space can glimpse nearly every step of the Olympia Coffee Roasting Co. process, from cupping to sample roasting, production to packaging, plus floor to ceiling green coffee storage.
The Roussa Cassel designed space was built by Bicycle Homebuilding, featuring custom cabinetry and furniture by Michael Hedges and sustainable wood by Windfall Lumber. Additional design elements were provided by the teams at Garza Marfa and Moonish.
Opening day for the space is October 12th, 2015, and the shop will offer a public cupping program every Friday at 10am at the space’s purpose-built cupping lab. OCR co-owner Oliver Stormshak has promised “nitro coffee floats” plus affogatos on the menu, made with Oly’s Sweetheart Espresso blend. “I love the views into the operation from the customer seating area and the street,” Stormshak, “so you can cleanly see the Gothot and the Diedrich (soon to be moved) crushing out perfect roasts, sample roasting, and cupping all from your seat. For a coffee geek it’s a thing of beauty.”
Exciting new coffee destinations are de rigeur in bigger Pacific Northwest cities like Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, BC, but here in plucky little Olympia, this is about as big as it gets for a new coffee space. Stormshak promises “an elevated cafe-retail experience” on par with what cafe goers might find in L.A. or New York. “We want to help restore pride in Olympia, WA by leading the way and help spur an economic revitalization in our downtown,”.
A noble goal, powered one nitro cold brew float at a time.
Photos by Chris DiNottia