Old school, new school: any way you slice it, summer school is in session here at the Build-Outs of Coffee. Today we’re taking you to Ithaca, New York, where a coffee company older than many of our readers—launched in 1984!—just opened a brand new cafe space under the same roof as its roasting facility. Across decades that’ve seen the coffee industry transformed in America, Ithaca Coffee Company offers an incredible through line of service and quality that’s easy to see in their new cafe. Let’s check it out!
As told to Sprudge by Chris Ganger.
The 2025 Build-Outs of Coffee is sponsored by Pacific Barista Series, La Marzocco, Ceado, and Dona.
For those who aren’t familiar, will you tell us about your company?
The Ithaca Coffee Company has been roasting coffee in Ithaca since 1984. The original name for the company was The Gourmet’s Delight. 22 years ago the company morphed into its last iteration when the name was changed to The Ithaca Coffee Company. It was at that time that we moved our original store down a couple of spaces and opened our first cafe. 10 years in and our coffee roasting had grown out of the back room, so we moved our roasting operations to a new facility at 702 Hancock St. Followed by opening our wholesale bakery two years later in the same location. This as the end or 2024 was coming to a close we made the announcement that we would be moving our store into our Roasting facility. Three months of hard construction and permitting later, we have our new cafe open. We are once again roasting our coffee under the same roof as our flagship cafe.
Can you tell us a bit about the new space?
Our Roastworks building was a former Fuel oil depot building. Our roasting operation takes up the rear half of the building which used to house their parts department. moving forward, our bakery is housed in what was at one time the wash bay for the delivery trucks. And as of this month, the front third of the building that previously housed offices and showroom, now houses our cafe.
Renovations for the cafe started with tearing down a wall that previously separated the showroom from the offices. We renovated the two small restrooms, into one ADA compliant washroom. We removed all of the mismatched drop ceiling, and blacked out the beams and ductwork.
Coming later this summer:
*patio seating in front of our two cafe windows.
*a new front awning
* a grand opening (stay tuned to socials for a save the date!)
What’s your approach to coffee?
Our mission is “To explore new origins, seek out new flavors, and boldly roast what no one has roasted before.” I joke. But in all seriousness, our approach to coffee has always been to focus on highlighting the breadth of variety in coffee. Each harvest presents a new opportunity for the coffee to bring something different to the table. We try to bring as much specificity as we can to our offerings without overwhelming peoples simple desire for a great cup of coffee. We do also have a robust series of blends to compliment our single orign explorers. with blends that range from a gentle breakfast blend, through our award winning Red Rooster Espresso, and on to our newest Road Trip Blend.
Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?
Espresso is on a two-group La Marzocco Linea Classic. Espresso grinders by Mazzer. Batch brew coffee is via FETCO. Cold drip Kyoto cold brew by YAMA. Nitro cold brew via Brew Bomb X-45 housed in our walk-in cooler!
How is your project considering sustainability?
We tried to re-use, re-finish, and re-purpose as much of our old store fixtures as possible. For instance, our new cafe counter top is our old Tavern bar top. The facade below is repurposed metal roofing, paneled by coffee pallet wood. We have sound deadeners hung in our beamceiling made from rockwool, covered with burlap coffee bags, and all of our pendant and track lighting was all previously lighting our old store.
Are you working with craftspeople, architects, and/or creatives that you’d like to mention?
AZ Design Build Management took our rough sketches and tuned them into architectural drawings, then into permits, and finally the brought them into reality. They have been fantastic to work with over the past three months. They were instrumental in our ability to re-use and re-purpose as much as we did.
Thank you!
My pleasure.
