The last day of summer is September 21st, and as proof, it’s still hot as biscuits outside across much of North America and Europe. As further proof that summer vibes are still within your grasp, our world-peering globe-spanning Build-Outs Of Summer feature series continues with this, our 21st entry in 2013.
And it’s a doozy! Our partners at Joe Coffee are opening a new location in Philadelphia, at 3200 Chestnut St. Eastern seaboard journos were beside themselves when Joe opened their first Philly cafe back in April, and now here comes a second Joe Philly spot, just 6 months later. Sounds like the perfect place to get your sticky paws on some of that good “The Waverly” espresso blend, the company’s first-ever proprietary espresso (first reported here on Sprudge by Alex Bernson, back in the pre-dawn hours of July 30th, 2013).
Philadelphia, your precious Phillies sucked this year, and it’s frankly only a matter of time before Michael Vick gets decapitated trying to run a young man’s offense for Chip Kelly and the Eagles, but your coffee scene? It’s NFC West quality, and only getting better thanks to new additions like this one from Joe.
As told to Sprudge by Benjamin Heller.
Can you tell us a bit about your new space?
We took inspiration from the universities around the new Chestnut St location, sourcing chairs and tables that wink at our academic neighbors without alienating the rest of our customers. We have a large wooden meeting table in our second floor seating area that will be equally ideal for a post lecture discussion as it will be for catching up with friends. In New York, our stores have a reputation as a local watering hole, where you drink your coffee with the people who actually live and work in your neighborhood, so we made sure this Philadelphia location was suited to the local environment.
What’s your approach to serving coffee?
We will always be a neighborhood coffee shop, but we want our coffee to stand on its own. That means only serving coffee that we are proud of and that anyone who walks through our doors will enjoy. We take a lot of pride in educating our staff and putting our baristas through a rigorous training program to ensure they are well equipped to not only make awesome coffee, but also speak with customers about it. We recently started roasting 100% of our own beans which allows us to be even more selective, even more in control of the quality of beans we use and how they will taste in the cup. Our Director of Coffee, Amanda Byron, and our Head Roaster, Ed Kaufmann, are masterful and have really educated the entire company in the possibilities of in-house roasting. We’re really excited about the direction the company is growing!
Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?
We will be pulling shots on a La Marzocco Strada EP. Similar to our Rittenhouse Sq location, we will have our V60 Pour Over Bar available all day where you can try our single-origin coffees.
We are also very excited about the impending return of the Ethiopia Camp Cooperative coffee that we received last year, which we actually won a Good Food Award for. This lot is made up of Ethiopian Heirloom and local forest varieties grown at elevations around 2100 meters above sea level. It’s a beautiful coffee and we can’t wait for its return!
What’s your hopeful target opening month?
We are hoping to open in mid-September.
