You know what’s two great tastes that taste great together? Coffee & retail. Whether it’s your uber lifestyle boutique in Portland or Berlin or your over-the-top Brooklyn Whole Foods mecca, people around the world love shopping for stuff with a cup of coffee in hand. This is an indisputable fact of human existence.
The folks at Peace Coffee in the Twin Cities suburbs know these truths to be self-evident, which is why they’ve teamed up with popular local food co-op Lakewinds to build a beautiful new cafe inside Lakewind’s latest market. The whole place used to be a garden center, and the bar itself is inspired by a potting shed. Adorable! Now, finally, you can shop for nice groceries and slurp nice coffee at the very same time. Truly we are living in the 21st century, people. Let’s embrace it.
As told by Mel Meegan.
Introduce us to your new cafe concept, Mel!
Official opening day is June 28th. The look and feel of the shop pulls from the history of the site as the former Lyndale Garden Center, invoking a garden shed feel with ceramic tiles that look exactly like wood, garden tools and flowers made from bike gears add unique and playful embellishments. We will be moving our two group La Marzocco Linea from our cupping lab to fully realize it’s potential (never fear–our head roaster will get a brand new La Marzocco GS/3 as a replacement).
Wait, so what’s the deal?
The coffee counter represents a collaboration between Lakewinds Natural Food Co-op and Peace Coffee, drawing on both parties’ strengths and experience. Lakewinds stores provide an inviting shopping experience, bringing quality, organic foods to the Minneapolis suburbs. Peace Coffee has expertise in every aspect of crafting an exceptional cup of coffee from tree to table, and together the two hope to create a top-notch experience for visitors to the new Lakewinds store at the Lyndale Gardens.
Peace Coffee will staff and manage the shop, which will function as a store-within-a-store. The new shop will be much smaller than our Wonderland Park location, affording an option to grow with a built-in customer base and providing access to a different group of coffee drinkers.
Coffee service will feature options for both the commuter in a hurry as well bottomless cups for those who want to linger.
Now that we know the deal, tell us where this is all happening.
The new Lakewinds store will open in the redevelopment of the Lyndale Gardens site at 64th and Lyndale Ave. in Richfield, Minnesota.
The site is rich with local history: The original Lyndale Fruit and Vegetable Market burned to the ground in December 1980. A large replacement opened for business in April 1981. Tim Duoos bought the company in 1986, renaming it Lyndale Garden Center. Before closing in 2006, the garden center accommodated thousands of daily shoppers but in recent years had been marred by vandalism.
Why here? Why now?
The opportunity to collaborate with Lakewinds on the opening of a new store is a great opportunity to expand upon the work begun with the first coffee shop. Peace Coffee will be able to get a cup of carefully crafted coffee into the hands of shoppers in a part of the city where we don’t currently have a robust presence.
A second shop will allow Peace Coffee to continue to grow and deepen its local presence, educating more coffee drinkers about organic and fair trade coffee. And this new shop will create additional living wage jobs for skilled baristas within the community.
