Coffee RoasteR: LaRge: Kansas City fiRst PLaCe: the RoasteRie Written by Jenny Vergara | photography by Jill heupel
When Danny o’neill launched Kansas City’s The Roasterie in his brookside basement in 1993, he founded the company on three simple principles: buy the best quality coffee beans at a fair price, air-roast them with flavor in mind and get them to customers as quickly as possible. “in the early days, the biggest hurdles were simply sleep and money,” o’neill says. “i started the company with $17,000, which was gone very quickly, and there we were, working seven days a week for the first 18 months and sleeping very little.” o’neill’s ideas were ahead of the coffee curve, and he continues to make it his mission to buy the highest quality coffee beans from 31 countries around the world, directly from the farmers in the country of origin at fair prices. he and his team then carefully roast beans using an air-roasting technique, instead of traditional drumroasting. air roasting uses convection heat creating superior consistency and a smoother, more flavorful cup of coffee. Coffee-industry experts clearly agree, as nine of the roasterie’s coffees have received a ranking of 90 or higher on Coffee review, an online international coffeebuying guide.
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in the past 22 years, the roasterie has been the first Kansas City coffee company to hit many local milestones. o’neill and crew were the first to sell direct-sourced organic beans in local supermarkets. the company was the first to host classes and cuppings to educate customers. the roasterie was the first to offer its wholesale clients the opportunity to taste and create their own custom coffee blend. in 2005, the roasterie opened its first retail coffee shop and café in the brookside neighborhood, with a second location opening in leawood, Kansas, in 2010. a third café opened in the company’s existing roasting facility in october 2012, where the roasterie’s iconic DC-3 airplane symbolically took to the skies, tethered to the roof of the brand new combination roasting facility-event space-café. “We will have several big announcements in the next couple of months regarding our next endeavors,” o’neill says. “there will be a very large remodel, a huge new, fun product launch and a spectacular new business launch on the café side of our business – it’s going to be big, a real game-changer.” The Roasterie, multiple locations, 816.931.4000, theroasterie.com
Inspired Local Food Culture
august 2015
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