Olympia Coffee Roasting set to expand in a big way

Work is underway on Olympia Coffee Roasting Company’s biggest expansion to date, a plan that will triple its space needs and include a new cafe at Fourth Avenue and Cherry Street.

Olympia Coffee this week announced its plans to complete the project this spring. Co-owner Oliver Stormshak filled in the details.

The business, which currently operates in 2,000 square feet on Cherry Street, will grow into 6,000 square feet and take over a location that used to be home to the Arbutus Folk School and an espresso parts business.

The new cafe on the corner will be twice the size — 1,500 square feet — of the existing cafe. That will become a barista training center and a storefront for wholesale activity, Stormshak said.

The expanded space, which will include a roasting area and cupping lab — where taste-testing takes place — will be designed in such a way that customers will be able to watch the process, he said.

The roasting area will feature a 1958 German roasting machine, currently being restored in Berlin, Stormshak said. The German company stopped making them in the 1970s, but the machines were known for a quality roast, he said.

Stormshak and business partner Sam Schroeder took over Olympia Coffee in 2010, and then set about putting their own imprint on the business, emphasizing attention to detail, carefully sourcing their coffee, working directly with growers, studying food science and stressing training and preparation.

“All the little things that add up to success,” Stormshak said.

Since 2010, the business has grown 30 percent a year, he said. It also has locations in west Olympia and on Capitol Boulevard; another location is not in the works, Stormshak said.

The business employs 29 and expects to add five to 10 more employees as part of the expansion, he said.

Olympia Coffee is working with designer, Roussa Cassel, contractor Bicycle Construction and Windfall Lumber, a business that sells reclaimed lumber. All three were involved with the Olympia Coffee location in the Wildwood Building and the parklet outside the existing cafe on Cherry Street.

This story was originally published January 8, 2015 at 5:43 PM with the headline "Olympia Coffee Roasting set to expand in a big way."