While others might bring a seashell back from the beach, Jalene Berger and her husband Douglas brought back the inspiration for a new business venture.
The owners of Crossroads Coffeehouse, which opened Monday at 310 Southwest Boulevard, are featuring Intelligentsia Coffee, a small batch roaster out of Chicago that engages in direct-trade coffee.
"It was the best cup of coffee I ever had, but the more I learned about their story, the more interested I became," Jalene says of the coffee the couple first tasted several years ago while on vacation in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida.
With direct-trade coffee, the roaster works with coffee farmers applying the farm-to-table model to the coffee industry, meaning you can follow the beans from where they are grown to the cup you're drinking. The coffeehouse is currently featuring an African blend -- Ikirezi Burundi -- and La Tortuga from Honduras. The initial reaction has been positive for the Bergers.
In addition to serving coffee, the Crossroads Coffeehouse will have fruit smoothies (small, $3.50, large, $4.50) and lemonade. The iced teas sounded interesting (8 oz. $1.65, 16 oz. $2.05) with a ginger plum oolong and king crimson. They also serve hot tea ($1.85, $2.25), including organic blends and infusions of rosehips, chamomile and peppermint.
Breakfast is of the grab-and-go variety: muffins ($1.50), fresh fruit ($1), yogurt parfait with fresh fruit ($3.50) and scones ($1.75). There are also homemade chocolate chip cookies -- which prompted one customer to buy the entire tray on the first day the Crossroad Coffeehouse was open.
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Tricycle Transit loves Crossroads Coffeehouse, our favorite coffeehouse in the Crossroads!
They make excellent Chi Tea and are two very kind owners that we look forward to playing our show there on Nov.5 for the first friday art event. If anyone gets a chance to come down to their coffee shop please do music will be playing from 5-10 and go ahead and grab yourself a cup of joe, Doug and Jaleen would be glad to fix you one! She's the Captain will be playing at 5-6 and also 9-10.
I would like to expand a bit on the above post from Kris. Much of the post appears to be in a negative slant, but upon closer viewing I discover it is just from someone that really didn't read the article and made a lot of assumptions that were very obviously incorrect.
Kris infersthat the the article leads us to believe a statement was made that the Crossroads Coffeehouse says they are the only one that has a Marzoccos and that it came directly from the manufacturer in Italy. After reading the article you will find that neither of these statements were made. It does say it was shipped from Italy but Kris has assumed that means it came directly from the factory via order.
Kris next infers that the owners are not intelligent enough to know that Burundi and Honduras are localities instead of coffee blends. The question of intelligence should rather site on Kris' shoulders for making such a statement when the article specifically says the currently featured coffees are "an African blend -- Ikirezi Burundi -- and La Tortuga from Honduras."
As for Kris' statement about the banner statement being incorrect I cannot verify. I quickly looked for the banner and could not locate the item mentioned. After seeing how accurately Kris has read the article, I tend to discount anything referred to that I cannot verify.
So far my visits to this shop have been excellent. My past experience working for a private label roaster trained me to smell a bad coffee as soon as I enter the doorway to a coffee shop. This place has their act together. Be sure you give it a try.
VERY EXCITED to have a coffeehouse back in this spot!! I work a few blocks away and my colleagues and I would always walk over to grab coffee and breakfast on spring and summer mornings. We were devastated when Coffee Girls moved as there isn't much else around. I can't wait to try Crossraods Coffeehouse. I will have to stop in and grab some fliers / business cards to spread around the office.
It should be interesting to see if someone here in Kansas City can pull a great shot of Black Cat or not. I also find it funny that the article mentions that the drinks "are all available from the La Mazorcco espresso machine, a dual boiler that was shipped to Kansas City from Florence, Italy.". All Marzoccos are made in Florence! About more than half the shops in the KC area use Marzoccos. None of them get directly shipped from Italy to the shop. The Burundi and the Honduras aren't blends, they are single origins. Also, they have some banner at the top and when you click it, it says that this place is the only shop in KC to feature Direct Trade coffee. This isn't true. PT's has been doing this for quite some time (both Doug Zell of Intelly and Jeff of PT's started doing it around the same time) with several of their wholesale accounts in the area selling these coffees. All this takin into account, I'm really interested in going to try this place out.
I'm thinking of moving back to KC from Chicago and this place would help me feel right at home! I love Intelligentsia. It's one of Chicago's best small coffee houses.
Can't wait to visit next time I'm back or maybe it will be my "spot" if I do move back!
Best of luck.
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