Crossroads Coffeehouse now open
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.
“We just opened on Monday and we had a huge response. My husband and I are really hoping this can be a gathering place,” says Berger.
Free wi-fi and reasonably priced coffee — a 12 oz. cup is $1.85 — is a good way to start. It also helps that the location is well-known for coffee — the Crossroads Coffeehouse is located at 310 Southwest Boulevard in the former spot occupied by Coffee Girls, which moved to Waldo last year.
“We’re hoping to build the same kind of relationship with our neighbors that Coffee Girls had here in the Crossroads,” says Berger.
Coffee is available hot or iced. You can get drip coffee, a chai tea latte, latte or cappucino in 8, 12, and 16 oz. cups. The Purple Haze is a mix of chocolate, caramel, and hazelnut — which is likely the most decadent thing at the Crossroads Coffeehouse.
An espresso shot ($2), espresso macchiato ($2.75), and espresso americano ($2.75), are all available from the La Mazorcco espresso machine, a dual boiler that was shipped to Kansas City from Florence, Italy.
“That’s my 401K, I like to tell customers,” says Berger, who is starting a second career after 16 years in the banking industry.
