After more than three decades in business and a change of ownership in 2019, Pennsylvania’s Reading Coffee Co. just reintroduced itself with a flagship cafe alongside its production roastery, headquarters and wine shop in Birdsboro.
Wine and coffee both flowed earlier this month at a ribbon-cutting celebration for the 2,000-square-foot cafe, which sits inside the company’s 10,000-square-foot industrial building.
“It’s a giant warehouse — it is not pretty — so in order to go with the vibe of making something that looked like it belonged, the interior is a lot of raw materials,” Reading Coffee Co-Owner Frank Orman told Daily Coffee News. “I didn’t want to go crazy and take a warehouse and make it something that it wasn’t.”
Natural wood surfaces warm the space in between polished concrete floors and black metal ceilings. Windows offer glimpses into the roastery from the white quartz bar, where a range of high-tech brewing equipment stands ready.
The shop includes a Poursteady automated pourover machine, a Ground Control Cyclops batch brewer, a Brood nitro dispenser and a Rancilio Specialty espresso machine.
“We have the latest and greatest little tricks that help cafes scale, and we demonstrate and use them here very nicely,” said Orman. “The Poursteady is a killer for a roastery because when people come in and ask about coffee, they don’t necessarily get to taste it all the time, so now we can make them a quick pourover to taste the coffee before they buy it and not hold the line up, and that’s been invaluable.”
A mural at one end of the shop depicts the original Reading cafe storefront, while a mural at the other end offers a balcony-like perspective of a coffee-growing landscape that also sneakily incorporates the cats and dogs belonging to longtime employees.
“You’re not quite sure whether you’re in Italy or a coffee-producing country,” said Orman. “I wanted it a little ambiguous.”
Founded in 1989 by Dutch immigrant Albert Van Mannon with a roastery cafe that is still open in downtown Reading, Reading Coffee Company relocated production to a dedicated warehouse in Birdsboro 18 years ago. Frank Orman bought the company in 2019.
Production is now scaled up with a 1954 Probat G60 roaster. Kristen Young, who has been with Reading Coffee for 23 years, transitioned into the role of head roaster in 2019. Frank Orman, who is also a certified Q Grader, leads the green coffee buying program.
“What I do like to do day to day is see what we’re going to do and home in on profiles with Kristen, in conjunction with our whole team,” said Orman. “I kind of float between having to do everything — you know how business owners have to be — but green buying is definitely me, and we have some really excellent relationships.”
Orman sources coffees from a mix of importers and producers, with a focus on buying from women. Numerous greens come through Cafe Imports; Colombian coffees come directly from young Colombian producer Carolina Posada’s company Mina Rica; and Orman works with Janice Cutler at Armenia Coffee, among others.
Orman has established Reading Coffee Co.’s designation as an LGBTQ-owned business and is in the process of joining the local LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce. While that’s not a primary focus of the brand, the company happily sponsors local Reading Pride events and raises funds for Reading Pride with a special blend.
“In this rural area, we’re far enough outside of Philadelphia where I wasn’t sure if we should announce the fact that I’m happy to be a gay man that is the primary owner and president of the company,” said Orman, who co-owns the company with his cousin Kevin Orman. “It’s been a surprise in that we’ve gotten a lot of support from that community. We’ve become a business leader in the community with regards to that.”
Orman collaborates with his domestic partner Nick Carlino, owner of Italian specialty foods importer and retail company Carlino’s Market, on sourcing wines for the wine shop, which came after the 2019 acquisition. Extending wine’s culture of appreciation into the coffee scene via public education and events is the next step for the company.
“As we get the cafe off the ground, we’re going to do coffee classes and wine classes here, in addition to other events,” said Orman. “My big hope eventually is to have this certified as an SCA facility, but that’s going to be a little bit down the road. We’ve got to get things moving here first.”
Reading Coffee Company is located at 316 West Main Street in Birdsboro. Tell DCN’s editors about your new coffee shop or roastery here.
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Howard Bryman Howard Bryman is the associate editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. He is based in Portland, Oregon.
