Gimme's new roaster

New roastery eases growing pains
By Katherine Graham
Special to The Journal

Gimme Coffee has found a way to give more coffee and cope with growing pains at their State Street location in Ithaca, with the purchase of an industrial property in Ulysses to be used as the company's new roastery.

The local espresso bar chain has two different parts to their business. The first is through its four locations in Ithaca, one in Trumansburg and one in Brooklyn (editors note: There are 5 locations total. Three in Ithaca, one in T-burg, and us in Brooklyn). The second is with their brand of wholesale coffee, which they roast right on State Street and sell to restaurants and other businesses on the East Coast, their farthest client being in Bermuda.

Gimme receives about two to four shipments of coffee in bulk every week in order to keep up with the demand from their cafe customers and wholesale clients. Because the espresso bar's State Street location is meant as a commercial property, there is no loading dock, so the employees have to unload the 150 lb burlap sacks of coffee by hand. Storage for the raw beans and the roaster take up a lot space in the cafe.

“We just don't have the space to do what's required,” Kevin Cuddeback, owner of Gimme Coffee, said about the constraints at the State Street location.

What is required would be space enough to store the raw and roasted coffee beans, room for the roaster, a loading dock and a space for order fulfillment.

About 18 months ago, the folks at Gimme began their quest for more room to expand their roasting capabilities.

Last month, they settled a real estate deal acquiring a facility in Ulysses on Krum Corner Road west of Route 96 to serve as their new roastery. Cuddeback said that the machine to be used at the new site will have twice the coffee bean capacity as the machine currently being used.

Moving the roasting operations offsite will not only help Gimme expand their wholesale business, but also free up more room at the State Street location for additional seating.

The freed space will be used for educational and training purposes. Gimme likes to help out others who are starting their own coffee bars. Besides selling the merchants coffee, Gimme will also sell machinery used to brew the coffee, then train them on their own equipment so that “they can do the best they can do with the coffee,” Cuddeback said.

Gimme Coffee joins a countless number of coffee merchants with their own brands in the world market. According to a new study by the National Coffee Association, overall coffee consumption reached 82 percent among American adults and those who drink coffee once a week rose to 68 percent.

“The appetite for specialty coffee seems to be increasing,” Cuddeback said. “The market is vast.”

Originally published August 16, 2006

The Ithaca Journal - www.theithacajournal.com - Ithaca, NY