About Us
Welcome to the Carondelet neighborhood of St. Louis. Our US-Army-veteran-led Speakeasy Café exists to thoughtfully seek out and present the world’s most memorable coffee and tea and demonstrate the viability of an equitable supply chain.
Coffee and tea have a significant place in our lives. They warm our morning commute and connect us with our co-workers. During an afternoon walk, coffee and tea give us a reason to escape. They’re also an everyday pleasure that invites us to try something new, learn something unexpected, and experience, if only for a moment, something extraordinary.
How We Started
Speakeasy Café was created in response to the absence of quality and shortage of integrity in our great city of St. Louis. People were so eager to pay high prices for supposedly rare, exotic coffees that are honestly so routine.
Specialty coffee roasters have often made the mistake of assuming that all coffee drinkers prefer the unusual, adventurous coffees that tend to attract the most attention within our industry. This assumption has caused roasters to miss the opportunity to connect with a broader group of coffee lovers. At Speakeasy Café, we believe that specialty coffee is truly for everyone. A big part of our role is to find and present coffees that appeal to a broad spectrum of palates.
Our Approach
Speakeasy Café has different goals in terms of the coffees that we select versus our competition. When choosing coffee variants for our café, local is our middle name. We look for roasters that are immaculately clean and bright with one-of-a-kind flavor qualities that shine when presented at a light roast degree. These coffee varieties are often quite rare and highly sought after.
At Speakeasy Café, we select coffees that offer accessible, everyday flavors that are ideally suited to a more developed roast profile. While these often require just as much work to produce, there’s also a much greater volume of these coffees offered around the world every year. This makes it possible for us to sell them at a lower price point while still paying an excellent price to vendors.