Columbia Street Roastery blends with the best
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When I was a youngster growing up in the hot, dry, massive suburban metropolis that is San Diego, coffee didn’t mean a whole lot to me. Neither did local stuff, except maybe the Pacific Ocean and carne asada tacos. But then I left it all behind for college in Seattle, while my parents relocated to Portland. All of a sudden, I found myself wandering on foot through rainy, grey neighborhood streets and ducking into independent neighborhood coffee shops, where I would stare in bewilderment at the handwritten menu and then shyly order a nonfat white chocolate mocha from the smirking hipster barista. It wasn’t long, though, before I got into the real stuff: locally roasted, freshly brewed coffee, or freshly (hand) pulled shots of espresso, straight up. There are a few cafes in Seattle that do it so well you won’t notice your drink isn’t festooned with syrups and whipped cream. I brought this fiendish love of high quality coffee with me all the way to Champaign-Urbana last year, where I feared being a coffee insider of sorts would make me a cultural outsider. After a few shameful months of ordering beans online, however, I began asking around. Turns out Champaign-Urbana is full of surprises, one of those being Columbia Street Roastery.
| Tiesta Tea: A local success story
It was September 2010 when I first visited Tiesta Tea, a company that had just started about six months prior. Co-founders Patrick Tannous and Daniel Klein, two University of Illinois students, were operating out of their college apartment at the time, enlisting the help of any of their friends who were willing.
Klein has since graduated with a finance degree and Tannous left school, but is still considered a student. Despite the business's success, he said that he hopes to finish within two years.
Tiesta's office is now in Chicago, and they have a 2,000 square foot warehouse and packaging facility to boot. "It's a far cry from what you saw a year and a half ago. That’s all because when you love what you’re doing, you’re going to do it well and you’re going to continue to try for success," Tannous said.
A week ago, I ran into them in Dallas, Texas, where they were taking part in a regional food show for Kehe, a major national food distributor that serves small independent stores and big chains such as Meijer, Central Markets and Whole Foods.
“It was our first time being exposed to the national grocery market in a show setting. We came away with some very promising potential business opportunities,” Tannous said.
Those opportunities just seem to keep coming for the company. Klein says that Tiesta Tea is now in Canada, Mexico, the U.S., and the UAE. They’re working on Korea, which is a whole different venture (Tannous said that their business day was about to start as we were talking at around 5 p.m. CST).
“It’s natural for us to expand worldwide because tea is such a worldwide beverage. It’s the second most consumed beverage after water,” Klein said. “Our marketing strategy almost re-introduces tea to them,” he added.
In their journey, Tannous and Klein have brought a handful of people with them, including Bobby Moyniham, who continues to serve as creative director.
It was Moyniham who designed the Tiesta Tea logo and the tins, which tied for a Best New Product award for packaging at the World Tea Expo. From the Expo website: Vibrant and contemporary, these tea tins have a latch mechanism and a gasket-lined cover that underscores freshness. Side windows peek at the tea and suggest a reorder.
“I saw the need for the consumer to see our blend. That’s a huge selling point of our product," Moyniham said.
In August 2008, while we were all busy watching the Olympics and could have really cared less, the Blockbuster Video at 1305 S. Neil St. closed its doors. For the next three years the building stood vacant, listed “for sale or for lease,” but without any takers. You may have driven past it, just north of Kirby, its blue-and-yellow marquee still intact, moldering in decay. It was starting to seem as if the building would just remain in that …
For the third and final stop of the Champaign-Urbana wine bar plus retail tour, my compadre and I visited Wines at the Pines, a shop nestled among other stores in the The Pines at Stone Creek Commons development at Windsor and Philo Roads in Urbana. This wine bar also moonlights (or perhaps “sunlights” would be a better term) as a coffee shop during the day. I will freely admit that I thought this combination seemed odd and incompatible until …
One of the funny things I have encountered when I tell people that I am a vegetarian is the person who suddenly and apologetically lists to me all of the reasons they are not vegetarian, and the funniest reason of all is, "There's nothing to eat at restaurants." I am not an evangelical vegetarian and the point of this article is not to convert any omnivores. I believe food has a personal meaning and diet is an individual's choice. …
David Spears doesn’t just collect garbage at his restaurant — he collects garbage for it. The former University of Illinois art and design graduate has been creating art for as long as he can remember. Only recently, though, has he begun to restore it. Spears, who is a sculptor by background, said that his inspiration comes from bringing life to old, discarded items. The Champaign-Urbana area has a fair amount of entrepreneurial spirit and initiative that drive the personal …
When I was young, Christmas at our house meant friends and family dropping by for coffee in the days leading up to and after “the big day.” My mom always had a stash of zucchini and cranberry bread and sour cream coffee cakes in the freezer for these occasions. As a child I thought these visits were treats because of the baked goods. Of course I now know the real treat was for my parents to escape the hustle …
The second randomly selected stop on the Champaign-Urbana wine bar tour was Buvons, located in downtown Urbana. My drinking companion and I dropped in during a recent Saturday afternoon wine tasting. When the wine bar expansion opened in the summer of 2010, adding to the retail side of Corkscrew that had been open for 12 years, the owners named the wine bar portion Buvons, after the plural present-tense conjugation of the French verb boire, which means “to drink.” So …
Three standalone wine store + wine bar combos strategically outline the Champaign-Urbana area: Sun Singer Wine & Spirits in southwest Champaign Wines at the Pines in southeast Urbana Buvons (attached to Corkscrew) near downtown Urbana. I wondered what, besides geography, makes each bar unique, and whether our twin cities really drink enough wine to support three wine bars. So I set out to answer my questions in this three-part series. It turns out that each bar fills a slightly …
Vegan Ease: Trying to ease the mind of vegans and omnivores alike in Champaign-Urbana As a vegan, people always ask me if I’ve eaten at The Red Herring and, until now, I always had to regretfully say no. Their hours of operation never seemed to correspond with my hours of hunger/availability. Not anymore! With their newly added dinner hours of 5-8p.m., Monday through Friday, I can guarantee I’ll be there two or more times a week. Tucked in the …
Most Recent Food Comments
Love CSR. Apart from making my way through the regular roasts in 1/2 pound increments, I also like to pick up some of the little sample packets of the flavored stuff for when the lady and I feel like getting crazy. Sticky Bun is pretty nice.
HUUUUUUGE fan of their Black Velvet roast…It makes up about 75% of my coffee intake. LOL CSR is definitely one of those Champaign institutions that I brag about to people not from here. :-)
We like CSR too! We french press at home and I leave the lid off while it steeps—letting the ground beans bloom. Then, like in your tasting, I scoop off the top layer before pressing. We really need to invest in a burr grinder though, as I…
I had their tea at the Urbana Farmer’s Market when they first started out and it was great! Their tins recently caught my eye at Walnut Street Tea Company and my guests used it all up before I could even try it! Way to go Tiesta, stay…
Im fine with missing ingredients and of course they fixed things what restaurant fights with the customer over things like that anymore. ( the way social media could affect them) My problem is that I am visiting you place of business within the first week of opening.…
The second visit to Meatheads included what tasted like a stale bun. That’s the end of going to Meatheads for a while.
That seems like an odd experience to me. Basically everything you mentioned, apart from price, is contrary to what I’ve witnessed or heard about. You ate at the restaurant and the burger was cold? Seems more like the complaint of someone who took something home. And if…
Unfortunately i did not have the same experiences that some of you may have had. I went to meatheads the 2nd or 3rd night it was open and I was very disappointed. My burger was cold and soggy. I ordered one of their specialty burgers. A spicy…
Ah, I finished it weeks ago—it was figuratively on ice over the holidays… I think each has its own appeal to various consumers, but I hit Buvons/Corkscrew most frequently. The current staff is extremely friendly and has never steered me wrong for a wine pairing, even when…
Most Recent Comments
Pamela - Are the roasteries in Seattle as clean as CSR? It always disturbs me a little that it is so clean in there.
Now you will be able to munch on pizza and shrimp cocktails in downtown Urbana (whilst a DJ spins?) after your dissolution of marriage http://www.news-gazette.com/news/business/features/its-your-business/2012-02-05/its-your-business-new-pizza-place-downtown-urban Is this a franchise of a Reno pizza joint, or just a coincidence of name? http://www.blackrockpizza.com
Signs someone is “fishing” for a factual anchor: 1. Starts call to radio with: “I’ve been an Illini fan for (XX) years” or “I’m a diehard fan,” as if somehow that unverifiable claim will justify the 5 minutes of B.S. that follows. 2. Makes reference to KenPom…
That’s what she said.
Black dog and Siam terrace is where I always go after my divorces.
Love CSR. Apart from making my way through the regular roasts in 1/2 pound increments, I also like to pick up some of the little sample packets of the flavored stuff for when the lady and I feel like getting crazy. Sticky Bun is pretty nice.
If you happen to be getting a divorce, or fighting a DUI prosecution, downtown Urbana is a great place to eat.
HUUUUUUGE fan of their Black Velvet roast…It makes up about 75% of my coffee intake. LOL CSR is definitely one of those Champaign institutions that I brag about to people not from here. :-)
We like CSR too! We french press at home and I leave the lid off while it steeps—letting the ground beans bloom. Then, like in your tasting, I scoop off the top layer before pressing. We really need to invest in a burr grinder though, as I…
Confidential? In this state? Hahahahahahahhahahaha
just confirmed: there will be white russians served. the art abides.
big lebowski at the art. mark it, dude.
There’s a great video promo out for “Company” too: http://vimeo.com/36077847
Wow, His Majesty took the time to answer your polite plea. It’s been a while since I spoke fluent arrogance, but allow this attempt at a translation: “I deeply regret the embarrassment…” = I wish we hadn’t got caught and it wasn’t a big deal really. “...and…
I love the Guitars
I had their tea at the Urbana Farmer’s Market when they first started out and it was great! Their tins recently caught my eye at Walnut Street Tea Company and my guests used it all up before I could even try it! Way to go Tiesta, stay…
Im fine with missing ingredients and of course they fixed things what restaurant fights with the customer over things like that anymore. ( the way social media could affect them) My problem is that I am visiting you place of business within the first week of opening.…
Thanks for that, Louis CK.
Your call to stay pissed is precisely why global warming fanatics will fail. Emotion has no place in hard science. The problem with the issue of global warming is that is has been pumped full of emotion and politics, and the science is becoming a by-product. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204301404577171531838421366.html?KEYWORDS=global+warming
Clearly the Postal Officials in favor of this cannot make an economic argument, as this saves the post office $0. What is their rationale?
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Pamela - Are the roasteries in Seattle as clean as CSR? It always disturbs me a little that it is so clean in there.