It’s been more than two years since Joe Deinhart of
Solstice Roasters announced his plans to a open a new roastery and café in the former Peterson Nut Co. space (1101 Carnegie Ave.) in the Gateway District. At long last, that café will open to the public this week.
For 27 years, Deinhart has been sourcing, roasting and selling his proprietary coffee products at wholesale to higher-end restaurants, coffee shops and institutions. His client roster includes approximately 250 to 300 prominent names, such as Red the Steakhouse, Cleveland Browns training facility and the Cleveland Museum of Art.
“I can say this with integrity: We are probably the largest coffee company in Cleveland that no one has ever heard of,” Deinhart states.
After so many years of supporting other retail coffee programs, Deinhart says that he felt the urge step out of the shadows and launch a café of his own.
“Recently, I got a hair in my bonnet about starting retail as in a café because I’ve set up tons of different coffee shops through Ohio and beyond,” he explains. “I’ve always been behind the scenes, but it slowly occurred to me that it would be really good to take our products and offer them directly to customers so people know who we are.”
The café has seating for about 20 in a setting that offers a view of the roasting process. In addition to sales and sipping, the space will be used for tastings, barista training and home-enthusiast roasting classes.
In addition to the coffee products, Solstice will carry Storehouse Tea products, ice teas, pastries and even some nuts.
“We’ll continue to sell Peterson Nuts at the café because it just seems like the right thing to do,” says Deinhart.
In the spring, Deinhart hopes to unveil sidewalk seating that might wrap around the building and improve the look of the area that sits adjacent to Progressive Field.
Solstice will open with limited hours at first. They are as follows:
Wednesday, Jan. 18: 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Thursday, Jan. 19: 8:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
Friday, Jan. 20: 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
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