• Though effectivity is rightly the largest precedence when designing a roasting house, an increasing number of espresso professionals are making certain their roasteries may be customer-facing.
• This may be necessary for a number of causes: roasters might usually deliver prospects in for excursions, host instructional occasions, or convert their roasters into environments that double as cafés.
• As shoppers proceed to change into extra educated, designing an area the place they will observe the roasting course of and revel in espresso provides vital worth to a enterprise.
• Creating distinctive, visually-appealing areas has change into more and more a requirement for a lot of roasters, however workflow and well being and security stay paramount.

Designing a roastery that additionally serves as a showroom or café is about greater than merely putting a espresso roaster within the nook of a retail house. 

It’s about creating an surroundings the place manufacturing and hospitality coexist, permitting prospects to see behind the scenes and perceive how their espresso turns into the product they know and love.

When executed nicely, these areas blur the road between roastery and café, inviting visitors to expertise the method up shut whereas nonetheless delivering the consolation and polish of a specialty espresso store. 

I spoke to Greesha Kagan, the proprietor of Sputnik Espresso Firm, to find out how he labored with IMF Roasters to design his roastery.

You might also like our article on transitioning from small-batch to large-scale roasting.

Why showroom roasteries are rising in popularity

For years, many roasteries operated in hidden warehouses or industrial parks – areas targeted nearly solely on manufacturing effectivity. Nonetheless, as margins change into tighter and buyer expectations rise, extra espresso companies are looking for methods to distinguish themselves. 

Enter the showroom-style roastery. It’s a mannequin that borrows from different industries – viewing galleries in chocolatiers or giant home windows in patisseries and Viennoiseries, for instance – tapping into the demand for transparency.

Roasting is an enchanting facet of the espresso provide chain for a lot of shoppers; the technical facet is unfamiliar sufficient to attract intrigue, however shut sufficient to brewing to attach visitors with espresso as they comprehend it. When prospects get to see, hear, and odor espresso roasting, it offers them a window into why specialty espresso is well worth the larger value. 

Starbucks Reserve roasteries are a working example. Along with serving premium coffees and signature drinks, utilising totally different brewing strategies, and providing extra attentive service, prospects can expertise the roasting course of up shut. 

“Prospects need to see the magic,” says Greesha, the co-founder and proprietor of Sputnik Espresso Firm in Chicago, US. The corporate opened a 2,000-square-foot roastery and café in October 2024, full with a 60kg-capacity IMF roaster and 6 white silos seen via a 25-foot glass wall.

“Just like the TV present How It’s Made, folks need to see the method behind the espresso they love,” he provides. “Roasting tools intrigues curiosity and results in questions and optimistic interplay with employees.”

In an period the place espresso costs are hovering, providing visitors extra perception into why it’s well worth the value is more and more obligatory. 

“Firms that may exhibit a clear manufacturing facility stand other than the competitors,” Greesha explains.

For a lot of companies, the showroom mannequin isn’t nearly aesthetics; it can be a wise monetary determination. As a substitute of renting or sustaining two separate areas (a café and a roasting facility), a hybrid design consolidates each operations underneath one roof. This implies decrease hire, fewer utilities, and a streamlined workflow between roasting and serving espresso.

Moreover, inexperienced espresso storage, packaging, and wholesale operations can typically be built-in right into a single constructing. Whereas this requires cautious planning to make sure the house helps environment friendly workflow, it in the end minimises overhead and helps a roaster profit from their footprint. 

In consequence, this mannequin generates a number of income streams from a single location, together with retail drinks and wholesale manufacturing. For smaller or mid-sized espresso roasters, the house effectivity may be the distinction between making ends meet and maximising funds for future development. 

Why roastery design must match operate

The attraction of an open roastery is apparent, however constructing one is much from easy. In contrast to a warehouse roastery, showroom areas have to be designed with each the client and the roaster in thoughts. Each determination – from structure to lighting – should strike a steadiness between the effectivity of manufacturing and the client expertise.

One of many major issues is sustaining the steadiness between aesthetics and performance. Not solely does the power want to have the ability to roast espresso, nevertheless it additionally should function a viewing gallery and café.

This may be troublesome to realize; nonetheless, espresso retailers have been doing this for years, and it’s attainable to use the identical intentionality in roasteries. For years, cafés used cabinets, storage items, and different accessible house behind the bar to suit the whole lot in. Fashionable specialty espresso retailers, in the meantime, typically suppose extra deeply about storage and construct cupboards, cabinets, and useful compartments into the design itself. 

Not solely are the aesthetics of the house on show, however the roastery workers and programs additionally change into seen to visitors. This makes it all of the extra essential to implement correct requirements for hygiene, detailed processes, and well-functioning programs.

From the enterprise perspective, placing this degree of intentionality into the design of a roastery that doubles as a café has clear advantages:

• Transparency builds belief: In case you can present somebody the way you put together their espresso in a method that showcases pleasure, they’re extra more likely to hold returning.
• Prospects have interaction extra deeply along with your model: The extra somebody can see into your course of, the extra they may really feel linked to your model and its values.
• Storytelling alternatives increase: On each nook of a roastery is one other alternative to ask somebody into the world of specialty espresso. When used deliberately, this could change into a robust instrument for retaining prospects. 
• Staff work in a thoughtfully designed surroundings: Simply as baristas profit from working in visually interesting specialty espresso retailers, roastery employees can even expertise the identical degree of intentionality, which is commonly mirrored of their work ethic.

On the identical time, challenges include the territory. Roasteries are industrial areas – loud, scorching, and messy – the place chaff flies, beans spill, and bins pile up. Whereas some tools is aesthetically pleasing, such because the roaster itself and burlap sacks, different instruments are sometimes decidedly not, like plastic totes, warmth sealers, and pallet jacks. The onerous half is creating an area that appears polished with out sacrificing effectivity.

IMF, a producer identified for customising roasting tools and services, may also help companies strike this steadiness. The corporate will exhibit at sales space D24 E23 in corridor 18 at HostMilano from 17 to 21 October 2025, showcasing its vary of espresso roasters, full plant providers, and modern roasting and storage options.

“The minute we despatched out our flooring plan, they set to work,” Greesha says. “Their information of necessities, clearances, and dealing distances enabled our architects to create the best house.

“After a number of cellphone calls, we had a CAD design that we might fine-tune collectively. They accommodated each change.”

The results of this kind of intentionality is an area that features as each a café and a manufacturing facility – a spot the place prospects can expertise the roasting course of with out feeling overwhelmed.

So what do roasters have to know?

When contemplating making a showroom-style roastery, a number of necessary distinctions must be factored in through the starting stage in comparison with a standard roastery.

Past aesthetics, the secret is intentionality. Every bit of apparatus, workflow aspect, and design selection has to serve each operate and presentation.

Some often-overlooked components embrace:

• Cohesive tools: Outdated or mismatched tools must be restored or upgraded.
• Cleanliness: Every part is on show, so there’s no again room to cover tools in unhealthy situation or disrepair.
• Schooling: Prospects received’t mechanically perceive what they’re seeing. Labels, signage, and even employees storytelling are essential.
• Engagement: Can the roasting course of be made extra interactive, moderately than static?

Working with consultants like IMF helps keep away from expensive errors. 

“Development adjustments are costly and typically unimaginable to repair,” Greesha explains. “You want a accomplice with expertise to information you earlier than breaking floor; IMF has put in numerous roasters and vegetation worldwide.”

In case you’re contemplating constructing one in every of these areas, some key beginning factors embrace:

• Converse with architects, engineers, builders, and roasting consultants from the outset.
• Choose tools that balances each operate and aesthetics.
• Design clear sightlines into the roasting house.
• Construct in storage options to minimise litter.
• Prioritise airflow, noise management, and security clearances.
• Think about storytelling via signage, reside demos, or guided tastings.

Showroom-style roasteries aren’t nearly trying good. They’re additionally about inviting prospects into the espresso provide chain, creating a way of authenticity.

When executed nicely, they will rework a roasting plant from a hidden warehouse into a spot the place shoppers can join extra deeply with espresso.

“Something that brings the client nearer to every batch will deliver them again,” Greesha concludes.

Loved this? Then learn our article on design an entire espresso roasting facility.

Photograph credit: Sputnik Espresso Firm

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