Method Coffee Roasters Launching First Cafe: The Method Collective

After five years in the roasting business, Method Coffee Roasters is finally opening its first official location at 2011 West 32nd Avenue, in the newly constructed apartments where Dickinson Plaza once stood (and across from Simply Pure, which so far has weathered the construction).

When Method originally started, friends Kade Gianinetti and Alex Rawal set up shop in Rawal's garage. They've since expanded into a warehouse, where they roast coffee for more than forty businesses in the Rocky Mountain region. In 2017 they took over the cafe in the Leeds Business School at CU Boulder, and liked it so much they decided the next step was to open their very own space in Denver.

"They wanted to open a coffee shop to do the coffee justice," says general manager James Lopez, whose previous experience includes working in and opening several coffee shops in Fort Collins. He recently returned home to Colorado after living in New York City and is now helping orchestrate the finishing touches before the shop opens on Tuesday, June 12.

The space, designed and constructed by Denver-based company Raw Creative, focuses on Gianinetti and Sawal's original concept of serving the community. They chose large communal tables to help facilitate conversation and connection, according to Lopez.

"We want it to be as accessible as possible, so [we're] trying to make it educational and fun but not pretentious, where we're trying to show you how much knowledge we have about coffee," says Lopez. To that end, there will be a demo station at the bar for regular Joes to learn about coffee — from the origin to the roasting process to the flavors once it hits the cup.

The cafe's storefront will also serve as a bodega. Sawal, inspired by a trip to Europe, decided to replicate the concept when he saw need in his community. Lopez explains that "they noticed that Highlands was having a tendency to…be a food desert. There are a bunch of restaurants and places to go, but to get groceries you have to drive." Method will try to bridge the gap by offering basic grocery items like eggs, milk and Tylenol, as well as grab-n-go items featuring food from other restaurants Gianinetti is part of, like the Way Back, Wendell's and Occidental, among others.

To start, Method Collective will be open from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Once the bodega is up and running, evening hours will be extended to 7 p.m. Eventually the owners hope to procure a liquor license and build an established patio, but for now you'll have to settle for patio furniture on the sidewalk and spiking your coffee with specialty-made syrups or an on-tap cold brew that, according to Lopez, tastes like beer.