Cartel Coffee Lab Opening Downtown

When it comes to coffeehouses, Downtown Phoenix has a lot to offer.

Fair Trade Cafe offers “coffee with a conscience.” Lola Coffee boasts an aesthetically pleasing hang out environment. Independent coffee shop Conspire may be the most alternative of them all, offering vegan burritos and open mic nights. Now Phoenix has a new brand of bean to add to the pot: direct-trade coffee that’s simply, well, coffee.

Cartel Coffee Lab, a favorite of students on the Tempe campus, will be hosting a grand opening celebration on Tuesday for its new location off First and Washington streets. There will be two main events throughout the day, one catering to the commuter crowd and the other to students.

The midday event, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., will offer five-minute chair massages, a raffle and free food from the Cartel menu. The coffee shop will be debuting its scones, doughnuts and salads during lunchtime. The evening event, from 5 to 9 p.m., will feature small burritos and pastries.

Ultimately, both events are constructed to not only bring consumers into Cartel, but to introduce consumers to a relatively new, thriving aspect of Downtown’s Phoenix: local businesses.

“If we see the downtown community as very commuter then we’re not going to create an awesome business and an awesome community,” says Brian Clemens, the community events organizer for Cartel. “We see ourselves as a intermediary, introducing the downtown community to each other.”

The opening comes a week after rival coffee shop Fair Trade Cafe announced it will be cutting back hours at its Civic Space location across from campus. This begs the question: Is it worthwhile to open another coffee shop so close to campus? Will students really utilize the space?

Jason Silberschlag, the owner of Cartel, certainly thinks so.

“We totally realize that they’re going to ride or walk by three coffee shops on their way here,” Silberschlag says of downtown’s coffee population. “[But] we’re closer to the density of students. We’re going to be open pretty late. And we have frickin’ awesome coffee.”

Cartel is a direct trade operation specializing in Latin American coffee. The company uses a number of coffee farms from Guatemala, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia and El Salvador. Cartel employees have personally visited more than 60 percent of the places that produce their beans. They meet the owners, stay on the farms and pick coffee cherries with the employees.

“By building that relationship, we want a transparency,” Clemens says. “We want to know that we’re getting the best coffee for our money. The way we see our shops at Cartel is exactly what our name is: Cartel Coffee Lab. We focus on the coffee aspect. We want to give the best cup of coffee we have. We want to educate customers on what they’re drinking.”

And listen to what their customers are thinking. Clemens says part of the Cartel experience is building a relationship with the customer.

“We truly interact and care about our customers,” Clemens says. “As we do that, we get to know their tastes and their palate.”

Clemens says he wants students who aren’t used to drinking coffee to feel welcome at Cartel. The baristas specialize in coffee knowledge and can help patrons who normally drink orange mocha frappuccinos to try something new.

He encourages students and other consumers to voice their opinions about the downtown location. If students want later hours, live music or more incentives to purchase their coffee from Cartel, Clemens wants to hear about it.

Since its soft opening Dec. 8, Cartel has been open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays. Silberschlag says hours will extend to 10 p.m. and he hopes to be open on weekends as well. The new location will also feature coffeehouse staples such as weekly poetry jams, and live music is likely.

“We’re offering not just better coffee, but a better place to hang out,” says full-time barista and Downtown Manager Michael Terlisner. “It’s more a destination than a product – but our product definitely enhances it.”

For some students, the prospect of “frickin’ awesome coffee” may not be enough.

Lindsey Mock, a nursing sophomore, says that while students may not like the coffee served at the Starbucks location in the Taylor Place dorms, they go there for the convenience factor. The promise of good coffee may not be enough to lure them to an independent shop a few block away.

“I don’t feel a lot of students are going to go to [Cartel] just because Starbucks is right down here,” Mock says. “I don’t know if a lot of students will go out of their way to find a new coffee place.”

Contact the writer at janessa.hilliard@asu.edu

If you go…

1 N. 1st Street

Phoenix, AZ 85004

http://www.cartelcoffeelab.com/

Hours:

Monday-Friday: 7 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Saturday: Closed

Sunday: Closed

Tagged as: cartel coffee lab, downtown phoenix