The New Pablo’s Coffee Will Feature a Cafe, Lab, and Roasters

One of Denver’s lasting coffee shops is about to open its third cafe, with an on-site roaster and a training facility for staff and customers. Pablo’s Coffee currently has two shops — a 17-year-old store at 6th Avenue and Washington Street and a 5-year-old cafe at 13th and Pennsylvania. In order to keep up with growth, Pablo’s new headquarters will open by late March or early April, according to Jason Cain, the company’s wholesale director.

The 6,000-square-foot space at 7701 East Colfax Avenue holds a retail cafe, a commercial roastery, a training and tasting lab, and offices for employees, Cain said. Customers can look forward to a plant-filled shop with living walls and local crafts on display. Pablo’s employees and wholesale clients will train on espresso machines and pour-over stands in the lab, where the public can also attend home-brewing and other method classes. Storage space for two roasters will fit up to 80,000 pounds of green coffee beans in the building.

Owner Craig Conner started Pablo’s in 1995, and the business now employs 32 workers and distributes to more than 100 wholesale accounts. In the mid-’90s, the modern coffee revolution known as “third-wave” had yet to take off. Now, “fourth” or “new wave” coffee are phrases being tossed about. Pablo’s is one of a handful of local startup coffee companies moving into bigger spaces and building multi-purpose facilities. Elsewhere in Denver, Boxcar Coffee too is expanding with a new cafe, showroom, and training center.

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