EVERETT — Where Tully’s once occupied a corner of Colby and Everett avenues in downtown Everett, coffee aficionados will now find Silver Cup Coffee Co.
The switch has been in the works for several months, said Silver Cup Coffee marketing director Laura Walker — ever since word got out that Tully’s was leaving the first floor of the KeyBank building. Silver Cup opened there Nov. 9.
Silver Cup has been roasting beans since 1995 for its five Espresso Connection drive-up stands in Marysville, Monroe, Oak Harbor and Mount Vernon and for wholesale customers at its Lynnwood plant on Highway 99. Silver Cup and Espresso Connection are owned by Christian Kar.
The Everett cafe is Silver Cup Coffee’s first foray into the retail arena, Walker said.
“Our expectation is that this cafe will help our wholesale customers say, ‘This is what I want to do in my cafe,’ ” she said.
Walker said the cafe will be “the center for the brand,” showcasing Silver Cup Coffee’s full range of single-origin coffee roasts. Pastries and sandwiches are also available.
As customers last week waited for drink orders, many tried to identify details in a 1920s black-and-white photograph of Colby Avenue, looking north from Hewitt Avenue. The giant photo of downtown Everett covers the cafe’s entire north wall.
Walker said the opening went well, although she had to pitch in to help because two of the former Tully’s baristas Silver Cup had hired decided to go to the Tully’s inside the Boeing factory instead, and a third one moved. Walker said Silver Cup expects to have six employees and will begin to extend the cafe’s operating hours after about two weeks. Meantime, the cafe is open until 6 p.m. weekdays.
Retail coffee bean sales at the cafe eventually will benefit Silver Cup Coffee’s One Cup Project (www.onecup.org) — its partnership with the Christian relief organization World Vision that leverages grants to fight poverty in the southeastern African country of Zambia.
Kar started the One Cup Project after taking a mission trip to Africa in 2007 to help the downtrodden in Kenya, he told the Snohomish County Business Journal in an August interview. He had a comfortable life and became inspired to use his business’ ample resources and Americans’ love of coffee to help the needy.
With the One Cup Project, Kar’s Silver Cup Coffee donates to World Vision $2 for every $11 bag sold. In turn, World Vision uses additional grants to turn Kar’s $2 into $11 that goes directly to African poverty relief work.
Walker said the cafe will have One Cup Project coffee bean gift boxes available around Thanksgiving.
So far, One Cup Project coffee sales have raised $10,249 and it has 704 fans on Facebook.
Kurt Batdorf: 425-339-3102; kbatdorf@scbj.com.
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