Blue Bottle to Open Biggest Shop Yet in Historic Oakland Showroom

The 1905 WC Morse Building in Oakland

Blue Bottle Coffee Co. and its founder James Freeman have signed a deal to take over an historic Oakland building that is expected to be by far the company’s largest retail shop to date.

As first reported by Inside Scoop, Blue Bottle will be moving into the approximately 2,000-square-foot 1905 W.C. Morse building, a former auto showroom with 20-foot-high ceilings, on the corner of Broadway and 42nd Street. The store will be Blue Bottle’s 11th brick-and-mortar retail location, including five in San Francisco. The other Oakland location, at 300 Webster Street, opened as a roastery, coffee bar, kitchen and cupping room in a 1923 brick warehouse building in 2009.

Freeman told Inside Scoop that the new Oakland location is likely to take advantage of the building’s historic purpose, by creating a kind of show room for roasters, and perhaps even serving as a maintenance facility for roasters.

For more: Inside Scoop