Sacramento’s The Trade Combines Coffee and Co-Working in Hybrid Model

The Trade Coffee & Coworking Sacramento

At some point, we’re going to need a name for the modern coffee shop/office hybrid: the retail spaces designed for business incubation and meetings that place equal emphasis on coffee service.

The latest in this growing category is The Trade Coffee & Coworking, which has a wholesale relationship with Blue Bottle Coffee inside a 4,000-sqare-foot cafe and meeting facility in Midtown Sacramento, Calif. (In related news, Blue Bottle last week was announced as the coffee provider for Hanhaus, a 15,000-square-foot coffee/tech hub hybrid.)

Created by Amanda Sanders and Matt Kennedy, The Trade is billed as “an express coffee shop and a co-working experience.”

As the owners describe it, “The Trade Coffee & Coworking is indeed a cafe — but instead of simply providing internet access, The Trade offers patrons access to a complete array of business resources.” Compare this a similar, 17-location concept in five countries called Urban Station, which describes itself as “not a coffee shop” and “not an office.” As described by the company, “It is something much better than both things together.”

It is neither. It is both. Again, we need a name for these things.

The Trade includes numerous types of closed-door and open meeting spaces, conference rooms and presentation areas, all appropriately wired, lit, wi-fi’d and outfitted as one might expect in a progressive office. Through a partnership with LiquidSpace and a Square-based payment system, visitors can purchase any number of space-access packages, from $8-per-hour drop-ins to monthly private offices with conference room access.

Powering it all, metaphorically, is the coffee bar, where Blue Bottle-trained baristas are serving espresso drinks, a New Orleans-style iced coffee and filter drip coffees. Freeport Bakery is providing baked goods.

The bar at The Trade Coffee & Coworking in Sacramento

We love the fact that the workspace retail segment is underscoring the influence of the coffee retail segment, and look forward to more evolutions in the not-quite-cafe-not-quite-office-but-really-both segment.