170-Year-Old Barn Gets Beautiful New Life at DoubleShot Coffee in Tulsa

The new DoubleShot roastery cafe at 1633 S Boulder Ave in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Photo by elly photography/courtesy of DoubleShot Coffee Co.

There’s been a second coming at DoubleShot Coffee Company in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The roastery and cafe that the company opened to the public earlier this month, called The Rookery, is within a 170-year-old wooden barn that originally stood in Berne, Indiana, before it was deconstructed, relocated, hand-hewn beam-by-beam and given new life by the coffee company.

Additional reclaimed materials inside the 6,000-square-foot facility include generations-old brick enclosing the onsite roastery sourced from a shuttered Muskogee Coca-Cola bottling plant, and upstairs loft flooring made from wood originally used in oil field plank roads in Osage County.

Photo by elly photography/courtesy of DoubleShot Coffee Co.

“The boards were 5.5 inches thick, so we had to saw and plane them and then kiln-dry the wood prior to installation,” DoubleShot Owner Brian Franklin told Daily Coffee News. “The brick is something we were looking for that would have a special, rustic look to it. They are pavers, so it’s structural brick, and they were made pre-statehood.”

The designers of the building, according to Franklin, had been buying old barn wood for years as material for accent pieces in luxury homes, but this is the first time the firm had reassembled a structure, resulting in an historic preservation that goes beyond the mere romance of textures and patinas.

“The Hite family, who originally owned the barn, is very interested in coming to see it reconstructed here,” said Franklin. “They are very proud.”

Photo by elly photography/courtesy of DoubleShot Coffee Co.

For Franklin, who self-identifies as “a detail-oriented person,” it’s the smaller things that especially delight — like the wooden pegs holding the barn structure together and the twist in the steel brackets bracing the handrail. He’s also pleased with the variety of seating styles available to patrons of the coffeeshop.

“Everyone finds their place for community or meetings or quiet space,” said Franklin. “Dim areas and bright areas; big windows in the front letting in lots of western light. It’s warm, but clean. Those big strong beams contrast against white walls. People are really loving it.”

Photo by elly photography/courtesy of DoubleShot Coffee Co.

Franklin’s custom contributions to the interior include the restroom signs, light fixtures and artwork hanging on the walls. He also continues to express his sense of craft through regular sessions on the company’s 15-kilo 1953 Vittoria roaster, restored by their fellow Oklahomans at US Roaster Corp in 2003. Soon, greens sourced with assistance from such companies as Balzac Brothers, La Minita, Anthem Coffee Imports, Ally Coffee and others will be darkened inside a similarly vintage, refurbished 30-kilo-capacity roaster from Spanish manufacturer Roure that Franklin said he is “planning to fire up any day now.”

Roasted coffees are crumbled by the burrs of either a Mahlkonig K30 grinder for espresso on e Nuova Simonelli T3 espresso machine or a Ditting KR1203 grinder for batch brew on a Fetco XTS system. A Marco Uber boiler supplies a manual pourover bar featuring Hario V60 brewers and Buono kettles.

The vintage Roure roaster being refurbished and soon to be put into production. Photo by elly photography/courtesy of DoubleShot Coffee Co.

Of the 6,000 square feet inside the building, roughly 1,500 is devoted to the roastery. A small but efficient kitchen turns out fresh pastries and foods, plus two outdoor patios each provide another five small tables for outdoor seating.

With an ambitious new facility now fully up and running, Franklin and company are hardly skipping a beat in its pursuit of new horizons. There’s a collaboration underway between DoubleShot and Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum of Art. Franklin also recently established Comandante USA, a new company for the import and distribution of German-made Comandante manual grinders.

“Always dreaming, creating, designing,” said Franklin. “I’m excited about sourcing new coffees, and re-engineering all of the tools we use every day to make coffee. We are focused on our customers and giving them an excellent coffee experience.”