Thou Mayest’s Latest: Thee Outpost in Kansas City

Thee Outpost at 549 E 18th St in Kansas City’s Crossroads district. Photo courtesy of Thou Mayest.

Kansas City, Missouri-based coffee roaster Thou Mayest has had a bustling 2019 following the dramatically timed shuttering of its Kansas City, Missouri, flagship coffee house last Christmas Eve.

In February, the company opened Cafe Equinox, a retail coffee bar inside the lush, balmy Family Tree Nursery Kansas City greenhouse located in the KC suburb Shawnee, Kansas.

Cafe Equinox attached to the Family Tree Nursery in Shawnee, Kansas. Photo by Dustin Duewel, courtesy of Thou Mayest.

Two months later, news broke that Thou Mayest had acquired both locations of the KCMO multiroaster coffee company Quay Coffee. And just a few weeks ago, Thou Mayest also opened an entirely new coffee shop concept called Thee Outpost, which serves as an on-site coffee resource and communal area inside Kansas City’s new Collective Ex co-working space.

The Quay Coffee River Market location. Photo by Chris Mullins, courtesy of Thou Mayest.

Collective Ex hosts professionals in a variety of trades and services, including woodworkers, web designers, marketing specialists and skateboard makers, to name a few. A retail component on site sells items made by Thou Mayest as well as others that do business in Collective Ex, which is located just one block away from where the shuttered original Thou Mayest flagship once bustled.

“We are a member of Collective Ex; we provide the social component,” Thou Mayest Founder Bo Nelson told Daily Coffee News, adding that other members and resources at Collective Ex have helped the coffee company design and produce packaging, merchandise and now also its physical environment. “We CNC’d all our walls and chairs, and have 3D printers and laser printers available.”

Thou Mayest’s Thee Outpost at Collective Ex in Kansas City. Photo courtesy of Thou Mayest.

On the bar at Thee Outpost, a Rancillio Specialty RS-1 plays well with a Mahlkönig K30 Twin grinder, while an 8-tap draught system dispenses a matcha limeade, sparkling teas and lemonade, locally-made chai and Thou Mayest’s Smooth Operator Brazil-pulped-natural-based cold brew. House-made kombucha will also soon flow. Additional space on site at Thee Outpost is dedicated to a beverage research and development lab.

“I need a space where I can get creative, ask weird questions, and come up with delicious, serendipitous collisions,” said Nelson. “Full Nelson Lemonade was a complete accident, as was the matcha limeade, but they are insanely delicious. One of the many rules we try to live by is ‘make beautiful mistakes.'”

The Thee Outpost retail wall. Photo courtesy of Thou Mayest.

However, mistakes are generally avoided on the Diedrich IR-12 roaster located in the company’s offsite production facility a few miles away, where the brand’s year-round offerings are kept consistent and exclusive coffees are also roasted for each cafe. Roasting and fulfillment also occur there for the company’s wholesale program and its online retail component.

In the coming months, Nelson said a determination will be reached as to whether its two Quay Coffee locations will be re-branded into Thou Mayest, something else or left as is. Quay offers Thou Mayest coffees as the ongoing items amid otherwise rotating multiroaster formats.

Said Nelson, “We are still listening to what the community wants.”

A flower-filled tap setup at Thee Outpost. Photo courtesy of Thou Mayest.

Thee Outpost is now open at 549 E. 18th St. in Kansas City, Missouri.