Wake Coffee Roasters is Up And At ‘Em With New Digs in Ambler, PA

The new Wake Coffee Roasters roastery and cafe in Ambler, Pennsylvania. All images courtesy of Wake Coffee Roasters.

As the people of Ambler, Pennsylvania rise and shine at the dawn of the new decade, they can do so from inside the newest coffee shop in town, the freshly opened Wake Coffee Roasters.

The coffee company moved its recently acquired Probat P12 into the back of the building at 133 S Main St in Ambler over the summer, erecting a wall with generous windows between the production space and the new cafe space. The industrial yet homey shop features rustic wooden tables on polished concrete floors, and walls of white-painted brick that once enclosed an auto repair garage.

“We wanted to highlight the building’s curved ceilings and the time period it was built, the 1930s,” Wake Coffee Roasters Co-Founder and Head of Operations Alec Satterly told Daily Coffee News. “Not only can customers see the whole roasting area, but they also can see the outdoor space. It allows lots of natural light to beam in, creating a ‘wake up’ feel.”

Wake first woke, as it were, in late 2017 as an online subscription and e-commerce company, shipping coffees within 24 hours of being roasted and packaged by Parry Coffee Roasters. In October of 2018, Parry owner Jean Parry sold the company to Wake.

“We would have had to change our business model considerably to grow and to thrive, and we weren’t ready to make that financial investment,” Jean Parry told Daily Coffee News. “Wake really was. I felt like it was a good clean break. They had a lot of ideas of their own about where they were taking the business, so it was a good time to just let them go.”

It was around the same time that Parry also had the opportunity to join Probat USA as East Coast region account manager. And since the new Wake roastery and bar is less than three blocks from her house, Parry can still catch the aroma of coffee roasting on her former machine and stop in for fresh cups on the regular.

“The shop is beautiful, and the renovation with the roaster on site — they did a really great job,” said Parry, who has had no part in the business since the acquisition. “It’s really nice. I’m impressed. Our town definitely needs them.”

Th 3,000-square-foot building is split down the middle between the roastery and the bar, upon which a classic La Marzocco Linea machine anchors the espresso program. Those drinks are first ground by a Mahlkönig K30 Twin espresso grinder, while Bunn batch brew is ground by a Mahlkönig EK43 that also breaks the beans for Chemex, V60 and other manual methods.

On the outside of the building, a burgeoning beer garden occupies almost 5,000 more square feet of space for patrons to kick back on nice days. Currently Wake works with Track 3 Microbrewery in a partnership to sell their beers — several of which incorporate Wake-roasted cold brew — along with Pennsylvania-based wines and liquors.

“Besides finishing the beer garden when it warms up, we are working on expanding our wholesale portfolio,” said Satterly. “We hope to continue this path of expanding our reach. Lastly, we are working on getting everything in order to get our B Corp certification in which we hope to achieve this spring.”

Wake Coffee Roasters is now open at 133 S Main St. in Ambler, Pennsylvania.