The newly branded Watershed Coffee Roasters cafe in central Bend, Oregon. Courtesy photo.
With an in-house roasting operation just as fresh as its new brand, Bend, Oregon-based Watershed Coffee Roasters is finding its flow.
Previously known as the Bend location of Looney Bean Coffee, the downtown cafe has new signage, merchandise and retail packaging that all reflect the new name, as well as a steady supply of coffees roasted on site in a Valenta 7 electric fluid-bed roaster.
Photo by Ashai Photography, courtesy of Watershed Coffee Roasters.
Customers can watch the roasting unfold behind a new live-edge counter inside the cafe. Juniper wood slabs from a local sawmill also make up the workbench surfaces in the roastery, fitting right in with the rustic vibes of the longstanding local haunt.
“Our space has a lot of the character of an old building, lots of wood and rustic charm. We didn’t want to shake things up too much,” Watershed Coffee Co-Owner Cory Getman told Daily Coffee News. “We’ve had loyal customers that have been coming here daily for years, and we did not want anyone to feel like a drastic change was happening in the space that they love.”
Courtesy photo.
Yet the machine and rebrand undeniably mark a new era for the cafe. Built into a cottage that has stood for over a century, the shop features cedar shake siding and a spacious backyard with views of the Deschutes River and the snowy Cascade volcanoes.
“We feel fortunate to operate in such a unique space in the heart of ‘Old Bend’,” said Getman. “On a summer day we can seat probably 50 people in the yard. There’s always lots of dogs and kiddos enjoying the huge backyard, too. It’s a special location and we recognize how lucky we are to run our business here.”
Courtesy photo.
The location also has a relatively rich history in specialty coffee terms, as the shop opened when Looney Bean founders Brent and Bonnie Kennedy moved from California to Bend in 2005.
Sarah Jordan and Cory Getman bought the cafe from the Kennedys in 2013 as the family sold off all its retail operations to launch Bend Roasting Co., which then supplied the cafe’s roasted coffees.
“We’ve made a lot of changes to the business structure over the years, and we always hoped to bring the roasting in-house someday,” Getman told DCN. “When we finally started planning for that reality, we decided it was the perfect time to also rebrand to a new name and vision that suits us a little more.”
Courtesy photo.
As a fledgling roastery, Watershed remains in cahoots with Bend Roasting for cost-effective access to small quantities of high-quality green coffee and warehouse space.
“We don’t have a lot of room here in our micro-roastery, so we quickly realized that we would need to find a larger storage space to store green beans,” said Getman. “We ended up chatting with Kelly [Lightcap, Bend Roasting Company owner and head roaster], because we already had such a great relationship with her and her company.”
A new coat of paint will eventually take the interior further into its new identity as Watershed. More immediately will come an online store for roasted coffee sales, with 1% of the proceeds going to watershed conservation.
Photo by Ashai Photography, courtesy of Watershed Coffee Roasters.
“This is just one small way for us to give back to nonprofits that work to protect the open spaces and water sources that we all rely on,” said Getman. “So getting those online sales going should be a great thing for us as a roasting business, as well as providing a little help for our wild spaces.”
Watershed Coffee Roasters is located at 961 NW Brooks St. in Bend.
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Howard Bryman
Howard Bryman is the associate editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. He is based in Portland, Oregon.
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