Provis Coffee Roasters Provides Ample Space for Specialty Brews in North Kansas City

At the new Provis Coffee bar in North Kansas City, Missouri. All images courtesy of Provis Coffee Roasters.

A bend in the Missouri River in North Kansas City, Missouri, is opening up to the first brick-and-mortar cafe from Provis Coffee Roasters, occupying more than 6,000 square feet across two levels. 

With a grand opening slated for Sept. 26, the shop is divided approximately equally between the ground floor with the main bar and seating, plus the upstairs with additional seating, a cupping lab and a slow bar.

The 25-foot main bar combines a white quartz top with hand-milled oak that carries through other accents in the literary-themed space. Sconce lighting and a wood-burning fireplace warm the lower level, where hundreds of books line shelves against dark blue walls.

“It’s like a 1930’s literary vibe. There’s just books everywhere,” Provis Coffee Co-Founder Randall Buchanan told Daily Coffee News. “Beauty is one of the core elements of our company and I think we really nailed the beauty aspect.”

Provis Co-Owner Kristen Kurtz led the cafe’s interior design. Deep green lounge walls upstairs echo the powder coating on the main bar’s Slayer Steam LP espresso machine alongside a Poursteady brewer and grinders sitting beneath clear glass globe pendants. Deep red walls in the upstairs conference room complete the cafe’s use of colors drawn from Provis packaging.

Buchanan currently roasts the company’s coffees on Probat equipment at the StoneX Specialty Coffee facility in nearby Riverside.

“The roasting part, for me, has been kind of a twofold excitement. The chemistry aspect of roasting is just epic — honing in using both the sensory element and the data points from the equipment or the software,” Buchanan said. “The other side of that fold is the relationships you can build with the producers.”

Along with StoneX, Buchanan turns to importers such as Balzac Brothers and Ally Coffee for additional greens. Colombian coffees come from the Ventola Coffee company owned by producer Felipe Trujillo, as well as directly from Edwin Noreña’s Finca Campo Hermoso. Moii Coffee supplies Provis with coffees from Ethiopia. Through this patchwork of sources, Provis offers a range of familiar and more experimental profiles.

“We want to have coffees that score high on the SCA cupping scale, but we also have things that are pretty unique and experimental. And there’s also just consistency, the daily cup of coffee,” Buchanan said. “For the wholesale program, not everybody’s gonna want to have anaerobic naturals or co-fermented coffee offerings. My general philosophy is just having an approachable program.”

Buchanan moved to Kansas City from St. Louis after roughly 16 years in coffee, including management roles with Kaldi’s Coffee and Sump Coffee, wholesale work with Coma Coffee Roasters and, most recently, roasting and wholesale work with Teleo Coffee.

Provis’s full ownership team includes Buchanan, Ronni and Kristen Kurtz, Jesse and Laura Worcester, Josh and Meagan Brown and other minority investors, Buchanan told DCN. Josh Brown brings a background in finance, while co-owner Ronni Kurtz is an author and assistant professor of theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. 

Following this week’s grand opening, Provis plans to expand into made-to-order sandwiches and light bites developed by culinary director Caleb Wattenschlager. Buchanan said a dedicated Provis roastery is a longer-term goal, while the new cafe provides space for cuppings, education and other customer services.

“We’ve [been] making a ton of headway with our wholesale program, so I think developing more wholesale relationships is a pretty big move for us,” Buchanan said. “We’ve been able to gain some accounts, create custom blends and really focus on providing resources and education for other coffee programs, too.”

Provis Coffee Roasters is located at 2914 N. Buchanan St. in North Kansas City.

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