Daily deliveries of freshly roasted beans and a seasonal lineup of coffees are what a new Preston Street roastery will bring to Bridgehead, the Ottawa chain known for its fair trade and organic brews, when construction for its flagship Centretown location is completed next spring.
The red brick building, at the corner of Anderson Street in the old Preston and Lieff Glass store, will contain a coffeehouse and patio, as well as rooms for coffee tastings and an in-house roastery.
That means Bridgehead’s coffee beans will no longer be shipped across the border from Montreal, where the roasting is currently done.
“We view ourselves as a pretty open and transparent company and that’s part of our values," says Tracey Clark, founder and managing director of Bridgehead.
"So we wanted to create a physical place where we could show the roasting and be transparent about the roasting process and the steps that we take for quality.
“We also wanted a character building, and we have that in spades in this location.”
Currently, work is being completed on the front of the building.
Once Bridgehead receives its building permit, construction will start for the roastery and coffeehouse in the back.
Mario Cuglietta, owner of Cafe la Grotta on Preston Street near Gladstone Avenue, says he was surprised to hear that Bridgehead was planning to open a new flagship location.
He says the coffeehouse could have a big impact on business for his cafe and others in the area.
“(The cafe) is not very busy but it’s average, and we just want to keep what we have because with more coffee shops coming in, it would really affect us,” Cuglietta says.
“It’s far enough from us but it’s still a lot of coffee shops, along with a Starbucks down the road.”
Cuglietta says the street has enough cafes and restaurants but could benefit from clothing and grocery stores.
“So instead of having more cafes on the street, we should have retail stores to bring people here,” says Cuglietta.
Darrell Graham, owner of Darrell Thomas Textiles, which rents the front part of the building facing Preston Street, says he's not concerned the new cafe will boost the number of cars on roads in the area.
“It’s going to be very nice for all the businesses because (Bridgehead) are a high-end coffee establishment that has very good morals," says Graham.
"And we have high-end clientele also, so it’s a nice complement for us,” says Graham.
Bridgehead’s coffee beans, mostly come from African and South American countries.
They're held in warehouses in the United States when they arrive in North America and will be shipped directly to the new facility in Ottawa.
“We’ve always wanted to bring roasting in-house and we felt that it was really important to establish our locations first, and establish our own internal demand, such that the volume of roasting would be feasible, says Clark.