Blueprint Coffee is coming to The Loop, as reported by the Riverfront Times’ Ian Froeb recently. And it’s the names behind the caffeinated project that are jolting local coffee nerds.
Blueprint, to be located at 6225 Delmar Blvd. (between recently opened Chubbies and Thai Country Cafe), is a six-partner venture by Mike Marquard (pictured), Kevin Reddy, Andrew Timko, Norah Brady, Mazi Razani and Brian Levine. Marquard is the coffee director and GM at Half & Half. He was among Sauce’s Ones to Watch class of 2011, having made coffee waves in 2009 and 2010 at the U.S. Barista Championship. As Froeb noted, Blueprint’s ownership group has numerous ties to Kaldi’s Coffee Roasting Co. Marquard rose within the company to become education and customer service leader; Reddy is a retail manager for Kaldi’s; Timko is a former Kaldi’s roaster; and Brady and Razani are both baristas at Kaldi’s and Kaldi’s-owned Kayak’s.
Blueprint Coffee will be both a roasting company and a place to grab a cuppa. “We will serve Blueprint Coffee, but we plan to have a guest coffee available at all times,” said Marquard. He added that the focus at Blueprint will be on “the ingredients we use and good preparation,” showing coffee drinkers that “execution, attention to detail” are “what make coffee great.”
Construction is slated to begin by Monday, according to Marquard, and is expected to take 60 to 90 days. The revamped space will seat 25, divided between a coffee bar and high-top tables and chairs. “It will be more focused toward the coffee commuter,” said Marquard. “We won’t have soft seating.” Blueprint will have a kitchen, but the food offerings are to be determined, as are the cafe’s hours. When Blueprint opens (The target date is June 1.), Marquard will remain Half & Half’s coffee director but not its general manager.
Meanwhile, next door to Blueprint Coffee, the restaurant owners at Mission Taco Joint are at it again. Brothers Adam and Jason Tilford are relocating their Clayton pub Barrister’s from its spot at 15 N. Meramec Ave., to 7923 Forsyth Blvd., next door to incoming The Libertine, as reported by St. Louis Magazine’s George Mahe. Look for Barrister’s to open in its new digs in early April; doors will remain open on Meramec Avenue through the end of this month.
Finally, The Scoop caught up with Mike Randolph, owner of The Good Pie. Randolph’s Neopolitan pizzeria was originally expected to open in the space next to Ginger Bistro in early summer. Randolph’s update on the timeline is that doors will be unlocked as early as July and no later than the end of August.
— photo by Carmen Troesser
This article appears in March 2013.