- Eminent Coffee Roasters is opening its first cafe location in St. Joseph’s new food hall, The House Food and Tap.
- The cafe will feature an extensive menu, including espressos, pour overs, cappuccinos, teas and pastries.
- The House Food and Tap is expected to open in mid-March and will also include 98 Hawaiian Grill, Birdies Pizza and Garden Bar and Joetown Smashburger.
Eminent Coffee Roasters is coming to St. Joseph’s new food hall next month. Its first location outside of its Sartell warehouse.
The roastery will join three other local restaurants in The House Food and Tap, offering customers brewed cups of its unique coffee roasts that it has served out of other businesses and its traveling cart until now.
The food hall spot will be Eminent’s first cafe location, and owner Josh Kaeter said he is excited to finally have a permanent location to serve customers.
“Having a consistent location, not just to serve the community with an elevated coffee product but a consistent location to highlight the work of these farmers,” he said. “That’s the whole underlying goal of why I started this, it wasn’t just to roast coffee.”
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Kaeter founded Eminent Coffee after serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he said he drank poor-quality energy drinks to stay awake, which made him wish he had a better caffeine source.
Soon after leaving the military, he began working at a coffee roastery while in college in South Carolina. While there, he learned about the coffee roasting process.
Kaeter moved back to Minnesota about 3½ years ago and wanted to continue working in the coffee world. He started roasting coffee in his garage until opening Eminent in its current space at 331 Fourth Ave. S. in June 2022.
“I didn’t want to stop roasting coffee, and at the time, there was really nobody roasting coffee to this specialty craft coffee level,” he said. “In my head, the only way to continue doing it was to sell absolutely everything I own, buy (the roaster) and start from nothing.”
Eminent sells several light, dark and medium roasts with both single-origin options and signature blends, like its medium blend “Celestial” and dark blend “Illume Espresso.”
The business also highlights unique and experimental roasts, such as through its limited-release and female producer series. Kaeter also works with smaller importers who have close connections to coffee farmers.
“You get a little bit more time and attention put into your business from those import partners. … working with smaller importers that are also trying to do the same thing by putting the highlight on the work of these farmers,” Kaeter said.
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The House Food and Tap will be Eminent’s first consistent spot to serve its coffee, and it will offer an extensive café menu. Coffee enthusiasts can choose from espressos, pour overs, cappuccinos and many other coffee-based drinks.
In addition to smoothies and hot chocolate, as well as pastries from Flour & Flower Bakery, the coffee house will also serve several loose-leaf teas, including chai and matcha.
Eminent was the first business to get involved with The House Food and Tap, Kaeter said, after he saw a Facebook post about the idea and on a whim filled out a form for co-owners Craig and BriAnne Hern.
“I filled that out randomly on a Friday night at like 11 o’clock, just throwing it at the wall, and literally the next morning, Craig called me … pretty much from that point on, it was like, ‘You’re our coffee guy,’” Kaeter said.
In addition to Eminent’s spot, The House will include restaurants 98 Hawaiian Grill, Birdies Pizza and Garden Bar, Joetown Smashburger from Mateo Mackbee and Erin Lucas of Krewe Restaurant and Flour & Flower Bakery.
The House is eyeing a mid-March grand opening, Kaeter said, with the teams planning to occupy the space in about two weeks to begin setting up and training new employees.
Kaeter said he is excited for the space to begin serving the community. In the future, he also hopes to host events there, such as roasting and latte art competitions, to bring Minnesota’s coffee roaster community together.
“There’s already a lot of talk and a lot of hype about the building,” he said. “It’s going to be a cool experience, a really cool spot.”
Once up and running, The House Food and Tap will be open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at 13 Second Ave. NW in downtown St. Joseph.
Teagan King covers business and development for the St. Cloud Times. She can be reached at [email protected].
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