After years of peddling small-batch beans at pop-ups and markets around town, Sun Bear Specialty Coffee Roasters is opening Sun Bear, its first brick-and-mortar cafe.
While the exact opening date is yet to be announced, owner Kenny Beers says that the new shop, at 1942 1st Avenue S. in the Grand Central District, will likely debut in June. His last day at Sans Market, where he has been operating a micro-cafe, will be May 31.
Self-dubbed “St. Pete’s answer to Third Wave Specialty Coffee,” Sun Bear specializes in single-origin, light roast coffee beans.
While there’s no consensus on what exactly constitutes third-wave coffee, the term most often refers to single-origin (meaning that the beans can be traced to the same geographic location rather than being a “blend” of beans from various countries and regions), light roast beans that are prepared with precise brewing methods so as to allow the nuanced, subtle flavor profile to be experienced.
Beers learned the craft of coffee roasting while living in Cambodia, where he was working as a music teacher in local schools. He would bring his students to a local cafe to perform, and it’s there that he developed a friendship with the cafe owner, who just happened to be the national barista champion in Cambodia.
“We became big friends, and after a while he was like, ‘You should come roast with me one day,’” said Beers. “‘You love coffee a lot, and you’re really into it. Why don’t I show you the ropes?’’’
“He taught me roasting. I don’t know how much I actually took from it, other than the inspiration to do it, but it just got me hooked.”
The Covid-19 pandemic cut Beers’ time in Cambodia short. He found himself back in St. Pete with a lot of time on his hands, so he tried his hand at small-batch roasting.
Beers is fastidious about the quality of Sun Bear’s coffee. All his beans have Specialty Coffee Association ratings of 85 or higher (80 is the threshold to be designated “specialty” coffee), and Beers has direct relationships with many of his producers. It’s these close relationships that help him maintain the high standard of his product.
“We had one year where I noticed a drop in quality, and I was going to pause for a little bit,” said Beers. Instead, he called the owner of the farm in Honduras and was able to articulate his concerns directly to the person in charge.
“They got it back up, and they’re doing great now again.”
Beers started selling his beans at markets and cafes around town in 2021 and quickly developed a steady following. He decided to expand his operations from solely roasting to brewing coffee drinks, so he opened a micro-cafe in the back corner of the Sans Market, where his popularity with the third-wave-coffee-enthusiast-crowd grew even further.
“People come to town and they look up third-wave coffee, and who does pourovers that are single origin, because that matters a lot, and that’s going to send them straight to us.”
“At this point we’re kind of known for that, which is good, and it’s incredibly surprising, by the way. How did I even pull that off in that space?”
After nearly two years at Sans Market, Sun Bear Coffee Roasters has outgrown its humble home and Beers is excited to open up his own independent operation. He plans to host cuppings (the coffee industry’s equivalent to wine tastings) and envisions a cafe that is a little “rowdy,” with no “elevator music,” and WiFi for all. Beers acknowledges that aesthetics are important, but the coffee reigns supreme.
“I do want people to know I’m focused on the beans first,” said Beers.
“That’s my number one priority. You can have a latte, you can have cold foam, and those things are also important to me, but I’m always going to be chasing down the better bean first rather than coming at it the opposite way.”
Official opening date to be announced on Sun Bear Specialty Coffee Roasters’ Instagram. Follow @sunbearspecialtycoffeeroasters for updates.