Tandem Coffee Roasters to share space with Gelato Fiasco in Portland

Interesting new venture popping up on Fore Street.

https://www.facebook.com/gelatofiasco

Gelato Fiasco has been open at 425 Fore St. for a little more than a year, but they’re a roughly midday-through-evening establishment. Starting tomorrow, the doors there will open at 7 a.m. — but not for Gelato Fiasco, rather for Tandem Coffee Roasters.

The East Bayside-based coffee roasting outfit is opening its first Old Port spot as a two-week “pop up” store, utilizing the artisan gelato shop location during the hours it had previously been closed anyway.

This represents an interesting space-sharing agreement between two of Portland’s most popular young businesses.

So from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m., Tandem owners Will and Kathleen Pratt will be serving up coffee drinks there. At 11 a.m., the operation will shift back over to its normal gelato-scooping ways.

Gelato Fiasco officials (who I suspect will get a chuckle out of being called “Gelato Fiasco officials”) have described this as a good marriage between like-minded businesses. The benefit to Portlanders is having that space accessible for a greater portion of the day, and it will be interesting to watch if this type of space sharing catches on in other spots around the city.

Although I don’t have any inside information about the financial agreements made between the two organizations, I suspect the move allows Tandem to expand its reach and gauge the viability of an Old Port location with minimal upfront risk. Meanwhile, Gelato Fiasco gets a little boost from, if nothing else, site exposure with an earlier morning crowd.

Tandem Coffee Roasters, headquartered at 122 Anderson St., has already built a reputation for its free weekly noontime cuppings on Friday, providing members of the public chances to come in and try whatever the group’s latest grind is.

A recent post on the website Serious Eats highlighted the operation, and lauded in particular its Harewa Garria coffee from Ethiopia and its Wahana Natural from Sumatra. Click here to read how those cups are described, in particular.

Seth Koenig

About Seth Koenig

Seth has nearly a decade of professional journalism experience and writes about the greater Portland region.