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Portland · United States

Tandem Coffee Roasters

Since 2012 · Will Pratt, Kathleen Pratt, Briana Holt (Tandem Coffee + Bakery, 2014)

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Overview

Will and Kathleen Pratt — both Blue Bottle alumni who first met as baristas at Boston's Espresso Royale (now Pavement Coffeehouse) — opened Tandem in Portland's East Bayside in 2012 after a tandem-bicycle ride around the city sold them on the move from New York. The flagship is a 1,000-square-foot pocket roastery in a 1930s brick building shared with Bunker Brewing, joined in 2014 by Tandem Coffee + Bakery in a converted 1960s gas station in the West End where co-owner Briana Holt — a James Beard nominee for Outstanding Baker — runs the scratch bakery. The roastery operates a Loring S15 Falcon and reached $1.5M in revenue by 2015.

Known for

  • Three Blue Bottle alumni founding team (Will Pratt, Kathleen Pratt, Vien Dobui)
  • James Beard-nominated baker Briana Holt at Tandem Coffee + Bakery
  • Converted 1960s gas station West End cafe
  • La Marzocco GB-5 from Blue Bottle's original Hayes Valley kiosk
  • Coffee Subscriber Alliance with curated vinyl pairings

Why it matters

Tandem is the New England specialty operation that proved Portland could support its own scene without orbiting Boston. The Blue Bottle pedigree shows in the technical work; the bakery partnership and the small-cafe-as-living-room aesthetic shows what a regional roastery can look like when it isn't trying to scale to national distribution.

Production

roaster machine
Loring S15 Falcon
roastery location
122 Anderson Street, Portland, ME
espresso equipment
La Marzocco GB-5 (from Blue Bottle's original Hayes Valley kiosk); La Marzocco Linea PB at the West End

Café

122 Anderson Street and 742 Congress Street, Portland, ME

Recognitions

  • Bon Appétit feature on Tandem Coffee + Bakery
  • James Beard Award nomination — Briana Holt (Outstanding Baker)

Sources

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