Park Avenue Coffee – Cortex
GDA Rating:
Take Me Here Using Metro Transit
Park Ave Coffee is a St. Louis coffee roaster with 4 locations and a coffee roasting facility. They may be known for making some of the best coffee and gooey butter cakes in STL, but some of their fan base may not know that they’re considered one of the most sustainable coffee roasters in the Midwest. The Park Ave Coffee shop in the Cortex Business District is the corner store of the Platinum LEED certified Cortex Commons building at 4270 Duncan Blvd. The store features all LED lighting, LED menus, thermal doors and windows, Energy Star appliances, access to ample bike racks, white roof, and solar power. Outside, the Cortex Commons grounds feature pervious pavement, bioswales and bioretention basins, EV charging stations, rain gardens, and native plantings.
Park Ave Coffee does a lot to reduce its packaging waste by requiring employees to use non-disposable cups and encouraging customers to bring in their own coffee mugs offering 20¢ off their cup of coffee. Forgot to bring one? You can purchase one of their tumblers or mugs, and they even have reusable straws for purchase! Paper coffee cups are never recyclable and only compostable if stated on the packaging. They reduce food waste by using an organized par sheet for each day of the week and by compiling and analyzing food waste data from all of their locations for operational development. Their dairy products and creamers are sourced from Rolling Lawns, a local dairy farm. To-go packaging is either recyclable, post-consumer, or compostable packaging, and they use paper bags for larger carry out orders. In addition to coffee, tea, and breakfast items, Park Ave offers several nutritious and delicious lunch items from sandwiches to salads all made from scratch, along with canned water and glass-bottled cold brew.
Park Avenue owner Dale Schotte:
“We take pride in the fact that we are the only Small Batch Air Roasted coffee in St. Louis. We also operate the most Eco-Friendly roasting facility in the Midwest, producing 100% of the electricity used by 200 solar panels on the roof (The Hill Roasting Facility). Our air coffee roasters are 91% more efficient than a typical drum coffee roaster.”
Information about Park Ave’s main farming partner:
Beneficio Río Tarrazú, in Costa Rica, is widely regarded as one of the finest coffee mills in the world. This mill combines traditional and modern technologies with one aim – to produce the finest coffees in the world. The separation process is clean because it uses spring water. The mill itself is a world standard for sustainable coffee processing – using hydroelectric power generated on-site and a first-of-its-kind biomass furnace which recycles the by-product of the coffee fruit as a fuel for drying the coffee. This efficiency virtually eliminates the need for wood.
Beneficio Río Tarrazú plays an important role in the community, working with small producers to educate them on fruit standards — only ripe coffee cherries are accepted. Innovative practices include an on-site facility for preventative medical and dental care.
In 1997, Beneficio del Río Tarrazú was awarded the Bandera Blanca by the government of Costa Rica, in recognition for their contribution to ecologically sustainable coffee processing. In addition, the mill was honored by the President of Costa Rica for helping Costa Rican coffee farmers.
Make your way to Park Ave Coffee at Cortex, the sustainability hub of St. Louis, with easy access to the MetroLink (just a few hundred feet away) and welcome infrastructure for bikes, and grab a coffee or lunch from one of the most sustainable coffee roasters in the Midwest!
4270 Duncan Ave
4270 Duncan Avenue
St. Louis
63110
United States
