Coffee Emporium reaches new heights

You know you’re on to something good when the developer of the city’s soon-to-be-tallest building comes to you and asks to help grow your business. For Tony Tausch, owner of Cincinnati’s homegrown Coffee Emporium, that visit evolved into the newest Emporium, which opened Jan. 3 in Queen City Square.

But there was one catch. To land the Queen City Square deal, Coffee Emporium had to take over a low-traffic kiosk on Third and Broadway.

“We knew the café in the lobby would do well,” Tausch says. “So we decided to go ahead with it.

Fitting in to the new skyscraper with a sleek setup that includes metal menu boards, the new café has a much more traditional businesslike atmosphere than its Hyde Park and OTR locations. If it seems that each Coffee Emporium location seems to fit the atmosphere and attitude of its surrounding community, that’s no accident.

“We don’t try to inflict our atmosphere on a location,” Tausch says. “The employees and the customers dictate the vibe.”
Since Tausch doesn’t plan on ever operating 50 locations in Cincinnati, he takes a careful look at expansion opportunities and makes sure they will be a positive change for his company. Tausch says he will never license franchises and will always stay near the urban core.

But Tausch’s dedication extends beyond the local community and into the entire coffee growing process.
He makes annual trips to El Salvador and trips to events such as the International Women in Coffee Alliance Conference, Tausch and his staff see their beans while they are still on the tree. They are even beginning to do a barista/farmer exchange with a farm in Guatemala. Roasting 55,000-65,000 pounds of coffee each year, Coffee Emporium uses beans from around the world, including beans from Tanzania, which help support the local non-profit Village Life Outreach’s work both locally and in the African nation, too.

Now with six locations -- Hyde Park, Central Parkway, Queen City Square, two at Xavier University and a small kiosk on Third and Broadway -- Coffee Emporium employs 55 people. Tausch offers health and life insurance and plans on implementing 401K options soon.

By Evan Wallis