Deeper Roots movement expands to include coffee shop in Oakley

Members of the Deeper Roots Coffee team have been involved in various aspects of coffee for the past decade. They started a coffee roasterie in Mt. Healthy four years ago and have been supplying coffee to local restaurants and cafés, and on April 1 they opened their own coffee shop in Oakley.  
 
“I think every barista and coffee person dreams of having a coffee shop,” says Jon Lewis, head of customer engagement for Deeper Roots and manager of the shop. “It’s an expression of how you work with coffee, and it’s the end of a very long journey of where coffee comes from.”
 
Deeper Roots’ owners feel that a lot is owed to the people who produce the coffee they roast and then sell. The roasterie blossomed from a development project in Guatemala — Deeper Roots Development — that works to improve the communities of small coffee farmers.
 
“We take for granted where coffee comes from,” Lewis says. “The history of coffee isn’t so great in terms of world trade and how the haves and have nots start to separate out. But with Deeper Roots, we have the opportunity to pull the two together.”
 
Deeper Roots sees the 750-square-foot café at 3056 Madison Road as more than just a behind-the-scenes environment, where the baristas don’t just push buttons on machines. Not all coffee is created equal, and the baristas will be available to teach customers the differences between the different types of coffee as well as how best to enjoy it.
 
The menu features about 12 different types of coffee that come from the company’s roasterie, including a handful of single-origin coffees and seasonal house blends. Deeper Roots also has iced coffee on tap and coffee on nitro tap, which is carbonated coffee that pours much like a Guinness with a creamy head.

There’s also a small food menu that includes croissants, toast with a variety of toppings and spreads and cookies, all sourced from local providers.
 
“Oakley represents a vibrant community, and everyone recognizes it as such,” Lewis says. “Coffee bars like this will flourish there, as it would anywhere that people want to gather around food or beverage.”
 
Deeper Roots café is open from 6:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday and 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.