Philadelphia is pretty much drowning in caffeine. Starbucks locations dot Center City, with Dunkin Donuts possessing an impressive footprint as well. Don’t forget the national chains with smaller footprints, like Au Bon Pan and Saxby’s. Then there are some local chains, like La Colombe, Rival Brothers, and OCF Coffee House (shameless plug!). Filling in the gaps are the little neighborhood shops, which generally serve a hyper local clientele and often serve as place makers in their communities.
At some point, we suspect, enough places will open and the coffee market will be pretty much saturated. But it hasn’t happened yet, and we keep seeing new spots open up all over town. Last week, we learned about yet another coffee shop in the works, this time in a recently renovated building just off South Broad Street. We actually covered this building, 1401 Reed St., about two years ago, shortly before that renovation effort began. It was in generally cruddy shape at the time.
When we last wrote about the building, we told you that the building might have been home to the first liquor license in Philadelphia after the appeal of Prohibition. New owners had just stepped in and were planning to renovate the retail space and create two apartments on the upper floors of the building. They were expecting a restaurant tenant of some kind, and were open to a boozy or non-boozy concept. It turns out, the latter is what’s in store.
According to a story from Eater, look for a place called Batter & Crumbs to open here in the coming months. Batter & Crumbs is already established as a vegan wholesale bakery in Delaware County and this would be their first retail effort. The owners are hoping to create something of a “vegan Starbucks” in the 16-seat establishment, offering coffee and tea, their own pastries, and pre-made sandwiches.
As we said before, this location has some quirks to it. The address is 1401 Reed St., which would seem to imply that it’s at the corner of Broad & Reed. But that’s not the case, it’s actually at Carlisle & Reed. The big parking lot immediately to the east and the carwash to the south don’t exactly make for a wonderful pedestrian experience between Broad & Carlisle. But we don’t think this will be a barrier for people seeking coffee and tasty vegan treats. Once it opens, we expect that Batter & Crumbs will be a welcome addition for people who live nearby and a destination for vegans for whom Grindcore House is too much of a hike.