Tacoma’s newest coffee shop will roast on site, offer ‘second chances’

Eight years after launching its roasting and retail business, Civic Roasters has opened a brick-and-mortar cafe in downtown Tacoma.

The petite, modern coffee shop joins a burgeoning block of small businesses on South 11th Street between Fawcett and Tacoma Avenue, including Tacoma Knife Sharpening & Mercantile, McCoy Kids, Lauda (gifts and stationery), Ninth Tentacle Tattoo, Buzzerds Barbershop and Chez Lafayette Creole Brasserie.

All of the drinks ($3-$7) at the cafe use Civic’s own roasts, produced at Roasterworks, a shared commercial facility in Auburn. The style focuses on light and medium roasts, with beans sourced from Latin and South America as well as Vietnam. The flagship Guadalupe blend, for instance, features Robusta beans from Vietnam and Nayarit, Mexico.

Filtered options include pour over, nitro cold brew and “batch brew,” while espressos stay classic, from straightforward doppio to cortados, lattes and a tonic. A trio of syrups for the season offer vanilla, maple and cafe de olla (piloncillo with cinnamon). Choose between whole milk and oat milk at no extra charge.

There’s also loose-leaf tea, masala chai, matcha and hojicha lattes. Snacks and pastries lean into grab-and-go for now, but owner Benita Ki hopes to add some local sweet and savory items in the future.

Tacoma coffee on a mission

Ki has been working on the space since January, but Civic the coffee brand has been growing since 2018 through pop-ups (at the nearby library, Tacoma Sunday Market and more), subscriptions and sales to local cafes and grocery stores. She started the company with friends and later ran it with another couple but is now the solo operator. This summer, Ki also poured coffee and sold bags of beans at the Tacoma Farmers Market on Broadway. A crowdfunding campaign garnered $95,000, which supported parts of the build-out, equipment and permits.

While fellow third-wave coffee companies generally commit to ethical sourcing and fair pay for farmers, Civic aims to bring that desire for equity home. Specifically, Ki defines the business as a social enterprise “providing jobs for marginalized people.” In addition to training and employing those who might otherwise face difficulties entering or staying in the workforce, Civic donated a portion of proceeds to select local nonprofits.

As Ki, who worked in nonprofits before jumping full-time into this industry, told The News Tribune in 2022, “We are looking to invite people to think about their everyday product and know it’s doing good in the city.”

At the time, Civic had a line on a storefront near Division and Sixth avenues, but it fell through. The search eventually led to 508 S. 11th St., where the building owner appreciated Civic’s multifaceted mission, said Ki.

“It was reassuring,” she said, following years of ups and downs.

With the help of “a huge village of people,” continued Ki, the unit was completely gutted, updated with new plumbing and electrical components. Hopefully by spring, a custom, all-electric roaster from Roest will arrive from Norway. For now, an empty area in the back corner of the shop awaits.

Most roasters are powered by natural gas, but the Norwegian company and another from Korea, called Stronghold, are changing the roasting game as many European and Asian nations transition into an electric future — even for coffee. A French roaster won the World Coffee Roasting Championship this year using a Stronghold. Ki said the technology is “designed to and function the same” as a gas-powered roaster without the need for serious ventilation ducts. Civic’s will be relatively small — about the size of a “large toaster oven,” said Ki.

At Roasterworks, Ki packages a couple hundred pounds of coffee every two weeks. At the cafe, she anticipates roasting on a weekly schedule.

Civic Roasters

• 508-B S. 11th St., Tacoma, 253-254-5499, civicroasters.com
• Starting Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 7:30 a.m.-2 p.m.
• Details: new cafe with a social mission open downtown; most drinks $3-$7, bags of beans $18-$22
• Bulk bags, variety packs and monthly subscriptions available for purchase online for mail delivery or local pickup