Shopping Center Business is the leading monthly business magazine for the retail real estate industry.
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RETAIL REVIEW 64 • SHOPPING CENTER BUSINESS • May 2017 T oday's consumer wants more — they crave memory-making desti- nations and chef-driven food con- cepts with farm-to-table, local aesthetic. Coffee connoisseurs expect no less, driv- ing a boom in specialty coffee concepts from coast to coast. Like a warm southern breeze, Revelator Coffee has swept onto the scene, bringing a focus on down- home hospitality, local ingredients and a heavy dose of southern charm. The idea for Revelator spawned from the desire to bring a Southern player into the specialty coffee game. "Josh Owen, our president and founder, along with two others got together and started talking about coffee — specifically in the city of New Orleans — and how they could do something a little different that was outside of the realm currently seen there, but that was also true to specialty coffee," says Meredith Singer, managing director and executive director of marketing for Revelator Coffee Company. "There are some incredible specialty coffee businesses, but they were all mainly located in cities like Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles and New York City," she contin- ues. "There was no one brand that really embraced the broader Southeast and im- bued southern culture and notions of hos- pitality with coffee. We saw an incredible opportunity to do something that was of the South and spoke to southern values, while also tapping into the trend of spe- cialty coffee, which is only growing year over year." The first Revelator Coffee shop opened in New Orleans, and was quickly followed by locations in Birmingham, Atlanta, Chattanooga and Nashville. "Those five cities were on our radar for the first year of retail openings," says Singer. "We started building a roasting facility in Birmingham, Alabama, and that is now our headquar- ters. It just logistically made sense, as we wanted to serve a lot of the Southeast, and Birmingham was right in the center." Since the company moved to its new headquarters in Birmingham, Revelator has opened up 12 additional locations and acquired Octane Coffee, an Atlanta-based specialty coffee and bar café in April. The merger with Octane brings the company Sipping Southern Charm Born in The Big Easy, Revelator Coffee delivers a Southern twist on specialty coffee. Katie Sloan Revelator Coffee Company shops are designed to feel open and airy with pops of local art and color.