I didn't set out to build a coffee company. I set out to find a better cup of coffee.
In 2004, I started working with local roasters in New Orleans, selecting and blending coffees for businesses around the city. I was learning the craft from the supply side, understanding origins, roast profiles, and what makes a blend work for a specific menu or customer base. But the thing that really got me was freshness. I tasted coffee just days off the roaster for the first time, and it was a completely different product than what most people were drinking. Back then, customers didn't have access to truly fresh-roasted coffee. Most of what hit the shelf or the urn had been sitting in a warehouse for weeks, sometimes months. That gap between roast and cup really got me.
Then Katrina hit, and everything stopped.
Starting Over with a Roaster and a Mission
In 2009, I met Shawn Montella, and we founded Coast Roast Coffee, a wholesale roasting operation built to serve restaurants, cafés, and businesses across the New Orleans metro area and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. From the start, we were intentional about one thing: closing the gap between roast and cup.
Coast Roast roasts on antique 1910s Royal No. 6 drum roasters. These are machines with over a century of history that produce a roast profile you simply can't replicate on modern equipment. Every batch is roasted and shipped the same week. No warehouse shelf life. No stale bags sitting in a distribution center. That freshness wasn't a marketing angle. It was the whole point.
We weren't chasing a retail brand. We were building something for the people behind the counter. Operators who needed consistent, quality coffee without the markup and headaches that come with the big distributors.
We source our green coffee through relationships with importers that now span decades, alongside direct-trade farms. That means we control quality from the origin to the cup. A lot of our original wholesale customers from those early days are still serving our coffee today. That kind of loyalty doesn't come from marketing. It comes from what's in the cup.
From Wholesale to CR Coffee
In April 2015, I opened the first CR Coffee shop inside St. Roch Market, a historic 1875 food hall in the St. Roch neighborhood, right at the crossroads of the Marigny and Bywater. We opened when the building reopened after Katrina, and I've since taken over operations of the market entirely. That first shop became a proving ground: a place where I could put our blends directly in front of customers every day and refine what we were doing in real time.
The response led to a second location on Magazine Street in 2019, and a third on Metairie Road in 2023. Each shop has its own personality, but they all serve the same coffee. Roasted by Coast Roast, blended to our specs, and brewed with intention.
Our signature blends tell the story. The French Roast is dark and smoky for the people who want their coffee to stand up and be noticed. The Roch Blend is our take on the classic New Orleans chicory coffee, but we use a higher ratio of coffee to chicory than most blends you'll find on the market. You get the tradition without losing the coffee. And the Streetcar blend is a clean, approachable medium roast for the drinkers who want rich, full body with a lighter, brighter finish.
What We Do Today
CR Coffee is a coffee shop company, but what I do goes well beyond the three shops. I handle wholesale accounts for all kinds of businesses across the region, including restaurants, hotels, offices, caterers, and bars. We also ship roasted coffee all over the country.
Whether you're an operator looking for a signature blend, a business that wants to upgrade what you're serving, or you just want great coffee delivered to your door, I can build something custom for you.
I've spent more than twenty years in this industry. I've selected beans, built blends, launched shops, and worked with operators from corner cafés to food halls. If you need a coffee partner who actually understands your business, I'd like that conversation.
Get in touch: Contact us at CR Coffee to talk about wholesale, custom blends, or just a better cup of coffee.