April 17, 2006

You’d better take this news sitting down

Coffee Culture is expanding its brand.

After years of operating drive-through kiosks at the Timberhill and Circle Nine shopping centers, the company is getting ready to open its first sit-down coffeehouse.

“We’re going to finally give our customers a place to meet rather than just passing through,” said Paul Tostberg, who owns the business with his wife, Lisa Tostberg, and partners Bartley and Paula Hendrix.

The coffeehouse will be in leased space at 1195 N.W. Kings Blvd., the former home of Blue Sky Restaurant. The 2,200-square-foot building will be remodeled inside and out, with Coffee Culture and landlord Carol Lee Woodstock splitting the costs, Tostberg said.

T. Gerding Construction is the general contractor for the exterior renovations, with a contractor yet to be selected for the inside work. Tostberg cautiously predicts the new coffeehouse will open before the fall.

The java joint will seat about 80, including some outdoor tables, and will feature a “streamlined cafe menu,” including soups, salads, grilled sandwiches and desserts in addition to a full lineup of coffee and espresso drinks.

It will also provide room for Coffee Culture to bring previously outsourced operations in house, including much of the baking and, most important of all, the roasting of the beans.

“We’re going to be roasting all of our own coffee there,” Tostberg said. “Now we’re going to have full control over that.”

The partners plan to buy direct from the plantations, allowing them to ensure the growers they deal with use sustainable farming practices — and get paid fairly for it. They’ll even weave visual images of the planters into the decor of the new coffeehouse, with a plasma-screen TV monitor displaying a slide show.

“Our name, Coffee Culture, really speaks to what we’re trying to do,” Tostberg said. “There’s so many elements to coffee that connect people. We want people to have the chance, through these unique coffees we’re going to be importing, to try some new things.”

HP gets a screen test

Hewlett-Packard’s push into the digital television business got a big boost this month with the announcement of a distribution agreement with Best Buy, the largest chain of consumer electronics stores in the country.

The deal marks the first foray into a national retailer for HP’s line of TVs, which were previously sold only through the company’s Web site and various regional retail outlets.

Best Buy will carry five models of LCD and plasma televisions from Hewlett-Packard, including a 37-inch LCD unit with built-in wireless networking. Curiously, HP’s rear-projection sets — which were developed at the company’s Corvallis campus — are not covered by the deal.

— Bennett Hall

The Gazette-Times