In 2015, Waterbury’s Vermont Artisan Coffee & Tea broke ground on a 15,000-square-foot facility that would house its roastery and two sister companies, Coffee Lab International and the School of Coffee. This week, the company finally made the move from its previous, much smaller location on Route 2.
The new building, which looks like a big red barn, is located on Route 100. It’s a sizeable addition to what co-owner Holly Alves called Waterbury Center’s “agritourism corridor,” near the Ben & Jerry’s factory and the Cold Hollow Cider mill. The new facility has four large storage silos that will hold green beans, allowing the company to purchase lots of coffee more “efficiently and effectively,” she noted. Previously, Vermont Artisan had to find storage off-site.
Once the roasters — both human and mechanical — have settled into the facility, the company will encourage visitors to drop by for a “mini self-guided tour,” Alves added.
Passersby will also be welcome to sip cappuccino or espresso. A coffee bar in the new building will open once the dust from the move has settled, most likely in early May. “We want to get our staff in place and our drinks perfected [first],” said Alves. “Our other businesses can’t really stop, so we’re concentrating on getting everything [settled] and getting equipment running.”
The original print version of this article was headlined “Bean There, Done That”
This article appears in Mar 15-21, 2017.
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How did this place possibly get an Act 250 permit? Traffic on Rt 100 between Stowe and Waterbury is already horrendous.
The legislature needs to audit Washington County’s Act 250 commission. Growth should occur closer to the interstate where there’s less impact on traffic and environment. Vail buying the ski operations, businesses like this expanding on Rt 100, and the continued growth of Stowe as a 4-season tourist destination will only provide fuel to further environmental and traffic problems plaguing the corridor.
Growth is great. But growth’s gotta occur closer to the interstate and our village centers where there’s existing infrastructure to accommodate additional traffic. Expanding Rt 100 to four lanes is too expensive.
Well reasoned post Paco but what does Act 250 have to do with reason ? This statute has become a huge work project for the environment crowd giving employment to a horde of lawyers and “professionals” in this industry . It also allows those that don’t wish competition to stifle new growth by engaging in obstructionist tactics. The overall protection of Vermont has been sacrificed to a patchwork process where project success depends on your financial ability to wait out roadblocks .
Getting back to Stowe and Rt 100 , this is a problem that sadly never gets better . Combined with the Mountain Road (Rt 108) , these roads are never improved except for a little tinkering . Traffic has grown ,especially large trucks and there has been no action to improve the situation . In fact things have gotten worse .