The business is targeting a late spring opening

SYRACUSE — Salt City Coffee — which calls itself a sustainable coffee business offering hand-crafted, fresh-roasted coffee — plans to open its first café in late spring on Syracuse’s near westside. 

Owner Aaron Metthe will rent a 1,200-square-foot space on the first floor of a 2,500-square-foot house at 509 W. Onondaga St. This is Metthe’s first brick and mortar location, but he has been thinking about it for years. 

“I’ve been roasting coffee for four to five years and looking for a place to set up shop for the last two,” Metthe says. “I like the location. The near westside has been part of a revitalization and we want to be part of that.” Almost 6,000 cars pass by this location every day, he says.

Metthe started Salt City Coffee as an online business from his home in Syracuse in 2012, selling wholesale 12-ounce, 2-pound, and 5-pound whole bean coffee bags from Kenya, Costa Rica, and Ethiopia and expanded to loose-leaf tea in 2014. In the first year, the business generated $5,000 in revenue, and by 2015, annual revenue had grown to $28,000. Metthe attributes this growth to his online service that offers free local delivery in Syracuse and some surrounding areas, as well as the expansion of his product line. Products he offers now include chocolate bars, coffee gift baskets, and coffee and tea accessories such as coffee filters and cold-brew coffee makers. 

In starting Salt City Coffee, Metthe, a native of the Adirondacks, turned a pastime into a business. “Coffee roasting was always a hobby of mine,” he says. “The process fascinated me. I’ve always been a coffee snob, so it just was a natural fit to start the business.”

Metthe earned a bachelor’s degree in youth work in 2006 from Cedarville University in Ohio. He worked at United Parcel Service, Inc. from 2010 to 2012. In 2012, Metthe started working at Hillside Children’s Center in Syracuse, a unit of Hillside Family of Agencies, as a skillbuilder and continues to work at the center while operating Salt City Coffee.

What will make Salt City Coffee stand out from national coffee brands is the quality. Coffee isn’t roasted until ordered and all of the beans are sourced ethically. “There are no stockpiles of coffee. Coffee has a shorter shelf-life than expected,” says Metthe.

Metthe searches for organic coffee that is sourced from sustainable processes. His coffee labels read “Shade Grown” and “Bird-friendly,” which are processes that support higher biodiversity in the regions in which coffee is cultivated. Shade grown or bird-friendly coffee allows a natural habitat for birds, improves soil quality, and preserves forests that are often depleted by sun-grown coffee, according to the informational website, Coffee & Conservation. Metthe also uses compostable coffee bags. 

Metthe says he believes that everyone should earn a fair wage in the coffee-making process. “We believe high quality coffee deserves a living wage. From the farmer, roaster, barista, and everyone in between, deserves a fair wage for their work,” he writes on his company website.

But that doesn’t mean the customer has to pay a higher price for his coffee. Metthe estimates a 12-ounce cup of coffee in his store will sell for $2, a latte will run $3.75, and pastries will range from $1.75 to $2.50 each. Metthe is looking into three or four local bakeries to supply their products in his café. 

Metthe will rent his space at 509 W. Onondaga St. from Axiom Church for $400 a month. Once he starts turning a profit, he says he will pay an additional $200 a month, bringing the rent total to $600. Dan White, Metthe’s father-in-law, who serves on the board of Axiom Church, helped facilitate the arrangement. The church purchased the house to use for community outreach. The church will use the second floor and has an agreement with Metthe to use the first floor whenever Salt City Coffee is closed, says Metthe. 

Salt City Coffee will be open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Expanding to Saturdays will depend on how many people Metthe hires and what their availability is, he says. However, “no matter, what we won’t be open on Sundays,” he adds. 

On opening day, Metthe will be the only full-time employee. He is still looking to hire two part-time employees. For the existing online business, Metthe’s wife, Maria, helps him deliver coffee to customer’s homes. She is a fitness instructor at the YMCA in Fayetteville.

A month before opening the café, Metthe says he plans to leave his job at the children’s center so he can focus on the shop full time. The business will have 12 parking spots available to customers behind the building and could access additional parking spaces at neigboring businesses if needed, says Metthe.

Marketing/financing the business
The café will host small events by collaborating “with anyone who has a community-based focus,” says Metthe, and by connecting with the Northside Urban Partnership, a nonprofit organization focused on building up the city’s northside neighborhoods. The partnership has been helping Metthe from the company’s inception, through a program called UP Start Syracuse.

In 2013, Metthe and 19 other entreprenuers competed in pitching their business ideas to the organization. Six people were accepted including Metthe. 

The program paid for Metthe to attend “Fast Track to Business Start Up,” a 3-day, 20-hour business-planning course at the Small Business Development Center at Onondaga Community College, and also gave him access to a business coach, Daniel Cowen.

“I would meet with my coach once a month,” Metthe says. “I would bring my idea and [he] would critique it and then I’d go back and refine it.” 

UP Start Syracuse does not provide money directly to the participating startup businesses, but did help connect Metthe with Syracuse Cooperative Federal Credit Union and aided in negotiations for a loan. The credit union agreed to lend Metthe $32,000. He has also invested $16,000 of his own money into the business so far.

Metthe has taken to Twitter and Facebook to publicize the news of his café opening and will add Instagram to his marketing tools once the shop opens. Salt City Coffee also uses direct mail services through CNY Direct Saver, which calls itself a local co-op service for local businesses to market their products or services to area homes. Metthe says he will increase the direct mailings around the neighboring areas as his opening date approaches. These direct mailings will include a coupon and information about the store’s products, says Metthe. 

He is seeking to forge a close connection between his café and the community.

“I want to interact with the neighborhood,” Metthe says. “I want the town-hall meeting feel. A coffee shop is a great place to gather people.”

The shop will have couches and chairs for customers while also offering free Wi-Fi. “We want it to feel like you’re walking into a relaxing home,” Metthe says. “Somewhere you can sit for an hour with a friend.”

After he opens his first shop in late spring, Metthe says he will look into other sites around Syracuse — specifically the northside where he and his wife live — for a possible second location. He has no timeline yet, as it depends on how the first café performs.