The Lutsen Project

We’ve got some pretty exciting news for all you Fika fans out there: We’ve got a space and we’re opening a shop!

Early this summer, Fika Coffee will open a coffee shop and roasting facility in Lutsen, MN.  Here on the website, we’re calling this incredible transition “The Lutsen Project” and hope you’ll check back frequently for updates on our progress.

First off, we’d like to give a brief summary of how we got to this point and what we’re planning.

As mentioned previously, our shop will be in Lutsen, MN amidst a group of store fronts collectively called the Clearview Building.  Josh, founder and owner of Fika Coffee, first spoke to the landlord of the property we’ll be renting years ago, way back before our roaster was even purchased.  Since then, the idea’s been brewing while we waited for the timing and demand to line up.  During those years of waiting, we learned critical information about the business of coffee and the art of roasting.  Soon, we were ordering more green beans than we could store in our small roasting facility and found that juggling three different spaces (the roasting facility, the community center where we bagged our beans and Josh’s home where all the office work takes place) was becoming more and more cumbersome the more business we did.  We had clearly outgrown the current set-up.

Momentum continued to build until we could no longer ignore the fact that to keep the momentum going, we needed to take a risk in pushing Fika Coffee to the next level.  If you remember from this blog, our business philosophy is best pictured as a three-legged stool with wholesale, retail and online sales being the three legs.  We are always working to grow our wholesale accounts and on-line sales but found we were teetering, missing an integral part of our approach.

Three years ago, when we initially wrote our business plan, we had our sights irrevocably set on Grand Marais as the location for our eventual coffee shop. Grand Marais is near and dear to our hearts and seemed the logical and idyllic place to set up. Lutsen, on the other hand, wasn’t on our radar at all. But the more we looked at where our business was compared to where we wanted it to eventually be, we realized a move to Lutsen was far better than no move at all. We view Lutsen as an important step forward rather than a stopping point in the journey of Fika Coffee and are excited to see what is on the next horizon.

Bottom line, we have peace about our decision and are thrilled with what opening a coffee shop means for Fika Coffee and for all our customers.  Having a retail space will not only allow us to roast, bag and ship from one place but also means we’ll be able to create the actual fika experience we’re always talking about.  From the minute you walk in our door until the minute you leave, we hope the heart of Fika Coffee will be evident.

Come Summer of 2016, walking into Fika Coffee means you’ll see everything we are: burlap sacks of green beans, the roaster, empty coffee bags waiting to be filled, boxes waiting to be shipped.  You’ll be standing behind-the-scenes of Fika Coffee.  But there’s more.  You’ll also see our espresso machine, our brew pots and our coffee selection---we hope that it will be more than clear that you’re welcomed in our space. Have a seat at our espresso bar and let us brew you up a fantastic cup of coffee.  Chat with us a while.  Tell us your story.   We couldn’t be more excited to have a real-life fika with you.