After a nearly nine-month coffee drought, Vitality Roasting has brought back what students living in Como have sorely missed — good coffee and a chill study space.
The Black Coffee and Waffle Bar at 1500 Como Avenue closed in March, and though Vitality opened with little fanfare on Monday, Nov. 4, they have been welcoming back both regulars and new customers with open arms.
“The first week has been slow, but steady and really welcoming,” said Nina Eide, a Vitality barista who worked at Black Coffee for five years. “It’s been nice to have a soft opening. Regulars have been coming in to say hi and we’ve been telling them, ‘We’re open, tell your friends!’”
Eide headed the location’s renovation alongside Vitality head roaster Maddison Spall and said she felt the absence of a café in the neighborhood.
“We would just stare out the window and I’d see people walking by and think, ‘God, I just want them to come in and hang out with us,’” Eide said.
Compared to previous tenants Black Coffee and Muddsuckers before that, Vitality is the least like a restaurant and the most like a café, serving mainly coffee alongside a pared-down food menu consisting of housemade baked goods, including granola bars.
Vitality sets itself apart with its drink specials, from a straightforward yet delicious pumpkin chai to the more offbeat black pepper latte, which combines the flavors of honey and housemade black peppercorn syrup.
Eide named the black pepper latte her favorite special, particularly over ice. She described it as “Minnesota spicy.”
“It’s not spicy, but there is a bit of a pop,” she said. “It’s good if you like more of the coffee flavor and you’re not into sweet stuff.”
Indeed, the black pepper accentuates the warmth and boldness of the espresso while the honey brings a sweetness that balances rather than overpowers.
This homemade spirit can be found throughout Vitality’s menu. Spall said their favorite menu item, chai tea, is made from scratch in a big pot in their kitchen, as opposed to many other cafés that use chai from a carton.
“We just throw the tea and all the spices into the pot and let it steep,” they said. “It’s made with love, and it tastes fantastic.”
The Black Coffee location closed due to subpar building conditions and an inability to attract customers compared to its other Twin Cities metro locations in St. Paul and the Rosedale Center shopping mall in Roseville.
Vitality started roasting coffee in 2018, with Black Coffee being one of its first clients. The Como café is their second location, their first having opened in 2017 in downtown Minneapolis.
Vitality replacing Black Coffee continues the tradition of cafés inhabiting 1500 Como, Black Coffee district manager Katie Essler said in March.
Both Eide and Spall said they’re happy and excited that coffee is back in Como. So are students who live in the neighborhood that used to go to Black Coffee.
Isaac Leppanen, a University of Minnesota junior, said he went to Black Coffee semi-regularly to study and was surprised when he found out they were closing.
The first time he came to Vitality on Tuesday morning, he ordered a large black cold brew and sat down to study on a comfy, worn contemporary black couch in their side room.
“It could use more decor,” Leppanen said. “But I like how the front looks.”
For now, only a couple of spider plants sit on the shelf in Vitality’s side room, but their front room is more fleshed out, with sage green shelves and menu boards and a white accent wall with a repeating black asterisk motif.
Until Vitality opened, Leppanen said he would go to Up Coffee on Northeast Traffic Street in north Como, which is more of a trek. Now, Vitality is just a couple of blocks away from his house.
“This is just a convenient place for students to go and there’s a good community here,” he said. “It’s a nice, safe space.”
