Four Years of Converting Starbucks Addicts

PEAK PLACE CAFÉ 

2360 Montebello Sq Dr, Ste H1
www.PeakPlace.com
(719) 445-1050
Hours: Mon-Fri: 6am-9pm; Sat: 8am-9pm; Sun: 9am-5pm
Food: $3-$9
Coffee: $2-$6
Alcohol: $4.5-$11 (bottles $30-$40)
What you need to know: Welcoming community café reinvents the coffeehouse
After four years of serving coffee to the community, Peak Place recently took the time to celebrate both their anniversary and their customers by hosting a café party in which they lavished food, wine, beer and, yes, coffee, on all those in attendance.

We happily took the chance to join in, and delve further into what makes the newly expanded café tick.

“Coffee is something that brings people together. So we try to reach fans of all coffee types,” explained Nate Bland, head roaster for Hold Fast Coffee (Peak Place’s in-house roaster). “We are here to love on people. And our goal is to tailor to everybody as much as we can, while still respecting the process and where the coffee comes from.”
A the mural on the café’s wall proclaims, “Share Life, Build Community.” This is perhaps the company’s greatest achievement—building community while catering to people’s diverse tastes.

Peak Place has done a tremendous job of introducing skeptics to thirdwave coffee. Even if one has been a diehard Starbucks fan, the baristas at Peak Place have comparable options that feel welcoming, not pretentious. “A simple vanilla latte that doesn’t overpower with sugar, but also doesn’t overpower with coffee, is a great gateway into more specialty coffee,” commented Bland.

Vinnie Snyder, general manager of Peak Place, agreed. “The way that we roast, and the way our menu is made, people can find a thirdwave version of whatever they’re used to drinking.”

“People who come here wanna experience local coffee,” Snyder continued. “They know it’s gonna be something different than the chain they are used to; and most people are pretty open minded to our interpretation of what they find at those places.”
It’s not hard to be open minded when the coffee options are broad, the beer is local and the wine list is so well curated that you won’t encounter anything available at your local liquor emporium. Further to the point, the food is restaurant quality.

Raise your demitasse or wineglass and toast farewell to the era of plastic-wrapped burritos or warmed-over sandwiches pretending to be food. The coffeehouse is now a mealtime destination.
Peak Place’s Shepard’s Pie, with its grass-fed ground-beef and duvet of sweet potato, is among the best we’ve encountered ($7). Their Cajun Pork Tacos overflow with tender pork shoulder and an Asian themed slaw ($7.5). And compared to the Chorizo Hash ($7), a better coffeehouse breakfast if rare. But good food is forgettable without good service, and Peak Place has been laboring to perfect its hospitality.

“Looking forward we want to push the boundaries of hospitality as a coffee shop,” articulates Snyder. “We already do full, table-side service during the evenings—which is kind of different for a coffee shop. And we want to keep growing and breaking the norms of what people expect service-wise in the café.”
The evening’s festivities were evidence enough of these goals. While support staff scurried about, seeing to any number of details, Snyder was kept busy for hours, pouring wine and chatting with patrons. Bland oversaw the espresso bar when he wasn’t mopping up some spilt wine or helping a family with the rented photo booth. It was hospitality done well; and the community is better for it.

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