March 25, 2014, Exterior, La Colombe Fishtown
September 5, Exterior La Colombe Fishtown
Back in October local Philly roaster La Colombe announced that they were breaking ground on a major new project. Within the inside a former warehouse in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia, La Colombe has been building their new flagship rum distillery, bakery and coffee shop. Throughout the winter, partners Todd Carmichael and Jean Philippe Iberti have been busy overseeing the design and construction of the huge 16,000 square foot space. Todd calls the 150 seat cafe “JP’s opus” and also has a cupping room, sixty-meter German still, and bread oven (the retail bakery is headed by Parc veteran John McGrath)
March 6, 2014: In the beginning…the raw space
When I initially checked out the raw space, I was struck by the size and scope of the project. It’s one of the most ambitious cafe build outs I’ve ever seen. I decided to follow the progress of the construction, photographing the interior every few weeks. Using a method I’ve perfected through trial and error, each 180 degree panorama is a composite of 20-30 iPhone still images that are stitched together with the app AutoStitch. After Snapseed enhancements and conversion to black and white, I finished each image in Lightroom and Photoshop.
March 19, 2014
May 7, 2014 Concrete laid, ductwork
June 5, 2014 Frameout
September 15, 2014: A Few Days Before Opening
Partners Carmichael and Iberti are not resting on their laurels. The company has just secured $28.5 million in new financing for cafe expansion and Todd informed me that his TV show Dangerous Grounds is soon getting a rebrand (details are still being worked out but it should be more expansive in scope).
August 5, 2014, The Rum Still
Links
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Blog Post, Todd Carmichael, The Coffee Macgyver
“A Cafe For Their Crafts” by Michael Klein
“La Colombe Secures $28.5 Million Investment” by Roast Magazine
“Dangerous Grounds”, The Travel Channel
CoffeeGuru 
Looks absolutely fabulous! Can’t wait to visit 🙂
Brian.
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I visited twice in the past two weeks – it’s pretty phenomenal! Great coffee, fresh bread to take home, a solid food menu, beautiful interior…BEER and RUM! Altogether, an awesome spot.
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So true Casey, also consider supporting the funding of CoffeeGuru+. Info/campaign is at igg.me/at/coffeeguru
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