Huckleberry Roasters nabs former Allegro Coffee space on Tennyson

When Koan Goedman was getting ready to open Huckleberry Roasters’ first coffee shop, he would often visit a nearby hardware store on Tennyson Street for last-minute nuts and bolts.

“I’d always run in about three minutes before closing and race out with some lumber and anything else I needed to put the store together,” Goedman said. “I’d usually have to come back the next day because I grabbed the wrong stuff.”

In 2015, Whole Foods-owned Allegro Coffee Roasters replaced the hardware store at 4040 Tennyson St. in Berkeley. But in May this year, the business closed its doors with two years left on its lease.

Now, Huckleberry Roasters is filling the coffee-cup-shaped hole that Allegro left on Tennyson Street.

Goedman leased the 5,000-square-foot space for 10 years last week with plans to open Huckleberry Roasters’ third location there in early fall. The space has a full kitchen, so Goedman says the coffee shop will be able to have more breakfast offerings than the pastries it sells at the other locations.

“It’s really a full circle moment for us,” he said.

Goedman, 40, and his business partner Jason Farrar started Huckleberry Roasters as a wholesale coffee business in 2012. They opened its first coffee shop at 4301 N. Pecos St. in Sunnyside the next year and another within Dairy Block in downtown Denver in 2018.

In addition to the new Tennyson shop, Goedman said they are planning to open two more locations in Baker and Wheat Ridge, although he declined to specify addresses.

Huckleberry Roasters roasts its coffee in a 6,500-square-foot warehouse in Athmar Park. Wholesale customers include Whole Foods, King Soopers, Mercantile and Crema Coffee House.

Since the coffee shop will not be using the new Tennyson space to roast its coffee, like Allegro did, Huckleberry Roasters plans to only use 3,500 square feet.