Ë®¹ûÅÉAV

In a Facebook post that has received almost 900 likes and 200 comments, the company plans to open Roast & Toast this year at 99 Genesee St. downtown, formerly Rudolph's Sugar Shack.

But a café is only half of the business model. By night, the space will serve cocktails in what Simple Roast founder Matt Peirson described to Ë®¹ûÅÉAV as an elevated, speakeasy-style experience. 

"We want it to be a warm, cozy, inviting café space," he said, "and a more elevated cocktail bar at night without feeling like you're in a café." 

Peirson said a café has long been an idea at Simple Roast, which began with a drive-thru location in Grant Avenue Plaza in Sennett in 2016, expanded with a second drive-thru in Towne Center Plaza on the west side of Auburn in 2019, and now employs almost 30 people. He roasts the company's coffee beans — about 850 pounds a week — at a West Street facility where online orders can be picked up.

Roast & Toast will be the new place to pick up those orders, Peirson said, and he expects his staff to grow by about 10. Some of his longer tenured drive-thru baristas will be the first servers downtown.

The name and concept for the new business came from Peirson's wife, Kristen, during what he called a "company research" road trip on the Pacific Coast Highway in California. As the name suggests, the café will boast a menu of seven or eight toast-based items, such as avocado toast. Lemon ricotta with blueberry compote will be another, Peirson said — "anything we can think of and develop."

The cocktail menu, meanwhile, will consist of traditional beverages and originals that rotate on a regular basis. The bar's decor will also evoke the Prohibition era with items like velvet furniture.

Peirson and his wife began experimenting with cocktails during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. So when he was told last fall that 99 Genesee St. was available by its owners, Prison City Brewing's Dawn and Marc Schulz, the idea for Roast & Toast came naturally. Construction is now underway, and Peirson hopes to open the next stage of Simple Roast sometime this spring.

"We're not looking to have a crazy, rowdy bar experience, just something elevated before or after a fancy dinner," he said. "It seemed like a good fit and a good new project."