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Since it opened a year and a half ago, the Downtown location of Cartel Coffee, the popular local roaster with four locations in Arizona, has not only been supplying the java to the likes of suits and students, but breakfast and lunch bites as well.
“We’ve had a good run for the last year and a half,” executive chef Adam Reeder tells me. “And our customers need more space.”
Cartel will be moving a few doors down from its current spot on First Street and taking over the corner location at First Street and Washington, in the former home of First Watch, the breakfast, lunch, and brunch cafe (and part of a national chain), which closed a little less than two weeks ago.
And Reeder, whose sister Rebecca is Cartel’s pastry chef, says the bigger space will allow for some new menu items.
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Reeder says the new space has a bigger kitchen area which will allow for new breakfast dishes such as pancakes and French toast in addition to being able to expand Cartel’s lunchtime selection of sandwiches and salads.
Reeder also adds that the Downtown Cartel, like the other three locations, may start serving wine and beer (from the Tempe location’s microbrewery) as early as September.
“It has a better street presence,” Reeder says of the new spot. “The light rail goes by and there’s a traffic light there, so people have a chance to stop and look.”
Reeder hopes to be moved into the new spot by mid-June.
