We're super excited that the new location for our partnering roaster East Pole Coffee Co. is now open!!! They had their soft launch this morning, and will be doing a grand opening next week. Check them out Monday-Friday 7am-3pm and Saturday-Sunday 8am-2pm. The store is located in the Armour Yards development, where ASW Distillery and SweetWater Brewery are located.

Jared Karr, one of the owners of East Pole, was a Taproom barista on day one back in April 2014. Now at the helm of arguably the best new specialty coffee roasting company in Atlanta, Jared and his team will use their new roastery location to keep churning out the core coffee offerings at Taproom, and their new bar is where our crew will get hands-on barista training!

While we often hire experienced baristas and quickly take all new staff through the Taproom ways of brewing and presenting great coffee, we simply aren't set up for an in-depth, hands-on coffee training program like what we previously got through Counter Culture Coffee. Now, with East Pole's new location, they intentionally shut down their bar to regular service every afternoon, so that our staff and other accounts get the chance to receive individualized barista training. Specific training sessions will cover coffee brewing science, manual pourover technique, bar flow management, espresso technique, palate development, customer service and more.

And for Taproom staff, I've always incentivized professional development - whenever our baristas complete the East Pole training program and pass a practical exam behind our own bar, they'll receive a permanent wage increase. Better training means more consistent quality and experience for you when you come into Taproom!