You may not have heard of it, but Local Roasters really is local and will open soon

A business called Local Roasters is the coffee sponsor of Tallgrass Film Festival this week, and it really is local even though most people haven’t heard of it yet.

Former Spice Merchant head roaster Colby Short and his soon-to-be stepfather-in-law, Jason Gardner, have gone into the coffee business together.

“It’s been a longtime dream of mine,” Short says.

“Colby really has all the knowledge,” Gardner says.

He calls Short “the coffee force behind this.”

However, Gardner adds, “I’ve always been a foodie, so this fits for me really well.”

The two will open a retail site next month where Hannah Banana used to be at 2828 E. Douglas.

Gardner and Short have been planning Local Roasters a long time, but the property has two different owners, and they wanted both sides of the building. It took some time to complete, but now one side will be the retail storefront, and the other will be for roasting.

“We don’t want to have a coffee shop,” Short says. “We want to focus more on just the coffee itself.”

They’ll sell beans by the bag, ground or whole. There will be samples for customers to try, but no to-go cups.

“I don’t want to get away from the focus,” Short says. “I would much rather supply coffee to other local businesses. They can have a coffee that they’ve had me curate for them.”

Gardner will keep his day job as manager of Spectrum Promotional Products, and Short will roast the coffee.

Short says he began drinking coffee at such a young age that it was “probably too young to be drinking coffee.”

“I’ve done a million different things in my lifetime and always come back to coffee.”

He says his future wife, Heidi Runyan, has no problem with her stepfather and future husband going into business together.

“She loves it.”

In addition to roasting coffee, Short also loves discussing it and how soil type, location, elevation and humidity all play a role in the flavor and body of coffee.

“It’s just amazing that you could roast the same type of coffee a million different ways,” Short says. “It’s fascinating to me that you can do that with something you can grow. It’s incredible.”

This story was originally published October 18, 2018 at 4:32 PM.