Panther Coffee's Joel Pollock is on the move with a second location in the works in a rising South Beach enclave -- and now plans for another coffee-roasting space in Wynwood.
"I'll be vague, but we do have another roasting machine we're going to hook up. It's going to be not in this building, but very nearby," he says. "We'll be operating both places every day."
Panther has signed for space in the under-construction Sunset Harbour parking garage with Ice Box Café, ice cream shop Emack & Bolio's, Fratelli la Bufala, True Loaf Bakery, Frankie Boutique, and others.
The neighborhood, around Purdy Avenue and 20th Street, is already home to Pubbelly's trio of restaurants, Burger & Beer Joint, and Sardinia Inoteca. It was also the longtime home of the now-closed restaurant Joe Allen.
The pair has been eyeing the block since moving to Miami from Portland two and a half years ago. "We use a very simple formula," says Pollock, who runs Panther with his wife, Leticia. "When something seems like the right move, we do it."
The new roasting outfit might be another extension of Panther's coffee program, which has bubbled up across Miami. The coffee is served at Michael's Genuine Food & Drink Grand Cayman, Sakaya Kitchen, Blue Collar, and the Root Cellar at the Miami Culinary Institute.
"The green coffee stuff for me is fantastically interesting," says Pollock, who's been roasting coffee for 20 years. He wants to keep both sides of the business -- running a coffee shop and roasting beans -- humming along, though it seems he's most passionate about working with small farmers throughout Central and Latin America.
After signing the paperwork last week on the Miami Beach shop, he was on the way to Fort Lauderdale Airport to catch a plane to Managua, Nicaragua.
The date that the second location will open remains unknown. In 2011, Pollock told FoodGPS.com the most challenging part of opening a shop was permitting.
After a lengthy process opening in Wynwood, Pollack says, "thanks to our protective friends at the City of Miami and Miami-Dade County... my wife and I made one agreement, and that's we will not give a date."
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