More than just coffee at La Colombe's Fishtown flagship
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
A bakery plus wood-fired fare and house-made rum at La Colombe.
La Colombe
On Saturday mornings, the jaw-dropping, 11,000-square-foot Fishtown HQ of local coffee roasters, La Colombe, could be the set of an HGTV show. Nestled into padded banquettes or crouched over steaming pour-overs at the long communal tables, prospective homebuyers and their real-estate agents shuffle through printouts of nearby MLS listings.
If I sold homes, I would take clients to Colombe’s new café, too. The roaster’s OG blends may not carry the cache of younger third-wave indies, but co-founders Todd Carmichael and JP Iberti have something that upstarts like ReAnimator and Rival Bros. do not (money), and they’ve out-cooled the cool kids with this spectacular clubhouse, over a year in the making, on Frankford Avenue.
“When I first came into the space, it was like a giant, industrial cave with pigeons in it,” Carmichael remembers. “Most of the floor was mud and standing water, and you needed to have a flashlight to walk around.” Now, it’s a lively brick barn with “everything I love under one roof,” including a full kitchen, a bakery producing artful loaves and pastries, coffee labs and a distillery for one of Carmichael’s passion projects, Different Drum Rum.
Handling the F&B is a crack team of veterans from Talula’s Garden and Zahav (Taryn Goodman, chef), Parc (John McGrath, baker) and Lacroix (Angela Fetti, pastry). The best stuff here comes on bread, like McGrath’s crunchy ciabatta smothered in “onion soup”-style caramelized alliums and melted Gruyère, an instant classic with an intriguing funkiness that made me think of fish sauce.
Meanwhile, the blistering cast-iron skillet of Mornay-drenched cauliflower gratin was unrelentingly rich; beneath a dusting of texture-enhancing bread crumbs, I wanted herbs and acid. Rolled in ground espresso like truffles, orbs of goat cheese beaded a beet-and-bibb salad scattered with toasted hazelnuts, which matched well with some of Carmichael’s coffee-enhanced rum on the rocks. The amber liquid was smoky and warm going down, with a back-kick of caffeine.
I’m still on the fence about a house in Fishtown, but La Colombe’s new digs? Definitely sold.
lacolombe.com. Mon.-Thurs., 7 a.m.-7 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 7 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sun., 7 a.m.-5 p.m. $5-$15.
