When he graduated from college, Philip Meech asked his parents not for a car or computer, class ring, trip, or even luggage to take on a trip. He wanted to know if he could install a roasting machine in their garage to start a coffee business.
Within two years, the mom-and-pop-and-son startup outgrew the space.
Twenty-five years later, Caffè Lusso Roastery—“luxury coffee” in Italian—is still growing and going strong. The Redmond-based business is preparing for yet another expansion and counts Microsoft, Meta, and premier catering companies, such as Lisa Dupar and Gourmondo, among its commercial clients.
“Our company mandate, since the beginning, has been ‘stop drinking, and start tasting,’” Meech (’00 Finance, Busi.) says. “It’s an invitation to pause. A great cup of coffee is a chance to slow down. It’s an excuse to have a conversation. It’s an excuse to get together and chat and dream new dreams and talk about hopes.”
Do those things over a cup—preferably ceramic—of Caffè Lusso’s signature Gran Miscela Carmo Espresso Blend. The nutty medium-bodied roast, with notes of caramel and milk chocolate, features beans from three different family farmers in Brazil’s Carmo de Minas region. “I love that blend. “I drink it every day,” says Meech, who also sources beans directly from small growers in Ethiopia, Guatemala, Indonesia, and more.
For pour-over or French press, he suggests the single-origin La Minita from Costa Rica. “There’s no bitterness, no burnished character. It’s elegant and simple,” says Meech, noting that’s also how he defines luxury. “Simplicity is the ultimate elegance. Our goal is coffees that are elegant and a program that is simple.”
Meech got into coffee culture in high school, working at Starbucks in Bellevue. But he started drinking coffee as a kid—“bad coffee,” he specifies—while spending summers on his grandfather’s farm in Colorado. “Every morning, I had breakfast with Grandpa at a small-town-USA diner. Everybody knew the place. It had been around forever. If it was 7 a.m. and you turned over your coffee mug, they would fill it for you, even if you’re an 8- or 9-year-old boy. My grandfather would turn over his cup. And I wanted to be like my grandfather. It’s why I drink coffee today.”
Freshman year at Washington State University, Meech helped open Pullman’s first Starbucks. He was studying sports medicine and biology with the goal of going to medical school. But, he says, “coffee wouldn’t let go.”
In 1997, he was working at an independently owned coffee shop in Moscow, Idaho, when the owner asked him to check out a new Lewiston, Idaho-based micro-roaster. “I still remember the aroma and the instant curiosity,” says Meech, who began driving to Lewiston at 4 a.m. Thursdays to learn more. Soon, he was switching his major from pre-med to business with the goal of starting his own roastery.
Meech began roasting coffee in his parents’ Bellevue garage in August 2000, a few months after his WSU graduation. He was 23. His parents were his business partners. They started small, roasting just 7 pounds at a time.
“Immediately, we had good results,” Meech recalls. “Then, we started getting busy, and we didn’t have a lot of smoke mitigation.” A neighbor complained and, in late 2001, the city stepped in, giving the fledgling roastery 30 days to quit operating in the garage.
A new, small-batch roastery in Seattle’ Ballard neighborhood rented space and equipment to Caffè Lusso once a week. In 2002, Meech and his parents found a 1,200-square-foot space in a Redmond business park—and upped their batches to 25 pounds. After about a decade of doing business, they began adding staff members, one by one.
“We had a tough first 10 years,” Meech admits. “If I had known how hard it was going to be, I don’t know if I would have started it. But it would have sat on my shoulder for the rest of my life: What if?”
Caffè Lusso annexed 3,200 square feet seven years ago and another 2,400 square feet three years ago. The facility now stretches just under 7,000 square feet and roasts 60- to 75-pound batches—for a total of about 150,000 pounds per year. In addition to wholesale coffee, equipment, maintenance, and training for commercial clients, Caffe Lusso retails beans directly to consumers through walk-up and online sales, including a nationwide subscription service.
The company is comprised of a team of five, including Meech, now sole owner. Dana Langsev oversees operations. “Philip … is always trying to encourage and develop new skills in everyone. He constantly says, ‘I want employees to leave Lusso better.’ If there is a way he can help or teach he will do it, and it is felt,” Langsev says.
Plans call for expanding within approximately three years to 20,000 or 30,000 square feet and increasing batch size to 527 pounds—for a total of some 2 million pounds per year. A new roaster is being designed and built in Italy.
The new facility would also serve as an event space, offer tours, and showcase storytelling.
“From the first year, we’ve been about farm to cup,” Meech says. “We want to let people see the full cycle, which ties to my farming roots visiting my grandfather’s farm. It’s really about everybody getting to trace the ingredients and the people globally to locally.”
Plans include a destination café featuring just two sizes: a demitasse of espresso and a 6-ounce cappuccino. Patrons would pay more at a table, less at the counter. “It would be very European, with no to-go cups,” Meech says. “We wouldn’t be trying to do 3,000 cups a day. Maybe we’d be trying to do 300 cups a day.”
Meantime, find Meech at work five days a week. “It’s something of a marriage,” he says. “I love what I do. There’s no place I’d rather be”—except maybe Italy. He’s only been once “but I plan to start going back once a year forever.”
Meech fell in love with il dolce far niente, or “the sweetness of doing nothing.” Italians, he says, “are very good at slowing down, and they’re very good at community. It’s OK to take two hours for dinner. And they walk after dinner—la passeggiata—slowly and together. They walk a ton. They’re happy and less stressed, and it’s not genetic. We can learn from their culture about family, about community, about enjoying good food and good wine and good coffee, and”—perhaps most of all—“not being in a rush.”
All photos courtesy Caffè Lusso
Web exclusive
Podcast: A coffee adventure (Conversation with Meech about the art and science of coffee roasting, coffee tasting, and his own journey)