Through a move that will merge wholesale with retail, Pegasus Coffee Co. will retake ownership of the flagship brick and mortar Pegasus Coffee House, reuniting the brand with the community staple after over 20 years of operating independently.

New owner Matt Grady acquired the company in 2019 with one goal being to reunite the brand with the shop in order to bridge the gap with the products they offer to the community. Grady will take ownership on New Year’s Day.

“The customer doesn’t really get to see the roastery,” Grady said. “We’ve been talking about ways to get people to come in and get a tour and see the place where we roast the coffee. The coffee houses are where they come in contact with us, with our product, with our brand. For us, we’d like to partner much more closely with the retail shops that use the Pegasus name to help create that great experience around great coffee.”

In 2019, Pegasus merged with Islandcraft Coffee Roasters, a local company founded by David Adler, with a focus on developing long-term, sustainable relationships with coffee farmers. Adler is now head of Coffee and Roasting Operations for Pegasus.

Background

For more than 40 years, Pegasus Coffee House on Parfitt Way has been an iconic community gathering place for folks to enjoy great java, art and live entertainment while immersing themselves in the authentic characteristics of an old-fashioned European coffee shop.

The shop originally opened in 1980 by Pegasus founder David Dessinger. More than 20 years ago, Dessinger decided to devote all his energy to growing the wholesale brand of Pegasus Coffee, a news release says. Dessinger sold Pegasus Coffee House, as well as the two Pegasus locations in Seattle, to independent owners with the stipulation that they continue to feature Pegasus Coffee.

Current owner Kell Killian, who has owned and operated the shop for about two years, has plans of his own to launch a restaurant incubator project next year on the island. The concept will be to provide hands-on training and business planning to aspiring chefs and restaurateurs, the release states.

“It comes down to timing with these things,” Grady said. “Kell and I had worked pretty closely together during the time we owned our respective businesses and had a great relationship. The longer things went on, the more he became interested in pursuing this new venture.

”It’s great for him to go pursue the thing that he’s really passionate about and great for us too because it gives us a chance to come home.”

For a business that has changed ownership three times in five years, Grady is poised to be here for the long-haul.

“We’ve used the funny phrase ‘back to the future’ many times as we’ve talked about what we want to do with Pegasus,” he said. “To know that you can come in and have a fantastic cup of coffee, you can explore, you can try coffee from different regions, you can smell the beans when you walk in, all of that.”

What sticks out most to Grady is all the stories the community has about the shop, whether a family member worked there, studying for exams or grabbing a cup of coffee because it was the only place open.

“It really is central in the community and specifically in the arts community,” Grady said. “From the very beginning, it’s been the place where local art has been displayed on the walls and where musical performances, poetry readings…were set up.”

Moving forward

Looking to the new year, Grady said he anticipates only minor changes at first, given all the limitations from the COVID-19 pandemic. He’s focused on providing more grab and go options.

“The idea of being a ‘gathering place,’ you can’t really do it,” Grady said. “You can’t live up to that promise when you can’t have people indoors.”

In efforts to providing dine-in, he said they already have a “pretty-good” sized heated and covered patio outside. He also said they are working on providing a second outdoor space by putting up a tent in the adjacent parking lot.

The Pegasus Coffee House is located at 131 Parfitt Way SW, while the Pegasus Coffee Roastery is located at 12935 Islandcraft Lane NE Unit A5.