Callowhill coffeehouse and bar Win Win closed during the height of the pandemic, but this summer, founders Nikisha Bailey and Matthew Nam will reopen the shop in a different Philly neighborhood and with a new approach to the industry.
Bailey and Nam purchased Win Win, a cooperatively owned café on Spring Garden Street, in 2019. After it shuttered in 2021, the co-owners traveled to Colombia, Congo, Honduras, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia and Rwanda to meet farmers and learn more about coffee cultivation. They now plan to reopen the café — without the bar but with a roasting plant — in the forthcoming Jasper House apartment building in Kensington.
Their hope is to put more profits in the hands of growers of color. According to Fairtrade, a certification agency, 60% of the world’s coffee comes from small-scale farmers, but almost half of them live in poverty and nearly a quarter live in extreme poverty. According to Nam and Bailey, farmers who work directly with Win Win can increase their earnings by as much as 20%.
“Coffee comes from Black and brown countries, literally it’s the only place that it can grow,” Bailey, a Drexel professor and former Atlantic Records executive, said. “But these countries and these people see less than 10% of its revenue, and that’s because the supply chain is archaic — it’s fragmented and it’s broken.”
Win Win currently works out of a facility in Central Jersey, but the owners plan to open the new shop sometime before Juneteenth. The Jasper House apartment building, which opens in the spring at 1825 E. Boston St., will include commercial space for food businesses owned by people of color. Win Win’s 1,600-square-foot space will include the roasting plant and a café with coffee, pastries and small bites from local providers.
“We’re big on revitalizing, workforce development and really hoping to be a beacon of light for the community,” Bailey said.
Win Win’s coffee is currently available at Palm Tree Markets, and Nam and Bailey are discussing distribution with national chains.
“We’re able to really make this buying process a lot more efficient, allowing us to still get coffee at prices that are digestible for customers, even though this is really high-quality coffee,” Nam said. “It’s also making sure that these farmers who are sometimes in the most vulnerable populations can have a living wage and be proud of what they’re producing for us.”