Klatch Coffee will soon serve breakfast, snacks and its own drinks at Sprouts Farmers Market.
The Rancho Cucamonga-based roaster is teaming up with the Phoenix-based supermarket chain to open cafes in five of its more than 60 grocery stores in Southern California.
The first cafe, in Fontana, will celebrate its grand opening from Friday, May 24 through Memorial Day, Monday, May 27. The store is located at 16964 S. Highland Ave. in the Highland Village Shopping Center.
Cafes at the Redlands, Rancho Cucamonga, Eastvale and Fullerton stores are expected to follow in the coming months.
“Our philosophy has always been to meet our customers where they are. The idea of putting a Klatch where you shop, to make your life a little easier, makes perfect sense for what we do,” said Heather Perry, chief executive of the coffee company, during of a telephone interview. It was founded by her parents, Mike Perry and Cindy Perry, in 1993.
Klatch already owns seven cafes in San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties. The Sprouts partnership will nearly double the list and also add a presence in Orange and Riverside counties.
To make room for the cafes, Klatch is rearranging public seating that was available for customers to relax or eat their takeout purchases.
These spaces tend to be underutilized, according to Steve Lamontagne, vice president of portfolio optimization.
“We want our stores to be as productive as possible,” he said in another telephone interview.
The cafes are a pilot program that began a year ago in Arizona with a partnership with Press Coffee, also based in Phoenix.
Sprouts opened five Press cafes in its home state and began searching for a local partner for five additional cafes in Southern California. Lamontagne said Sprouts was impressed with Klatch’s commitment to trading directly with coffee farmers.
According to Perry, Sprouts contacted Klatch about a year ago and began stocking its whole grain blends in March.
She said Sprouts Cafes would be staffed by Klatch employees and offer the same experience as her own cafes, with about 90% of the menu.
But Klatch cafes will also have Klatch exclusives, Perry said. During the opening weekend celebration in Fontana, he will serve a dalgona coffee created for Klatch’s 30th anniversary celebration last fall.
Dalgona, or whipped coffee, is a trendy, Instagram-friendly drink that comes from Macau or South Korea and is made with coffee, sugar, and a hand mixer. The Klatch version is named Smudgepot after heaters once used to prevent frost damage in citrus orchards.
“Orange trees and orange groves are an integral part of Southern California culture,” Perry said. “What we did for this drink, we jumped into the dalgona trend. We take espresso and cold brew, orange blossom water, orange extract and syrup and put it in a nitrous cartridge and whip it so it’s ultra- light and serve it on an oat milk base. It’s light, refreshing and orangey.
The first 25 customers who purchase a Smudgepot each day during Memorial Day weekend will receive a free Klatch Coffee glass can, and the first 50 customers on Saturday will receive a Sprouts reusable shopping bag, the press release states.
Another exclusive will be the Berry Ricotta Toast, made with seasonal berries and local honey on artisan bread, according to a press release.
“Sprouts is very local within the communities where they operate,” Lamontagne said. “Klatch is rooted in the communities where they have operated for 30 years. They take their business very seriously and really, really focus on their customers. It’s really that mix. I can’t stress enough how the partnership comes together and how we make sure it works. We could partner with any of the big coffee companies, but that’s not how Sprouts goes to market.
Perry had a similar thought.
“We treat them like Klatch Cafes. There is no difference in our minds.
Information: klatchcoffee.com, sprouts.com
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