New Northland cafe will cater to coffee and beer fans

Drew Cobb began roasting his own coffee beans while in college. After graduating he worked as a barista in Chicago and then at Parkville Coffee while dreaming of opening his own coffee shop one day.

Zach Henderson owned several businesses, including a photography and design studio, while dreaming of opening a retail shop selling growlers of beer to-go.

They both also are now in the ministry at the Northland’s Restore Community Church. Last year they started sharing their entrepreneurial dreams and soon they decided to combine them.

Their new Colony Espresso & Beer Co. will be part coffee shop, part bar. It will feature coffee and craft beer selections from around the country — in a relaxed setting that will move from coffee shop in the morning to bar at night. Customers will have a choice of seating options including bar, cafe seating and community tables.

Colony will feature three different coffees each day, rotating them out every month or two. It also will have about a dozen craft beers on tap, as well as bottled beers.

“We want to have large format bottles that encourage sharing,” Henderson said.

Colony Espresso & Beer Co. will offer some breakfast items and it hopes to partner with some food trucks so customers can bring in their own food.

It is scheduled to open at 312 Armour Road in North Kansas City in mid-April.

Hours will be 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 7 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday. It will be closed on Sunday.

The partners launched a Kickstarter campaign on Feb. 19, hoping to raise $20,000 by March 20. They are “hoping to get our community invested in us now so that we can invest in it when we open our doors,” they said in their Kickstarter pitch.

As of Friday afternoon they had raised $6,246 from 39 backers with 22 days to go.

Northland Ted’s Cafe Escondido opens Friday

Ted's Cafe Escondido plans to open at 11 a.m. Friday at 8300 N. Booth Ave. in the Village at Shoal Creek.

Ted’s, which also has area locations in Lee’s Summit and Overland Park, concentrates on fresh ingredients and made-from scratch items such as tamales, tortilla soup, fajita nachos supreme with meat slow-marinated for 72 hours, fajitas, pork chili verde, and chicken Monterey.

Joyce Smith: 816-234-4692, @JoyceKC

This story was originally published March 2, 2016 at 10:49 AM with the headline "New Northland cafe will cater to coffee and beer fans."