Bow Truss Coffee Roasters is planning a major expansion that will more than double its number of stores by the end of 2017.
The eight-store upscale coffee chain’s founder, Phil Tadros, confirmed that nine new coffee shops will open in the Chicago metro area, and another four are in planning stages.
Tadros, a serial entrepreneur who founded Bow Truss in 2012 and last year built and expanded a 14,000 square-foot roastery in West Town to handle higher volume, said he’s just getting started building the brand.
“I still think there’s a big, open demand for quality (coffee),” he said. “There are not a lot of places who do the type of sourcing, roasting and preparation that we do, and I think there’s a lot of room to grow.”
Bow Truss last month opened stores in Roscoe Village and in Beverly Hills, Calif., its first store outside of Chicago. It plans to open its ninth retail location in March at 4185 W. Irving Park Rd.
Tadros, who is also an investor and partner of Iliana Regan’s recently opened Bunny the Micro Bakery at 2928 N. Broadway, said he hopes to begin serving Regan’s pastries in Bow Truss shops in the near future.
All Bow Truss stores are corporate owned; the company itself is majority owned by Tadros’ Doejo, a Chicago-based web-design and consulting firm. Tadros said Bow Truss has five other investors but is entertaining options to take on additional partners to fund its expansion.
Bow Truss also sells its coffee at retail in grocers such as Whole Foods, and Tadros is working on a line of canned and bottled cold-brewed coffee drinks that is expected to roll out as soon as this spring.
The expansion was first reported by Eater.
Here’s a list of the forthcoming Bow Truss locations:
Old Irving Park (March)
4185 W. Irving Park Road
West Lakeview (April/May)
Lincoln and Paulina
Gold Coast (April/May)
Mariano Park kiosk
Streeterville (April/May)
25 E. Illinois St.
River North (April/May)
165 W. Chicago Ave.
West Town (June/July)
500 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Evanston (late 2016-early 2017)
1571 Maple Ave.
Bucktown (2017)
Leavitt and Milwaukee
Wicker Park (2017)
Division and Paulina