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Sun Bear Specialty Coffee Roasters opened its first standalone cafe in St. Petersburg, Florida in late July 2026, featuring a 1970s-inspired design and an adjoining roastery. Owner Kenny Beers says the company plans to expand subscriptions and nationwide wholesale roasting.
Sun Bear Specialty Coffee Roasters has opened its first standalone cafe in St. Petersburg, Florida, graduating from roughly five years of markets, pop-ups and a small bar inside a local market to a permanent 1,200-square-foot location on 1942 1st Ave S. The cafe opened in late July, with a grand opening celebration held July 26, and includes an adjoining 800-square-foot roasting facility.
The cafe pairs what the company describes as a laid-back retro aesthetic with its coffee program, which centers on lightly roasted single-origin coffees, including experimental post-harvest processing. Sun Bear’s 1970s-inspired branding carries into the space through a butter-yellow tiled bar, red shelving, pendant lights, and a mix of natural wood and stainless steel. An old-fashioned menu board behind the counter is flanked by a mounted pair of vintage hi-fi speakers.
At the bar, drinks are prepared on a cream-white 2-group Rancilio Classe 5 espresso machine, with an Ethiopian Guji coffee often serving as the espresso base. Some drinks feature house-made syrups or additions such as dragon fruit cold foam. Manual pourovers highlight co-fermented offerings as well as washed-process coffees. In the adjoining space, Owner Kenny Beers roasts coffee for the cafe and wholesale clients on a Yoshan roasting machine.
The food offering is deliberately limited: pastries and light bites come from outside vendors that can deliver frequently. “We use vendors who can deliver to us frequently, as we don’t make food ourselves,” Beers said. “We want it to be good, and we want to focus on the coffee instead.”
A Permanent Home for a Pop-Up Brand
The opening marks a common but difficult milestone for small roasting businesses: the move from low-overhead sales channels — farmers markets, pop-ups and shared retail — into a dedicated brick-and-mortar cafe. Sun Bear built its customer base over roughly five years of such sales before taking on the costs and operational demands of a standalone location.
The combined cafe-and-roastery setup also allows the company to serve both retail customers and wholesale clients from one site, a model that supports Beers’ stated goal of expanding roasting distribution “to an even broader reach across the U.S.” The company has added subscription platforms including Crema.co and Bottomless as part of that push.
For St. Petersburg’s growing specialty coffee scene, the opening adds another roaster-operated cafe to the city’s options, with a sourcing program that draws on importers Unblended, Cafe Imports and Cofinet as well as direct producer relationships.
From Cambodia to Coffee Roasting
Beers’ path to coffee roasting began in Cambodia, where he was teaching music before the pandemic. There, he developed what he describes as a resurgent love of late-1960s and early-1970s music and pop culture — the aesthetic that now defines Sun Bear’s branding. He would sometimes perform at a cafe run by Kakada Nub, a roaster and barista who has ranked prominently in Cambodian national barista competitions.
As the two became friends, Nub taught Beers the basics of roasting before the COVID-19 pandemic forced Beers to return to the United States. He formally established Sun Bear in 2021 and later opened a small coffee bar inside St. Petersburg’s Sans Market. That bar closed at the end of May 2026 so the company could focus on the new cafe. Several bands played at the July 26 grand opening, an occasion Beers described as full-circle for the musician-turned-roaster.
“We were very disciplined with this one thing. We already had a great space, but our Pinterest pinboard was loaded.”
— Kenny Beers, Owner, Sun Bear Coffee
Unanswered Questions About the Expansion
The Daily Coffee News report does not specify the cafe’s hours of operation, staffing levels, or financial details of the opening. Beers’ stated goal of expanding roasting to a broader national reach is a stated ambition, not a confirmed timeline — no specific wholesale targets or dates were given. The long-term role of the subscription partnerships, and whether additional cafe locations are planned, also remain unclear.
Subscription Growth and Broader Roasting Reach
According to Beers, the company’s next steps center on growing its coffee subscriptions through Crema.co and Bottomless, and expanding wholesale roasting distribution across the United States from the new on-site roastery. The cafe at 1942 1st Ave S continues to serve espresso drinks, cold brew, drip coffee, pourovers and vendor-supplied pastries and light bites.
Key Questions
Where is Sun Bear Coffee’s new cafe located?
The standalone cafe is at 1942 1st Ave S, St. Petersburg, Florida. It opened in late July 2026, with a grand opening celebration on July 26.
Is the coffee roasted on-site?
Yes. Owner Kenny Beers roasts coffee for the cafe and wholesale clients on a Yoshan machine in an 800-square-foot space adjoining the 1,200-square-foot cafe.
Does the cafe serve food?
The cafe does not make food in-house. It serves pastries and light bites from outside vendors that deliver frequently, a choice Beers says keeps the focus on coffee.
What happened to Sun Bear’s previous location in Sans Market?
Sun Bear closed its small coffee bar inside St. Petersburg’s Sans Market at the end of May 2026 to focus on the new standalone cafe.
Can you buy Sun Bear coffee outside the cafe?
Yes. The company has added subscription services including Crema.co and Bottomless, and supplies wholesale clients from its roasting operation.
Source: rss
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