Brick and Mortar Coffee Keeps It Simple in Springfield

By Ettie Berneking I Photos By Jessica Spencer
Featured in the January issue of FEAST Magazine

Forget about adding spoonfuls of sugar to your coffee, and don’t even think about asking for soy milk. At Brick & Mortar Coffee in Springfield, piping-hot cups of coffee and espresso are served neat. The only accoutrement offered is whole milk.

“We wanted this to be a reversal of things in the coffee world,” says owner Jonathan Putnam. “We wanted to be less commercial. Simple.”

And simple but exceptionally delicious coffee is exactly what customers will find at Brick & Mortar’s tasting room. Settled into a refurbished motorcycle shop, the caffeinated team behind Brick & Mortar is first and foremost a small-batch coffee roastery that provides roasted beans to a growing number of local businesses.

But past the shiny roasters and bags of green coffee beans is its tasting room, where guests can pull up a bar stool and enjoy the week’s lineup of brews. There is no set drink menu. There is no sugar or cream. There isn’t WiFi. But there is rich, buttery espresso and iced coffee on tap. Using the toddy cold brew method and a custom-built water filtration system, the rich coffee concentrate is stored in kegs and charged with nitro.

Despite how it might sound, there’s nothing about the Brick & Mortar game plan that’s pretentious. You won’t find a drink menu because Putnam and his team want to help guide customers to the best possible cup of coffee. They love their product and don’t want to mask its flavor.

In fact, each Saturday at 1pm, customers are welcome to stop by the shop for a free public cupping that previews the week’s upcoming brews. The cuppings are designed to further build and educate the community – and of course, to share truly excellent cups of coffee.

Brick & Mortar Coffee, 1666 E. St. Louis St., Springfield, Missouri, 417.812.6539, brickandmortarcoffee.com