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The historic Roundhouse building on the corner of 21st Street and Highway 24 will have a new coffee option as of mid-May, tentatively. Called
Blank Coffee/Food, it’s owned by Alex Baum and Vance Garrett.
Locals may know Baum from his time as the front-of-house manager at Wild Goose Meeting House, from its opening through 2015, after which he moved to Boulder to open cafés with a company called Alpine Modern. In 2017, he decided to move back and start Blank after he and wife Abigail, a co-owner at Loyal Coffee, had their first child.
Garrett runs a small company called Congruent Services; he installs and services espresso equipment along the Front Range for clients including Alpine Modern. He and Baum have been friends for some time now.
Baum says Blank will serve coffee and espresso made with Denver’s Middle State Coffee and tea from Chicago’s Spirit Tea, plus all-natural dairy from Bellvue, Colorado’s Morning Fresh Dairy. Notably, they will not be serving Loyal beans, in order to keep a clear separation between the Baums’ businesses. Still, customers can expect third-wave coffee quality, albeit made a little more accessible.
“I’ve been in the industry so long that I’m kind of over the pretentiousness of coffee,” says Baum. “Our whole goal is to serve specialty coffee in a good way.”
Blank will also offer breakfast and fast-service bites. House-made donuts will range from standard glazed and cinnamon-sugar to more adventurous flavors — current staff favorites from early tastings are the peach-jalapeño and the strawberry lemonade. They’ll also offer “torpedo” baguette sandwiches, grain and veggie bowls, and toasts, some with sous vide eggs.