Coffee Company Eyes Move to Del Ray

If you miss the smell of fresh-baked bread that once floated in the air on E. Monroe Avenue, your olfactory system might soon sense a new aroma in the southeast end of Del Ray.

M.E. Swing Coffee Roasters has filed a permit application with the city to open a facility with a cafe in the located at 501 E. Monroe Avenue.

Swing’s Coffees, which has roasted beans in the Washington, D.C. area since 1916, has operated out of a roastery on S. Pickett Street in Alexandria’s West End since 1989. 

“We just need a better area to conduct our business,” said Mark Warmuth, president and owner of Swing’s Coffees. “We can conduct our work fine, but our current facility doesn’t give us a chance to showcase our products. … [This space] offers a lot of visibility and is good setup for us.”

The Monroe Avenue location will be for coffee roasting, storage, wholesale distribution and office space. It will also include a retail space open seven days a week where patrons can “explore and view the roasting process” and “sample and purchase roasted coffees” by the pound and the cup, according to the application.

The cafe, which will face E. Monroe Avenue, is also expected to sell premium chocolates and baked goods from local producers.

Swing’s currently has a coffee house on G Street in the District that does well with White House and World Bank staffers, Warmuth said.

“It has an excellent reputation with decades-long customers,” he said.

Also included in the floor plan is a coffee “cupping” room for wholesale customers to test and sample various roasted coffees.

The cupping room will be open to the public once a week and for private tours, “serving the purpose of enabling patrons to learn more about the coffee cupping, roasting and quality evaluation process,” according to the application.

The application is scheduled to go before the Alexandria Planning Commission on June 5.