The company roasts its own beans and serves its hand-crafted local coffee in their new, downtown location on Third Street.

What was once a department store called “Murphy’s” has now been transformed into a delightful cafe and coffee roasting operation decked out in white and black, thanks to Sarah and Michael Bigney. The Bigneys are proud to offer single-origin coffees in bags, espresso beverages, pour-over coffee and more.

Their desire is to celebrate the coffee and community camaraderie, and not to become a restaurant.

The pair’s coffee-laden journey began when Michael started roasting beans at their home, located on Crown Street. He said his love of coffee caused him to research roasting.

From left, Sarah and Michael Bigney, Crown Street Roasting Company owners, not only roast their own beans, but also handcraft each beverage that leaves the cafe. P-J photo by Katrina Fuller

“I started roasting coffee a little over two years ago,” he said. “I just started basically for myself, and shared it with friends and family, and they liked it. Then, last November, we decided to do a two-day craft show, and sell the beans. It went over well.”

Michael said at that point, they decided to venture into coffee shop ownership.

The coffee shop recently opened and the local-centric atmosphere has been a hit with are residents and more, they said.

Sarah said the idea is to be a welcoming, laid back place everyone likes to be at.

“I’m the supportive wife of the entrepreneur here,” she said with a grin. “I just want this to be a space where people just want to be.”

She said students, families and everyone in between are welcome to come in and hang out. In the future, they are looking to have live music and other events. Likewise, she hopes to have an experience for people to see the roasting process.

The downtown location is ideal, Michael said, adding he is hopeful his experience will allow others to put their hands to work in the downtown area as well. The location was chosen for its features, but also for it’s centralized location between the National Comedy Center and the Reg Lenna.

“It just made sense because it was available,” Michael said. “Hopefully people see ‘if they can do it, I can do it, too,’ and pretty soon, we’ll have a pretty great place to be.”

Sarah said they are thrilled to “contribute to the Renaissance that Jamestown is going through.”

“We want other people to have that vision and also start businesses down here also,” she said.

In the back of the cafe, a window shows the roaster where the magic happens. Currently, the business is focusing on roasting single-origin coffee and has a different type available each day, such as their “Peru” or “Brazil” coffees.

Michael said he roasts coffee on an as needed basis to provide customers with an excellent, “freshest of the fresh” cup of coffee.

“Every single thing we use is roasted here,” Michael said. “I just want to make sure they’re getting the freshest possible. That definitely made an impact for me, because I was always into coffee, but until you truly taste the fresh coffee, you don’t know.”

The shop is located at 16 W. Third St. in Jamestown. They are open Monday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. They are closed on Sunday.

For more information, visit crownstreetroasting.com or call 708-6136.