Tinker Coffee Co. invests in downtown with new café

Tinker Coffee Co., the Indianapolis roaster that has seen its beans used to brew drinks at cafes and restaurants throughout the city, is opening its own full-blown dine-in cafe downtown.

The 1,900-square-foot counter service shop will open street level at 360 Market Square, a 28-story apartment building at 360 E. Market St.

Expect Tinker classics like its 5 Spice Latte, which combines cinnamon, black peppercorn, Thai chili, clove and star anise.

Coffee flights, single-origin espressos, classic breakfast sandwiches, biscuits and gravy, and small bites will also be on the menu.

It will have an outside patio when it opens in the second quarter of 2023.

“This just seemed to be the right place, right time,” said co-owner Stephen Hall. “With so many people working from home now, it's nice to have spots where if you want to get out of the house and maybe do some emails, or what have you, you have spots like this around downtown.”

“That’s our hope; to make it a really good spot for people to get out of the house for a little bit and to be part of a more vibrant downtown.”

It helps that the space was already set up for a coffee shop, he said. It had housed a Starbucks that closed early in the coronavirus pandemic.

Tinker had been looking to open a cafe for several years, said Hall, who started the company with his brother-in-law, Jeff Johnson, in 2014.

The plan was to open one at its roastery at 1125 W. 16th St.

“We had all the designs set and all the plans done and then Covid happened. We ended up needing the space we were going to turn into a cafe for storage,” he said.

In the meantime, Tinker Co. set about gaining more exposure with a couple of developments at Indianapolis International Airport, licensing to OHM Concession Group, which opened a Tinker Cafe at the facility’s Concourse B in March 2021, and later Tinker Bistro, which serves beer, wine and small plates along Concourse A.

In April 2021, Tinker Coffee Co. opened a cafe in a shipping container at the AMP food hall at the 16 Tech Innovation District, 1220 Waterway Blvd.

The Market Street shop will provide more space for equipment to produce more elevated coffee drinks, espressos and baked goods, Hall said.  Space limitations had restricted Tinker to preparing foods with a rapid cook oven.

“At The AMP, we are somewhat limited as to how much equipment we can put into that container space,” he said.

Also a plus for the location are the surrounding apartments, as well as other local development, Hall said.

“We feel like that zone downtown has a lot of really great potential and there's a lot of exciting things happening in that part of town,” he said.  “We’re downtown folks. We really think a strong downtown is full of lots of great coffee shops.”

Tinker Coffee will maintain its cafe at The AMP.

Contact IndyStar reporter Cheryl V. Jackson at cheryl.jackson@indystar.com or 317-444-6264. Follow her on Twitter: @cherylvjackson.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Coffee shops in Indianapolis: Tinker Coffee Co. expands to downtown