Fable Roasters Comes to Life in St. Cloud, Minnesota

Inside the Fable Roasters headquarters in St. Cloud. Photo by Switchboard Marketing Agency, courtesy of Fable Roasters.

St. Cloud, Minnesota-based Kinder Coffee Lab spun off its roasting operation into a standalone company earlier this year under the name Fable Roasters, with a new production roastery now up and running. 

Head Roaster Daniel Binsfeld works a 6-kilo Mill City Roasters machine inside an approximately 1,800-square-foot space the Fable crew has been remodeling over the past year, after Kinder Coffee co-owners Guytano Magno, Taylor Feero and Ryan Schoepf bought the building.

Kinder previously roasted on a Bellwether machine at its original St. Cloud cafe then transitioned to the larger Mill City machine a couple years ago. Moving the roastery freed up room to expand the kitchen at the Cooper Avenue shop.

Photo by Switchboard Marketing Agency, courtesy of Fable Roasters.

Meanwhile, earlier this year, Kinder Coffee also acquired the former Rock Creek Coffeehouse in Sauk Rapids, converting it into the second Kinder cafe.

The same ownership group now also co-owns Fable Roasters, which was formally launched in late September to create two distinct brands and cultures. 

“Our coffee shops can continue to push into community, gathering, atmosphere, warmth and person-to-person experience,” Taylor Feero told Daily Coffee News. “Our roaster can deep-dive into the farmers, importers, nerdy roasting specifics and all of the fun, scientific and artsy things that make up the roasting culture.”

Fable’s freestanding building at 403 Ninth Ave. North in St. Cloud was built in the 1930s. It housed the Fourth Ward Market for decades, later became home to a photography studio and, more recently, an antique and retail space before its latest life as Fable’s HQ.

Photo by Switchboard Marketing Agency, courtesy of Fable Roasters.

Under the Kinder Coffee Lab name, the roasting program has turned out blends named for local attractions and landmarks, including Munsinger Light Roast, Wobegon Medium Roast and St. Germain Dark Roast. Those profiles will remain on the Kinder menu, while Fable will place more emphasis on transparency and the origins of its coffees.

“We want to continue to push deeper into the coffee bean culture and the farms that work hard to produce them,” said Feero. “So we will likely move in the direction of naming the beans and roasts around the farmers and families that produce the beans.”

Fable Roasters Head Roaster Daniel Binsfeld. Photo by Switchboard Marketing Agency, courtesy of Fable Roasters.

Fable Roasters plans to host tastings and tours in the roastery but will otherwise remain a production-only facility. With a new website under construction and expected to go live in about a month, the company will focus on whole-bean sales online and to wholesale customers while also building out a coffee-based fundraising program for local nonprofits.

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