Kaleidoscope Craft Brew Coffee will open a storefront in the brand’s hometown of Belleville. The roastery, brewery, and mobile coffee bar’s owners, Chris and Elizabeth Thele, have purchased a building near Lebanon Avenue and North Illinois Street, just five blocks from the public square in the heart of Belleville. While there’s not an official opening date, Chris says the aim is to be open this fall.
When the couple launched Kaleidoscope, in 2019, they envisioned a brick-and-mortar location as a longer-term ambition, possibly after five years. Instead, they made the leap after only three years, in no small part because of the pandemic.
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“When the world shut down, our main avenues for wholesale were gone, so we thought, If this is who we are, this company no longer exists,” Chris says.
Prior to the pandemic, Kaleidoscope had already built a reputation for its craft cold-brew coffees, created using the same techniques, filters, and tanks used for brewing beer, resulting in a cold coffee with a bold flavor and distinctive mouthfeel.
In addition to canning its coffee for wholesale distribution, Kaleidoscope traveled to events across the metro area with two distinctive mobile coffee trucks, which are also available for hire. For a time, the brand also made regular appearances at 4204 Main Street Brewing Co. in Belleville.
Then the past year changed everything. “It accelerated us into doing other things that we hoped to do in time,” Chris says. “But it became a need, where we had to do those things to succeed.”
Belleville seemed like the natural place to set up Kaleidoscope’s flagship café. “It’s where Kaleidoscope was birthed, our roastery is still based in Belleville, and people have been asking, ‘Where can we find you on a daily basis?’” Chris says. “It made sense.”
The new location won’t have space for dine-in business. Instead, it will combine walk-up service with a drive-thru operation. “We’re basically turning a vintage McDonald’s double drive-thru into a killer specialty coffee shop,” Chris says. “It allows us to go beyond typical capacity for a coffee shop.”
There will also be a counter for walk-up orders. “We’re thinking about adding what we call a coffee garden,” Chris says. “We want to create an outdoor space where people can hang out and have meetings, a place for the community.”
The constant, Chris says, will be the same attention to detail that the Kaleidoscope team applies to the final product. “Unique packaging, high-precision brewing—we care about it a tremendous amount,” he says. “We want the experience to be even better than the last time that the customer bought from us. That’s a win, because now we’ve created a memory that this person is going to walk away with.”
In the future, the Theles also hope to establish a Kaleidoscope presence on the other side of the Mississippi. “In the next year to a year and a half, having something on the St. Louis side would be pretty satisfying,” Chris says.
The owners are “equal parts excited and freaked out,” says Chris. They’re still in the process of figuring out some of the challenges, but they are determined to move forward. “When you have an opportunity like this,” Chris says, “you have to go all in.”
