A new coffee shop opened July 26 in a familiar space in a residential section of Maplewood.
Kentzo Koffee (2500 Sutton) has moved into the corner building previously inhabited by Looking Meadow Café and Stone Spiral Coffee & Curios.
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Owned by two brothers in their 20s, the shop focuses on exceptional quality, sourcing and roasting beans from the top 3 percent available worldwide. It’s open for breakfast, pastries, and lunch seven days a week.
Here’s what to know before you go.
The Space
The atmosphere is crisp, clean, and minimalist, with seating for 30 across two rooms and space for another 24 on the patio. The former café’s green walls are now a sleek medium-grey, and the whimsical cow prints have been replaced with glossy photos of places meaningful to the owners, including Yosemite, Alaska, and Killington, Vermont.
Some features remain unchanged; the white stone counter and downlighting still complement the updated aesthetic. “The conversion was largely cosmetic,” says Hunter, noting that they’re also adding acoustic panels to help reduce ambient noise.
Among the new additions is a high-end Synesso espresso machine, rare in St. Louis due to limited distribution, John says. “It uses a five-second pre-infusion to saturate the puck and a post-infusion, both of which draw out unique flavors and oils,” explains John. “Many machines skip both steps.”
The patio also got an upgrade in line with the brothers’ environmental ethos: Raised flowerbeds now host native-to-Missouri plants designed to attract hummingbirds and butterflies.
“Looking over the native plants into the park across the street makes the patio feel extra special,” says John. “It’s part of our commitment to conservation.”
The Food
“Our pastry chef clocks in at 3 a.m. every day,” says Hunter, ensuring that everything is baked fresh daily. This weekend’s pastry offerings include banana pecan muffins, blueberry scones, cinnamon rolls, apple turnovers, brownie bites, biscuits, and a variety of cookies.
Savory breakfast options include a customizable breakfast bowl with your choice of protein, paired with potatoes, bell peppers, and onions. Also available are a yogurt parfait, a homemade biscuit sandwich, and two toasts—avocado and fig with goat cheese—served on sourdough sourced from Bricklayer Bakery and Café in Troy, Missouri. “Everything except the bread is made in-house,” Hunter notes.
At lunch, the sourdough reappears in several panini-style sandwiches. The lineup includes a grilled cheese, a BLT, and two club sandwiches, including a Maple Balsamic Turkey Bacon Club with provolone. Two green salads round out the menu: one with seasonal fruit, goat cheese, and pecans, and another with bacon, diced apples, and pecans.
“Our goal was to keep the menu as healthy as possible,” says John. “We avoid processed foods and don’t use seed oils.”
The Coffee Program
The Iffland brothers take particular pride in their coffee program, which begins with sourcing beans from the top 3 percent of specialty-grade coffee worldwide. “We air-roast everything,” says John, “which develops the coffee from the inside out. Traditional drum roasters use direct heat and cook from the outside in, which can result in hot spots, over-roasting, and scorched beans. Air roasting reduces bitterness and preserves more of the oils and sugars, resulting in a smoother, more flavorful brew.”
John points out that air roasting is still relatively uncommon because it doesn’t scale as easily as traditional methods—something that’s kept large commercial roasters from adopting it. “But the difference is huge. It allows the distinct character of each growing region to come through, while drum roasting tends to flatten those differences. Some people say dark roasts are always burnt or bitter, and they can be but not when they’re air roasted. I like to say our dark roast is for people who don’t like dark roasts.”
To maintain consistency and quality, the brothers work with a company that evaluates and scores every batch of beans. Their coffee supplier also participates in Volcafe Way, a global network that supports coffee farmers, ensures living wages, and promotes sustainable growing practices—values that align with the brothers’ conservation-minded approach.
The coffee bar serves espresso and brewed coffee drinks, along with chai tea latte. Hot coffee comes in three sizes and iced coffee in three larger ones. The current in-house selection includes an espresso roast, a decaf, a Costa Rican drip, and a dark roast.
Kentzo also sells seven varieties of coffee for home brewing, priced at $17 for a 12-ounce biodegradable bag. The lineup primarily features beans from Central and South America, with limited seasonal releases—such as an Ethiopian roast—available a few times a year.
While retail is the focus, Kentzo also offers a small-scale wholesale program, and their beans are already featured in several local spots, including Grounded and Free in St. Charles, and the aforementioned Bricklayer Café in Troy.
The Iffland brothers are blessed with an ample supply of labor. Staffers include their father, John Iffland, Sr, a special ed teacher who’s also “Kentzo’s warehouse manager and its biggest cheerleader,” as well as students from Lutheran South High School, where Hunter is a football coach.
The Backstory
The Iffland brothers have been roasting coffee for almost five years. Initially, their plan was to sell coffee beans online, but they expanded their business plan after they attended their first farmers’ market in Arnold.
“First, we sold just the beans,” Hunter recalls, “then brewed coffee, cold brew, and coffee drinks, which led to us doing the same at more markets—we maxed out at four during the week and six on Saturday—and guests eventually asking about a storefront.”
What began as a bean-selling venture gradually transformed into something much more community-oriented. “The mission shifted from just selling coffee to creating a space people could really feel a part of,” Hunter says. Eventually, that mission led to their first brick-and-mortar location.
The corner at 2500 Sutton has long been a coffee destination, with Stone Spiral operating there for 14 years, followed by Looking Meadow Café. “There’s a long history of coffee here,” Hunter says, “and we’re happy to continue that legacy.”
As for the name Kentzo, there’s no elaborate origin story. “We just liked how it sounded,” John says. “It flowed well, and the domain was available.” (“Having the Z helps,” Hunter adds.)
Conservation has long been important to the Iffland family. A portion of Kentzo’s early profits went to environmental causes, eventually inspiring the launch of the Kentzo Clean Up Project (CUP), a community initiative that organizes local neighborhood cleanups. Their website captures the spirit behind it all: Just two brothers looking to leave the world better than we found it.
Looking ahead, “the plan is to repeat all this somewhere else,” Hunter says.
“We’re both young. We’ve got another 50 years,” John adds. “This is just the beginning for us.”
📍2500 Sutton, Maplewood
⏰Hours: 7 a.m. – 2 p.m. Mon-Fri; 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. Sat-Sun
