The owners of PT's Coffee Roasting Co. are branching out into the world of cutting-edge cafes with a new location in Topeka's College Hill neighborhood.

Flying Monkey Handcrafted Brews, 1500 S.W. 17th St., opens Friday, Dec. 2, serving up PT's signature coffee, fresh, local food and a selection of local and regional microbrews.

The idea for the new cafe started out simply enough: PT's owners Jeff Taylor and Fred Polzin wanted to open a store to use as a source of inspiration for their wholesale customers across the country. What better way to show customers how to spotlight their quality coffee than to have a store of their own to hold up as an example?

PT's original retail location, located at 5660 SW 29th St. in the Barrington Village shopping center, opened in 1993. Taylor said the industry has changed a lot since then, and he wanted to show customers a new side of the company.

"We love that store, and we're always going to pay attention to it," Taylor said. "That's our baby. But we also wanted to offer something new for Topeka. We felt like we wanted to do a store that was more contemporary, more on the cutting edge of the coffee industry, more like what you would see in New York or LA."

The cafe's design is sleek and minimalistic – all about clean lines and modern touches. The carefully chosen decor includes a bench fashioned from a fallen tree and a table made from a refurbished portion of a bowling alley floor. Outside is a scenic seating area with a leafy view of the adjacent Washburn campus.

In addition to the new look, Flying Monkey's playful moniker is also a departure from the familiar PT's brand. Holly Bastin, PT's director of retail, said the name (inspired by the company's Flying Monkey Espresso) was chosen to reintroduce the company's brand.

"If we were opening another PT's, people would probably anticipate a lot of the same things we've already done in the past," Bastin said. "We want people to have a fresh perspective on what we do."

The cafe's primary focus will be on its coffee, and accordingly, one of the most important purchases made for the new cafe was its espresso machine: a stainless steel Synesso. Taylor and Bastin said investment in a state-of-the-art machine was a no brainer for any shop serious about making quality coffee.

"We're going to be a lot different than anything Topeka's ever really seen – just our ethos of brewing by the cup and showcasing the coffees a little more prevalently," Bastin said. "We will have flavors, but it will be like four or five at a time. It will be thoughtful. We will be intentional in how we present coffee."

Food offerings will include sandwiches, soups, salads, quiche and baked goods – all with a focus on fresh, local ingredients. The alcohol selection will include some of the proprietors' favorites, including beer from Topeka's own Blind Tiger Brewery and Zacapa – a Guatemalan rum popular with the coffee-sourcing crowd.

Taylor said he had his eye on a College Hill location since construction on the retail complex began years ago. His dream became a reality after a visit from Robert Krause, co-owner of The Burger Stand, which opened in September. After Krause told Taylor of his plans to open a location of his popular Lawrence restaurant in College Hill, Taylor pledged to do the same.

The owners expect a ready audience to step in when Flying Monkey opens. It is located a stone's throw from the Washburn University campus and about six blocks from two area hospitals. Taylor jokingly described students, doctors and nurses as "high-caffeine consumers."

When the customers start bustling through the doors this weekend, Bastin and Taylor said they will be met by a highly trained staff of sixteen employees who have spent the past month learning and perfecting the art of serving quality coffee drinks.

"Our staff's been training for quite a long time now," Taylor said. They've been tested, reviewed, grilled, and we sent them through an obstacle course and made them do sixty push-ups," Taylor said, laughing.

All joking aside, the Flying Monkey staff members are serious about their handcrafted coffee drinks.

"We want to make sure that first and foremost, our coffee is excellent. We take coffee seriously, not ourselves."