Crows Coffee expanding to Troost with on-site roasting, wholesale bakery (and eventually a new social activation)

A decade after opening the first Crows Coffee and two more cafes later, owner Zach Moores is undertaking a major expansion — this time with a project encompassing more than 10,500 square feet on Troost Avenue.

While much larger than he planned, the two buildings Moores recently purchased pushed him to expand his vision for the complex. The site will not only be home to his coffee roasting facility but will include a wholesale bakery large enough to accommodate additional metro cafes.

And a second phase will include a cafe and outdoor community gathering space.

“Some people have questioned the location,” he said. “It’s a huge jump for me. A lot of warehouse, a lot to grow into. Even though it is really scary — putting the whole business on the line — I do believe in the vision of this new space.”

The northern building at 3308 Troost looks deceptively small from the front — like a little mom-and-pop shop. But it stretches to the back of the lot. The space — with soaring ceilings, a barrel roof and skylights — has housed a number of different tenants over the years: paint store, auto body repair, a cab company, egg and hen wholesaler, and flea market.

A hodgepodge of wares still need to find new homes — from an upright piano to giant orange letters (from a Home Depot) to a Doc’s Coffee sign.

The southern building at 3314 Troost will be split into two spaces, including a cafe opening into the production area so customers can watch the process.

Moores also owns two empty lots to the south of the buildings — remnants of once heavily landscaped plots remain including a koi pond. It will be converted into an outdoor space where the community can gather.

Before getting into the coffee business, Moores was a catastrophe claims adjuster. He made a good income, but was unhappy living a life on the road with no friends and family around.

“That’s what got me in the coffee shops,” he said. “I befriended the baristas and locals in there. A little feel of the hometown community. As close as I could get to home was in the coffee shops.”

In 2012 he took first big career risk, quitting the insurance industry with no back-up plan. Whatever he did next he just knew would be better.

Moores was recharging on a trip to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, on the sandy banks of the Colorado River, when he thought back to the days of his father’s short-lived Waldo cafe. His father was outgoing, just like Zach, and enjoyed the camaraderie of the shop.

“It just made sense to me,” Moores said. “I knew the social side and could learn the business and coffee side.” 

He’s good at getting good advice in the right places, he said.

Moores turned to SCORE mentors at the U.S. Small Business Administration who offered advice on good and bad locations, and how to put together a suitable business plan. 

His broker had the inside scoop on a space by the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Pride Cleaners wanted to downsize. Moores cashed in his 401(k), oversaw the conversion of part of the cleaners’ space to cafe, and opened his first Crows Coffee at 304 E. 51st St. in 2014. 

It seemed fitting to name it after his favorite creatures: crows.

“They are local, very social, which is what I am,” he said. “They are intelligent and we are right next to UMKC.”

The South Plaza cafe has been a draw for students and faculty at UMKC, area residents, commuters, and people walking and riding their bikes on the Harry Wiggins Trolley Track Trail (just to the west of the cafe).

Customers started giving him crow figurines, paintings of crows and crow-shaped knickknacks. Now they send crow cartoons and memes.

A Waldo location opened about eight years ago at 7440 Washington St. The former Coffee Girls spot had a kitchen that allowed him to bake goods in-house for both locations. But when he opened a third location — this one in Red Bridge Shopping Center at 535 E. Red Bridge Road — in 2018, the tiny kitchen was maxed out. 

Moores started negotiations for a separate wholesale bakery and roasting facility. Then the pandemic hit the metro and the plans were put on hold.

Zach Moores in the future Crows Coffee space on Troost Avenue; photo by Joyce Smith

A year ago, he started searching again.

The Troost production facility is scheduled to open before the end of the year, with the cafe opening a year later.

“I love the thought of kind of being on the forefront of some of the activation of the Troost corridor,” Moores said. “I love that there are already a few coffee shops. And I think that neighborhood really needs a community space, where people can meet and enjoy their neighborhoods.”

Startland News contributor Joyce Smith covered local restaurants and retail for nearly 40 years with The Kansas City Star. Click here to follow her on Bluesky, here for X (formerly Twitter), here for Facebook, here for Instagram, and by following #joyceinkc on Threads.