Portland coffee company becomes first in Maine to ratify contract with labor union
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We collaborate with Efficiency Maine to implement sustainability practices. Co-founders Alan Spear and Mary Allen Lindemann stand outside the first Coffee By Design coffeehouse on Congress Street in Portland, Maine. We don't use automatic machines, but lean into the art, the experience, the human touch that makes coffee preparation an act of craftsmanship.
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A few years later it became the site of our first coffee roastery as CBD began handcrafting specialty coffee. Today, the India Street coffeehouse remains a community anchor as the India Street neighborhood continues to grow. Portland’s Coffee by Design signed a collective bargaining agreement with its baristas, becoming the first independently owned coffee shop in Maine to sign such a contract. Owner Mary Allen Lindemann announced the closure Monday, a couple weeks after saying the Congress Street location would be temporarily closed because of a staffing shortage. Coffee By Design’s two other Portland retail locations and its roastery, which sells coffee to some 650 stores and restaurants, will remain open. With four locations in Greater Portland (including one in the flagship L.L. Bean store), Coffee By Design is Portland's oldest coffee roaster, celebrating 25 years in business this year.
Judging "Cupping the Mountain’s Peak."
Lindemann, who became the company’s sole owner about a year ago, said the Congress Street location was down to about two to three regular staff members when it closed. She said those employees were given jobs at the other retail locations, on Diamond Street in East Bayside and on India Street in the East End. The company had its roastery and a coffee shop on Washington Avenue until 2019, but closed that location after it sold the building.
Welcome from Mary Allen Lindemann
Find places to stay, things to do, restaurants, shops, group meeting services, venues, and much more. Coffee By Design wins the Macro Roaster of the Year award from Roast magazine, the bible of the specialty coffee trade. Our Washington Street location is expanded and the roastery is relocated there from India Street.
It’s been a regular hangout for her since she moved to Portland from New York City in 2008 – a place to see familiar faces, grab a coffee while doing errands or just get out of the house for a few minutes. The location’s closing had nothing to do with workers at all Coffee By Design locations recently announcing their intent to form a union, said Lindemann, and company management has filed paperwork to voluntarily recognize the effort of about 20 baristas. The organizer working with the employees, Jason J. Shedlock of Local 327 of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, also said that factors that led to the closing were “in the works” before the union effort. The business's 20 front-of-house staff workers decided to join Local 327 of the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA).
Our strict safety policies cover all food preparation, customer service and facility maintenance in our retail and roastery operations.We follow CDC, FDA, local, state, specialty coffee and hospitality industry recommendations. Coffee By Design started doing business in 1994 and was one of the earliest and most progressive fair-trade coffee shops in Portland. Its roastery, which sells coffee beans to over 600 businesses and has an on-site cafe, is at 1 Diamond St. Its other coffeehouse is at 67 India St. Friday’s news contrasts with unionization efforts by workers at a national coffee chain with shops in Maine’s biggest city. Starbucks closed its Old Port location at the corner of Exchange and Middle streets late in 2022, a month after employees there voted to form a union.
Coffee By Design and baristas who are a part of Local 327 of the Laborers' International Union of North America have reached an agreement that includes 2 pay increases within a year. Baristas and front-of-house staff at Coffee by Design have successfully joined a union. After voting unanimously and signing the contract earlier this week, they are now the newest members of Local 327 of the laborers' union. We were quickly embraced by the neighborhood, and are grateful for each and every personwho stopped in to buy a cup of coffee and offer us encouraging words. We would not be heretoday, celebrating our 25th year in business, without the support, and love, we felt — and stilldo — every day.
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As it did with so many, the COVID pandemic upended our best-laid plans, but it also helped us reassess our priorities. We put our values into action—retaining staff, continuing our philanthropical efforts, and banding together as a family to get through the toughest times together. In 2023, Alan left the company to pursue other interests, selling his shares to Mary Allen, making Coffee By Design a proudly 100% woman-owned business.
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Lindemann said business at the Congress Street location was hurt badly by the pandemic and continues to suffer from an apparent lack of office workers in downtown Portland looking for a morning fix of caffeine. The company’s overall financial performance was further diminished in June when the Coffee By Design location at L.L. Bean in Freeport was forced to close because of planned renovations there. The temporary closure of the Portland coffee shop this month has become permanent. Stopped by to grab a coffee on my way out of Portland and for my drive back to NYC. They had a large selection of different roasts and I grabbed a bag that fit a flavor profile I was looking for.
Back in the ’90s we helped jumpstart Portland’s “Buy Local” movement and inaugurated our Rebel Blend Fund—one dollar per pound sold of our Rebel Blend coffee is used to fund art projects which promote social change. Mary Allen and Alan at the Diamond Street ribbon cutting. The new location houses CBD’s main offices, our roastery, and a coffeehouse. This event marks the beginning of a period of significant growth. On April 24, mixologist and bartender Jim Meehan will also be at Stumptown as part of West End Wednesday, serving up coffee-based, non-alcoholic cocktails. To noon, Stumptown is hosting a city cleanup with SOLVE, starting at the Stumptown cafe on Southwest 3rd Avenue and ending at the new 11W cafe.
Michael Levine, who opened the Oak Street Theatre a couple blocks off Congress Street in 1994, said he felt it was “brave and bold” of Lindemann and Spear to open a gourmet coffee shop in that spot at that time. He and others in the theater community were happy to have a place to go, and Coffee By Design became a sponsor of many shows at Oak Street Theatre. There's a good mix of people popping in for a cup to go and others posting up for a while. As more of a neighborhood stop, the Diamond Street shop is one of the only locations in the area for meetings, laptop work, and catch-ups with a friend.
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