After four years of micro-roasting out of a small garage in St. Pete, Sun Bear Specialty Coffee Roasters has opened its first cafe in the EDGE District.

Sun Bear has set up shop in the back of Sans Market, a zero-waste retail store located at 1037 Central Avenue, serving their farmer-forward single-origin coffee and espresso drinks.

The quaint cafe is outfitted with a wooden bar stacked on top of concrete blocks and a shelf stocked with retail bags of Sun Bear coffee beans sourced from international producers.

“I'm big on the farmers who produce the coffee and the process it goes through,” owner Kenny Beers said to St. Pete Rising.

The packaged coffee beans specifically highlight the producers, or those responsible for processing the beans after harvesting. These producers are often heralded as celebrities by Beers and other coffee aficionados, and include names such as Andres Cardona and Sebastian Ramirez.

Behind the bar, Beers can be seen light roasting his single-origin coffees and pouring cold brews on tap.

Sun Bear Cafe's espresso drinks and cold brews go for $6 while hot coffee is priced at $4, and espresso shots sell for $2. The drinks can be mixed with homemade organic syrups like vanilla, lavender, or sweetened and condensed Vietnamese syrup.

The new cafe also offers baked goods like ginger bars and blondies from St. Pete-based micro bakery Two Bite Tuesday.

Beers said his holistic approach to coffee and serving the community aligns with Sans Market, which has a mission of helping people move away from single-use plastic, toxins, and excess packaging by selling reusable and natural products.

“We’ve done numerous events here at Sans Market and we’ve always felt our core values were similar,” Beers said. “This partnership seemed like a natural fit.”

In addition to Sans Market, Sun Bear sells its retail coffee bags at Rollin' Oats, Earth Origins' St. Pete and Sarasota stores, and Pete's Bagels.

Beers started roasting coffee out of his son's apartment in St. Pete shortly after a stint in Cambodia.

“I lived in Cambodia for years working with at-risk children, teaching them music, and taking them to the zoo where we’d go see Sun Bears [hence the coffee shop name]. We looked for opportunities to showcase their talent and one place happened to be a coffee shop that I went to all the time. The guy at the shop at the time was a champion barista and he showed me how to roast,” Beers said.

Inspired by his roasting experience in Cambodia, Beers started roasting coffee from his second-story apartment upon his return to St. Pete during the onset of the COVID pandemic.

The heavenly aroma of the freshly roasted coffee beans quickly caught the attention of a neighbor who continuously asked for coffee.

After word of mouth spread, Beers decided to officially launch Sun Bear and started selling coffee at the weekly Royal Palm Market in St. Petersburg and the Winthrop Pop Up Market in Riverview.

Pete’s Bagels was the first brick-and-mortar business he partnered with, providing them with retail bags of coffee to sell.

Now, after years of vending at local markets and selling at a handful of local shops, Sun Bear has debuted its first cafe.

Sun Bear Cafe is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily and is closed on Tuesdays.

Be sure to follow Sun Bear on Instagram and Facebook for the latest coffee specials.