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Parisi Café: Single-Origin Specialty Coffees Anchor the Complete Italian Café Experience

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I’ve loved Parisi Coffee for a long time. We’ve been grinding Parisi Coffee beans in my kitchen at home for years. It’s going to be difficult to decide which is better now that new Parisi Café is open and so convenient, right in the heart of downtown Overland Park; I may be sipping my morning coffees in this beautiful new café each morning.

Parisi Artisan Coffee has been in KC for more than 15 years and delivers an unmistakable coffee experience catering to sophisticated coffee drinkers. The coffee company was started by a longtime Kansas City family who had a passion for Italian espresso. I’ve been told that’s how you truly know a good coffee. As owners of a successful Kansas City specialty food business, Paris Brothers Inc., the company executives set out to create a coffee, and that’s when Parisi Artisan Coffee was born in 2006. Today known as Parisi Coffee, the company works with coffee bean farmers throughout the world to import and roast the world’s highest-quality green Arabica coffees, with a focus on single origins and a rotating variety of the world’s finest coffees. 

“Conceiving our own coffee brand that exudes everything we love about coffee has been my family’s passion for many years. We’ve always been foodies and had a fondness for anything artisan style, so this specialty premiere coffee is what we love,” said Joseph Paris,  co-founder of Paris Brothers Inc., the parent company of Parisi Coffee.

Parisi Coffee, a name that is based on the owners of Paris Brothers’ original Italian heritage, has rapidly grown since its inception. Today the company produces packaged coffee for sale, sells to restaurants, has an ecommerce business and has two cafes, Union Station and the new café in downtown Overland Park, 7261 W. 80th Street, open daily from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. It offers a complete Italian café experience including barista-prepared lattes, cappuccinos, iced coffees and more, all freshly brewed for each order. 

The Slow Bar, a prominent feature at the café and perhaps a little contrary to what most people think about when quickly grabbing a coffee to go, features unique brewing methods that allow the customers to “slow down” and participate in more of an interactive coffee experience. Baristas have selected distinct coffees for different brewing methods including pour-overs, immersion and a Japanese slow drip brewing method called Kyoto.

Customers will love the unique Italian-inspired specialty coffee drinks such as the Cold Brew Shandy. It’s made with cold-brewed coffee mixed with fresh lemonade and house-made vanilla. In fact, that’s a central theme here; ingredients are made from scratch and created in house. The House Brew and the featured single origin Cold Brew are equally refreshing. The Spiced Pumpkin Latte, also available this month and a longtime guest fav, is made with real pumpkin! 

I sampled a few of the made-from-scratch pastries, including an amazing autumn feature, the Maple Pecan Scone, along with a year-round favorite, the Palmier, a heart-shaped French pastry made with layers of dough and butter; enough said! The scratch-made concept developed as Joseph Paris and the Parisi Coffee team were working to source just the right croissant to pair with their new coffee. But when they couldn’t immediately put their hands on what they were looking for, they decided to open a scratch bakery along with their coffee shop, hiring  chefs and developing their own recipes. This is how they refined the Parisi Café concept and built the brand into a marriage of made-to-order coffee drinks along with breakfast items, pastries, sandwiches, salads and other items created by chefs especially for the café.

As a longtime customer of Parisi Coffee and the café at Union Station, I was surprised to learn about Parisi Catering. Specializing in individually wrapped sandwiches, salads, a fabulous hummus tray, imported cheese tray, specialty olives and more, the catering business is led by Corporate Chef Kevin Johnson and Director of Café Operations Rob Pfuetze, both formerly of Dean & Deluca in New York. Because the specialty items are conveniently sourced from Paris Brothers, the catering business is able to collaborate and develop recipes for business and home clients at great price points.

The minute you walk into Parisi Café, you feel the welcoming environment. The café has an uncluttered counter ensuring customers are able to watch as their coffees are brewed and prepared. You will also note that management is diligently focused on the safety of customers and the team especially during this time;  masks are required for guests not actively eating or drinking, tables are spaced to allow social distancing, thorough sanitizing of tables and the café are regularly and thoroughly sanitized, and staff members are also required to wear masks.

Parisi Café is a place that I will return to, meet friends, work for a few hours on my own and simply enjoy the ambiance and space. Cheers to this gorgeous atmosphere and its divine eats and drinks. Saluti!

Visit parisicoffee.com to learn more and preview Parisi Café’s specialty coffees.

Written by: Megan Neher

Journalist-turned-PR-professional Megan Neher has never forgotten her true first love: writing. Today, Megan owns her own PR firm, Megan Neher Public Relations; she’s a wife, mom, marketer, student and spends a lot of time cleaning up after her four pets and two teenagers. Her dream is to live on a tropical beach somewhere where she can stroll barefoot to a nearby grass hut for a fish taco and margarita.