Coffee By Design is closing its coffeehouse at 43 Washington Ave. in Portland. The company announced the decision in a Facebook post to its customers late Monday.
Company founders and co-owners Mary Allen Lindemann and Alan Spear said that they sold the building last year to Rob Evans and Nancy Pugh, owners of Duckfat, a restaurant at 43 Middle St. in Portland, and “after months of careful review” have decided not to renew the coffee shop’s lease. The Washington Avenue location opened in 2005. Pugh and Evans opened a takeout Friteshack in the Washington Avenue building in June, to sell the restaurant’s famous Belgian fries, as well as milkshakes and craft sodas.
“We look forward to seeing what they choose to do, which will surely add to this already wonderful neighborhood,” Lindemann and Spear wrote. “In the meantime, Coffee By Design at Washington Avenue will continue as usual with the final day of business February 28, 2019.”
Evans could not immediately be reached for comment about his plans for the space.
Employees will be offered positions at other Coffee By Design locations on India Street, Diamond Street and Congress Street in Portland, and at the Freeport store in L.L. Bean. The Diamond Street coffeehouse is just a few blocks from the Washington Avenue and India Street locations. When the Diamond Street location opened about five years ago, it took over the roasting operation that had been housed on Washington Avenue, quadrupling the company’s roasting capacity from 500,000 pounds a year to 2 million pounds a year.
The first Coffee By Design coffeehouse opened in 1994 on Congress Street in Portland.
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