The final cup of coffee will soon be served at a Saratoga Springs staple.
Just a few days before it closes, Saratoga Coffee Traders still sees regular lines out the front door. Founded in 2006, it has been a pillar of the Spa City’s coffee scene amid tough competition from the likes of Uncommon Grounds and Kru Coffee.
Skidmore College senior Max McGuire, a loyal Coffee Traders customer, has her favorite
“This has just been a lot." McGuire said, "and it's like when I came in my freshman year, everyone was like, oh, there's like the big debate of which is the best coffee spot. It's like, it's between here and Kru and Uncommon. I was like, ‘No, for sure this place wins because this place has got the best coffee.'”
McGuire and her parents stopped at Coffee Traders on her first tour of the college, a year before she was a student, and she’s been coming back ever since.
McGuire continued, “There's definitely been mornings before like midterms or like a performance, like where I'm just like, ‘OK, we're gonna go into town. We're gonna get coffee here, and then we're gonna run back’ and my friends—I'll be like, I don't have a car, I'll be like, I'll make my friends. I'll be like, ‘Guys, we're going to Coffee Traders.’ And they're like, ‘do we have to?’ I'm like, ‘Yes, we're going to Coffee Traders.’”
Jeff Snyder, a Detroit native who moved here in May, fell in love with the shop, its customers, and its baristas.
“Well, it's gonna dramatically affect my daily routine of coming to grab coffee and a bagel and say hi to all the amazing people that work here," said Snyder. "But I don't know. I think it will just be definitely, like a little missing piece of this Saratoga that I've been able to experience.”
Some regulars were unaware of the impending closure. Charlotte Folley lives in Ballston Spa and works just a block away at Pipers Boutique. In line Sunday, she noticed the wall to wall sign where regulars have been leaving messages to Coffee Traders staff.
“It's closing? What?" Folley asked. "Why? Why are they doing that? Oh my god. No. How am I gonna get my coffee?”
Die-hard Coffee Trader fans will still be able to get their fix; a new location is opening in Schenectady in November. But for Folley, that’s a bit out of the way.
“I can't just walk down the road anymore. Oh, no. Wait, no, seriously, why are they closing?”
Coffee Traders’ founder and current owner Scott Swedish declined an interview, but has said in the past he plans on returning to Saratoga Springs.
While it remains unclear exactly why the location is closing, Swedish has publicly feuded with Death Wish Coffee Company, which was founded in the basement of Coffee Traders in 2012 by Mike Brown who had, at one point, owned the local coffee spot.
Death Wish Coffee went national four years later after winning a Super Bowl ad slot.
“Tonight, we drink in the halls of Valhalla! Row, awaken, and welcome death. Death Wish Coffee.”
According to a collection of Facebook posts made on Swedish’s account, Death Wish Coffee has cut ties with the Saratoga Springs store, and its products can no longer be found in Coffee Traders.
Death Wish Coffee did not immediatley respond to a request for comment.
Grace Farone has been working at Coffee Traders for four years, and is sad to say goodbye to the job she loves. While she’ll be working at the Schenectady location for a few weeks, it won’t be permanent.
“I don't think I've fully processed that we're still closing. It's just very unfortunate, out of the blue, and this building has been here for like 16 years. So, it’s like ‘why now?’ And yeah, like I said, I haven't really processed it. It's just like, my mind’s kind of blown. I've been trying so hard not to get emotional and just, like it hurts.”
Beth McClain has been coming in for her post-yoga caffeine fix for years.
“I'm absolutely devastated." McClain continued, "this is one of the first places I came when I moved to Saratoga seven years ago, and they're so warm and welcoming. And they always let me bring my dog in. And it's just so sad.”
Her dog, Betty the Saint Bernard, is no small accommodation for the staff to make.
“160 pound dog. They always offer her a pup cup," said McClain. "I always declined. She really is on a diet. And then she always hits her head on that shelf. And one day she'll learn, or I guess not because they're closing so she's not going to learn.”
Betty was too distraught to comment.
