North Aurora just got more caffeinated.
And creative. And communal. And fill in the blank with any number of other buzzy adjectives.
Jubilee Roasting Co., a new coffee shop, roastery and creative space at 1452 Kenton St., officially opened for business Tuesday following nearly 10 months of build-out and perfecting its bean-baking process.
“We’re right where we need to be,” Peter Wanberg, owner and head roaster at Jubilee, said of the space’s first day of business. “We’re getting through that break-in period.”
Boasting more than 2,000 square feet of space, Jubilee is the fruit of Wanberg’s vision to create a community gathering place where neighborhood artists and residents can sip brew yielded from beans he carefully selects from exporters across North and South America.
“The hope is that this is not only going to be a resource for us at Jubilee, but a resource for the community and the neighborhood,” Wanberg said in an October interview. “We want it to be a resource for the people around here — and not just the people who look like me, but a variety of people.”
And while cash registers only started chinging at ZIP code 80010’s newest creative hub this week, a growing band of artists have been staking out studio spaces inside of the revamped building for the past several months.
Wanberg has developed six 80-square-foot studio spaces inside Jubilee for artists to rent on a monthly basis. Currently, four of the six prefabricated spaces are being rented out to a painter, a photographer, a leather worker and fiber artist.
“I never thought I ever really wanted a specific studio space because my impression was that a closed space where I would be by myself would be pretty much no different that my studio at home,” said Sandra Clark, a visual artist who combines textile manipulation and sculpture and is the newest tenant at Jubilee. “But what I love about this space is that it is so open and organic feeling. If I want to sit out front and sip coffee with visitors while embroidering I can do that, and I’ve got much more open communication with the other artists that are here.”
Wanberg said that he plans on leasing a total of about 1,200 square feet of creative space at his Kenton Street spot by offering flex space on the south side of the building that can be rented on a short-term basis to artists interested in developing a specific project.
“There could potentially be three people coming in this month to pursue large projects in the garage, but they’re all short-term so we can keep it available,” Wanberg said.
Apart from the new spaces at Jubilee, the Aurora Cultural Arts District building at 1400 Dallas St. is the only other nearby studio space for artists. Sunrise Studios at 1556 Florence St. has rented about a dozen studios to artists for nearly 20 years, though the building is currently for sale, according to studio owner Walt Weinberg.
In an effort to show off the new Jubilee artistic space, the roastery is hosting a holiday art show and sale Dec. 11 and Dec. 12. The four artist residents at Jubilee and about eight other local creatives will be showcasing and selling their works at discounted rates for the holiday season, according to Wanberg.
“We have a lot of transitional artists who are trying to kind of figure out what the next step is and they’re making a lot of accessible and affordable work,” he said. “You’ll find a lot of sub-$50 things that are really, really unique.”
Wanberg said that Jubilee will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mon. through Fri. and be closed on weekends until demand ramps up. Although, the quality of Jubilee’s beans and brews could spark interest sooner rather than later, according to Austin Coffin, one of the shop’s baristas.
“I think even people really into coffee will be pleasantly surprised to see that Aurora has some good coffee coming out of here,” he said.
Nate Flatland, owner of Mu Brewery at 9735 E. Colfax Ave., said he’s hopeful that Jubilee’s fledging operation will be able to add yet another reason for food, beer and, now, coffee enthusiasts to make the schlep up East Colfax Avenue.
“A coffee shop in this area (will) be fantastic,” Flatland said. “We have the one in the Martin Luther King Jr. Library, but the more the merrier. The more reason people have to come down this side of Colfax, the better.”