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Green Line Cafe Coming to Center City

Posted by Foobooz on September 22nd, 2012

Effective October 1st, West Philadelphia’s well-liked Green Line Cafe will be taking over the operation of Cafe Loftus on 15th between Walnut and Sansom Streets. Cafe Loftus proprietor Chris Gabello is bowing out to concentrate on his growing commercial photography business.

This is the fourth cafe storefront for Green Line Cafe owners Daniel Thut and Douglas Witmer. There other locations are at 43rd and Baltimore, 44th and Locust and 37th and Lancaster Avenue. They also operate a coffee kiosk inside Penn’s veterinary hospital.

There won’t be extensive physical changes to the 15th and Moravian location but there will be Green Line’s grab-n-go sandwiches. Green Line will also be bringing in certified organic and fair-trade coffees roasted by Equal Exchange.

Green Line Cafe [Official Site]

Cafe Loftus
136 S 15th St, Philadelphia, PA

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    • Some girl

      I wonder if they’ll serve the same watery, stale-tasting coffee they serve in their West Philly locations.

    • D. Dolphin

      Yeah, this is unfortunate. The coffee is terrible, the pastries even worse.

    • Coffeelover

      I am so excited about this! I travel the world for my job n very few cafes in Paris, Berlin and NY have such good lattes and pastries! It’s all fresh, organic, fair trade and delicious. Now I can dream they’ll eventually open up a cafe closer to my home.

    • Zachary Reese

      Gross. This is *literally* the worst thing that could happen to Philadelphia.

    • Brian

      I’ve grown quite a soft spot for Loftus. What will become of those incredible scones?

    • Alex

      Yes, please don’t lose the incredible scones!Great people at Loftus too, with zero attitude. Just friendly people making great coffee and treats.

    • no

      I lived in the university city area for quite a few years, and I never had a problem with Green Line myself. Their pastries come from Four Worlds Bakery.

    • Chloe

      This is terrible news! Loftus was one of my all-time favorite cafes– their scones were out of this world, as was the smell they produced. The atmosphere and the coffee will be sorely missed!

    • Jon

      What a drag. Green Slime offers some of the crappiest coffee in a dull environment. Loftus was such a friendly, airy, easy going place, with delicious snacks and delicious coffee. This is a definite step backwards.

      Looks like I’ll be going to Elixr from here on out.

    • Chris

      Funny we all have different experiences. The 3-4 times I went to Loftus, I definitely felt like there attitude. Not as bad as La Colombe, but headed down that path…
      No big deal, good luck to all.

    • MNL

      There are still too few veg & vegan options in Center City, especially of a to-go variety. The Steve and its sandwich -buds would be great to find in more places.

    • Chip

      Dunno…I’ve been to Green Line a few times over the years and I always found it to be pretty solid coffee and very nice folks behind the counter. I’ll stop in to the new one.

    • http://www.greenlinecafe.com Douglas Green Line

      Hey there. We know Cafe Loftus has a terrific loyal following! We’re looking forward to meeting you all beginning Monday. This is a great opportunity for us and we want to make the best of it. On the staffing front, we’re bringing in our own manager named Ezra. Ezra formerly managed Capogiro on Passyunk. We’re also bringing on a barista named Bobby. Bobby formerly operated Strange Brew coffeehouse in South Philly. We think they’re both incredible and we hope you do, too. Additionally, we invited the rest of the current Loftus staff to interview with us if they wanted to do so. Three of the current staff responded and we’re happy to say we’re keeping them all on. The two big changes for Monday will be: 1) The coffee. Our house coffee is a single-source Vienna roast grown in the Andes Mountains of Peru. Through our roaster we have been able to form a personal relationship with the community the grows the coffee. 2) A new cash register system. It’s a computer-based POS. It’s pretty simple, but this coming week the staff will be adjusting to it. Related to the legendary scones. Unfortunately, it looks like they are, in fact, the stuff of legend. :( Loftus actually discontinued the scones nearly two months ago when the baker left. We work with Four Worlds Bakery, and you’ll see their incredible croissants (Butter, Almond, Chocolate, and Goat Cheese) next week. Four Worlds also produces perhaps the best soft pretzel in the city. We do some of our own baking, too, and will be phasing in unique items we produce that get great response in our other cafes. Look for the variety of offerings to increase dramatically! Finally, even though this is to be our fourth cafe storefront, if you’ve ever met me or my business partner/brother-in-law Dan, or talked to any of our staff, you know the way we roll is anything but “corporate.” That’s partly why we’ve had such a great relationship with Chris Gabello over the years and why he asked us to keep the coffee flowing at 15th/Moravian. Thanks and see you soon!