- Torrefazione Italia
Torrefazione Italia café first opened in
Seattle, Washington , in 1986.Espresso ,coffee and baked goods were served in their cafés.Umberto Bizzari, Torrefazione's founder teamed up with Stewart Brother's Coffee (later renamed Seattle's Best Coffee) founder, Jim Stewart in the mid eighties to create Seattle Coffee Holdings. This new company built a more modern roasterie on Vashon Island, Washington in 1995 and manufactured Seattle's Best Coffee and Torrefazione Italia Coffee. Seattle Coffee Holdings was purchased in 1998 by AFC Enterprises and renamed Seattle Coffee Company.
Torrefazione Italia expanded to other cities in North America, notably,
Vancouver BC , theSan Francisco Bay Area , Portland,Boston ,Chicago , andDallas . Their coffees are also wholesaled to restaurants, hotels, bakeries and cafés.Starbucks , another Seattle-based coffee company, purchased Torrefazione Italia along withSeattle's Best Coffee in 2003. Starbucks announced in 2005 that all 17 Torrefazione Italia cafés would be closed before the end of the year.All of the San Francisco retail locations were closed on 27 October 2005.
* [http://www.titalia.com/site/default.aspx Official site]
* [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002335093_coffee14.html Starbucks shutting its Torrefazione coffee bars]
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