Deeper Roots Coffee
Left to right: Courtney Robinson, Les Stoneham, Jon Lewis, Ryan Doan, Adam Shaw
Prior to having cafes, Deeper Roots Coffee started as a wholesale coffee sourcing and roasting company dedicated to creating the shortest distance possible between coffee at origin and its final destination in the US. Though their company has grown exponentially since their establishment, their values haven’t budged a bit.
Deeper Roots was founded by Les Stoneham (CEO), Adam Shaw (Director of Coffee), Courtney Robinson (Director of Human Resources & Operations), and Ryan Doan (Director of Sales and Customer Support), and a few years later, Jon Lewis (Director of Community Engagement) joined the ownership team. “He was the fifth Beatle,” Les says.
Ownership teams with five or more individuals isn’t uncommon in restaurant groups and the like, Courtney points out. “We’re very fortunate to be interested in and talented at a nice variety of things that do balance each other,” Courtney says. “There are things these guys do that I could never do in a million years. But for an active ownership structure, it gives us reprieve from [any one person] having to be responsible for everything.”
Having active ownership and delineated roles has allowed them to grow quickly, something that may not have been possible without the expertise, opinions, and advocacy of five different people. “I wouldn’t want it any other way,” Ryan says. “We built a foundation initially, even with the first roasting equipment and the way we were doing all things, it was sort of engineered to be bigger than a normal mom and pop startup.”
As they continue to grow, many things stay the same at Deeper Roots, like their commitment to quality and giving back to their communities. But naturally, other things change. They are working with the largest staff they’ve ever had, upwards of 60 people across their shops, and more of their full-time employees are seeking to grow their careers within Deeper Roots. And recently, they underwent a complete brand overhaul with the help of Edelmade.
“A couple of years ago, we really started putting gas on the marketing side of things. We were just getting to that point as a company where we could finally buy [coffee] how we wanted to. We were really buckling down on training baristas. And it’s not that the branding was broken, but it was still a remnant of the previous administration,” Adam says.
Edelmade pulled in tons of colors and textures that honor the identity of Deeper Roots Coffee, while connecting all the lobes of the business–wholesale, training, cafes, education–through intuitive design. You’ll notice trailing root decals on each shops’ windows, vibrant color stories on their bags of coffee that double as color coding based on origin (a recycled idea from the previous brand), and fresh new digital graphics across the board. “They really ran with it, and pleasantly surprised us,” Ryan says.
When brands grow, there’s a natural loss of control that happens, where the public tells you what your brand means to them, which ultimately shapes the brand itself. Each of the four Deeper Roots Coffee locations have a distinctive vibe. The inaugural cafe in Oakley, founded in 2015, is cozy, communal and has become a true third place for the regular customers there. The Findlay Market cafe is in its 7th year, and it has established itself as a community mainstay where friends meet to catch up, neighbors zip in and out for a quick cup of coffee before work, and fellow Findlay Market vendors stop by for a pick me up.
“Authenticity is big for us. Our spaces are really open and accessible, nothing is behind a curtain. We were going off of the Findlay Market idea that we’re all shopping to bring food home and cook it together. Our space was really intended toward that engagement,” Les says. “It feels like you’re walking into a really nice kitchen where you can sit down at a really nice table and learn about coffee.”
Beyond creating spaces for the community to enjoy, Deeper Roots Coffee has been committed to investing in the communities it touches from day one. In 2020, Deeper Roots introduced a Community Give Back program to expand their commitment to supporting their communities, both locally and globally. “The disruption of that year made a lot of people wonder how we are connected, or what we’re doing to remain connected. For us that extends pretty broadly,” Jon says.
One dollar from each bag of Community Blend you purchase gets split in half—50 cents goes to a local non-profit organization in Cincinnati, 50 cents goes to an international project in a coffee-growing region. Current sales from Community Blend are collecting funds for the East African School of Coffee and My Cincinnati.
“We already had a coffee called Community Blend, so it only made sense to use that coffee, which people already buy and already enjoy, as a vehicle for positive impact on the communities that we participate in,” Jon says.
Published: April 2025