K-State business prof knows beans about coffee
Written by Magda Hart Schwartz. Posted on Friday, May 2nd, 2008
Professor Wade Radina believes coffee beans need two days to “recover” from the roasting process. He believes that roasted beans start to lose flavor after 2 weeks.
So at Radina’s Coffeehouse and Roastery in Manhattan, beans are roasted on site two to three times a week and are let to rest for about two days.
At the Aggieville coffee shop, Wade Radina expects to give customers the best coffee and the best service they’ve ever had. And that’s exactly what he gives them.
Since buying the coffee shop from Espresso Royale in 2000, Radina has made it his goal to serve customers the best way he knows how. For him that is offering the highest quality food and drink.
Radina’s motto is “I won’t serve what I won’t eat” and he sticks to it. This is why Radina insists on making real whip cream by hand, using real Ghirardelli chocolate in the chocolate syrup, using flour that is grown and milled in Kansas, and using real butter in the baked goods, he said. He also uses local milk and eggs.
Radina lived in Seattle before he moved to Kansas to attend Kansas State University. He says that, “In Seattle they know good coffee”. As a K-State graduate, he had always thought that Manhattan was lacking when it came to a good coffee shop. At the urging of a business professor Radina made Espresso Royale an offer to buy their store and that’s how it got started.
Radina lives in Manhattan with wife, Annette and two children ages 5 and 9. He considers himself to have a great life which on most days consists of dropping the kids off at school at 7:40am, going to Radina’s Coffeehouse and Roastery with his wife, enjoying some breakfast and being in his K-State office at about 8:30am. He is a professor in the business department.
Radina’s offers a wide variety of baked goods that are made fresh daily down the streets at Bluestem Bistro that Radina also owns. They make scones, cookies, cakes, muffins and much more. They also make bread daily for their unusual sandwiches.
Radina’s personal favorites are the cappuccino royale to drink, any flavor of scone and the grilled mushroom and brie sandwich. Other customer favorites are the lattes, mochas and cappuccinos. The real fruit smoothies are also popular.
“Coffee shops are about the community atmosphere”, said Radina, which is exactly why he wanted to get the coffee shop out of the hands of a national chain. “The business needs to be entwined in the community”.
Radina has incorporated the work of local artists in his décor. Terry Remple makes the unusual pottery mugs, which Radina says, “adds to the coffee experience”.
The roastery, at 616 N. Manhattan, offers coffee beans for $8.25 per pound.
Their website is www.radinascoffee.com and the phone number is 785- 537-2345.
