Fair Trade Cafe

What Fair Trade Cafe does

Fair Trade Cafe is an independently owned, single-location specialty café operating at 1020 North 1st Avenue in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. The business is privately held, owner-operated by Stephanie Vasquez, and has between 11 and 50 employees. It is open seven days a week from 7AM to 7PM and serves shade-grown, organic fair-trade coffee, an assortment of in-house baked pastries, artisan hand-crafted ice cream, breakfast and lunch sandwiches, wraps, soups, salads, smoothies, and a small menu of house specialty drinks such as Cafe Helado and The Phoenix. Pricing for individual items spans roughly $1.25 for cookies up to about $13.25 for signature sandwiches, with specialty coffee drinks concentrated in the $3-$6 range.

The core revenue model is direct-to-consumer retail: counter-served dine-in and takeout purchases from walk-in customers, supplemented by online pickup orders routed through a ToastTab integration on the company website. Two ancillary streams layer professional-services economics on top of the retail base — quote-based catering for groups of 10 to 300 covering corporate events, birthdays, holidays, and weddings, and venue rental for private gatherings of roughly 15 to 50 guests. The cafe also runs a monthly rotating local artist gallery program in partnership with the Downtown Artists Collective, functioning as both a community differentiator and a foot-traffic generator rather than a direct revenue line.

Underlying technology is a stack of third-party SaaS platforms rather than proprietary systems: ToastTab for point-of-sale and online ordering, SpotHopper for website design, social media marketing, and email marketing, Restaurant Guru for reservation listings, and standard social channels (Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram) plus Yelp for review-driven acquisition. Certifications include Arizona Green Business (Local First Arizona) and Platinum Phoenix Green Business Leader, plus WCAG Level AA accessibility compliance on the website. There is no evidence of external equity investment, additional locations, franchising, or institutional ownership; the company is structured as a bootstrapped, founder/owner-operated local retail and event-services business with all revenue dependent on a single physical address.

Name

Fair Trade Cafe

Legal name

Fair Trade Cafe

Website

https://azfairtrade.com

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Fair Trade Cafe is a single-location specialty café in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, serving shade-grown organic fair-trade coffee, in-house bakery items, sandwiches, and ice cream to walk-in retail customers, with ancillary catering and private event hosting services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Specialty Coffee Shop

NAICS

Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars (722515)

SIC

Retail-Eating & Drinking Places (5810)

akta.pro primary industry

Cafe-Bakeries (Coffee + Pastry Focus) (THAFADAG)

Keywords

• Specialty coffee shop
• Fair trade coffee
• Cafe catering services
• Artisan bakery pastries
• Private event venue

Headquarters

HQ city

Phoenix

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Supply Chain, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Food and Beverage Retail: One-time transaction sales of coffee, specialty drinks, smoothies, baked goods, breakfast sandwiches, soups, salads, and hot/cold sandwiches served at the counter for dine-in or takeout.
2. Catering Services: Catering packages offered for birthday parties, holiday parties, corporate events, and wedding festivities. Minimum 10 people, maximum 300 people. Budget range per person is quoted based on event requirements.
3. Private Event Hosting: Venue rental for gatherings of 15-50 people, accommodating corporate or social occasions with advance reservations.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Fair Trade Cafe is a single-location coffee shop in Downtown Phoenix, Arizona that retails shade-grown, organic fair-trade coffee and specialty beverages alongside an in-house bakery, artisan hand-crafted ice cream, and a full breakfast/lunch food menu served at the counter or for online pickup. The cafe extends its offering through event catering (10-300 guests), private gathering hosting (15-50 guests), a rotating monthly local art gallery, and community event programming.

Product overview

Fair Trade Cafe is a single-location coffee shop in Downtown Phoenix, Arizona. The business operates as a unified cafe offering rather than a platform architecture. Its core product portfolio centers on shade-grown, organic fair-trade coffee and specialty beverages (including specialty coffee drinks, house specialties like Cafe Helado and The Phoenix, and smoothies), complemented by an in-house bakery producing fresh pastries daily, artisan hand-crafted ice cream, and a full food menu featuring breakfast sandwiches, hot/cold sandwiches, wraps, soups, and salads. Additional revenue streams include catering services for events (birthday parties, corporate events, weddings) and group gathering reservations for 8-50 guests. The cafe also hosts a monthly rotating local art gallery featuring Phoenix-area artists, and maintains an online ordering system via Toast Tab for pickup orders.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Specialty Coffee Shade-grown, organic fair-trade coffee beverages including espresso, lattes, mochas, cold brew, americanos, cappuccinos, cafe au lait, and additional sizes/options for in-store and online pickup orders.
• House Specialty Beverages Signature house-created beverages including Cafe Helado (ice cream blended with cold brew), The Phoenix, Jefita drinks, Black Magic Woman, and Gueritta beverages, served at the counter in 16oz, 20oz, and 24oz sizes.
• Smoothies Fresh fruit and health-focused smoothies in flavors including Finikera Fresca, Desert Sunrise, Chica Fresa, and Copper Citrus, with optional add-ins of flax, chia, protein, or peanut butter.
• Non-Coffee Beverages Tea (hot/iced), chai, cocoa, milk, Italian soda, organic lemonade, orange juice, and matcha offered alongside the coffee menu.
• In-House Bakery Freshly baked pastries, cookies, bagels, and croissants made daily in-house and sold at the counter.
• Breakfast Sandwiches and Burritos Morning items including breakfast bagels, breakfast croissants, steel cut oatmeal, breakfast burritos, and chorizo breakfast plates.
• Hot and Cold Sandwiches, Wraps, Soups and Salads Lunch items including the Fair Trade Cuban Panini, Truffled Grilled Cheese, BLT, Smoked Salmon Bagel, Turkey Wrap, Turkey Sandwich, Soup of the Moment, and House Salad.
• Artisan Hand-Crafted Ice Cream Hand-crafted artisan ice cream available as a standalone treat at the counter or blended into specialty drinks such as the Cafe Helado.
• Catering Services Catering packages for birthday parties, holiday parties, corporate events, and wedding festivities, accommodating a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 300 people with quote-based per-person pricing.
• Private Event and Group Gathering Hosting Venue rental and hosting for groups of 15-50 people, accommodating both corporate and social gatherings with food and beverage service.

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• ToastTabcoreTechnology or IntegrationOnline ordering and point-of-sale platform integration enabling customers to place pickup orders through the Fair Trade Cafe website.
• Downtown Artists CollectivecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerArt curation partnership led by Philip Talarico that organizes monthly artist spotlight exhibitions featuring local Phoenix-area artists at the cafe.
• Restaurant GuruminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorRestaurant discovery and reservation platform listing Fair Trade Cafe and enabling table reservations.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Cartel Coffee Lab: Arizona specialty roaster and cafe operator with a strong focus on direct-trade sourcing and cafe experience. Comparable to Fair Trade Cafe on coffee sourcing ethos, single-origin focus, and cafe-led retail.
• Press Coffee Roasters: Phoenix-based specialty coffee roaster and cafe operator with multiple locations across the metro. Directly comparable as a local specialty-coffee and food competitor serving the same downtown-adjacent Phoenix customer base.
• Giant Coffee: Phoenix specialty coffee shop known for pour-overs and a curated cafe experience. Comparable as a downtown-area Phoenix indie cafe competing for similar craft-coffee and community customers.
• Songbird Coffee: Phoenix indie coffee shop referenced by Fair Trade Cafe's own Yelp reviewers as a comparable local cafe. Directly comparable as a small, quality-focused Phoenix coffee shop competing for similar local customers.
• Lola Coffee: Phoenix-based specialty coffee roaster and cafe with a food menu. Directly comparable as a Phoenix indie specialty-coffee-and-food concept serving similar cafe customers.

Broad incumbents

• Stumptown Coffee Roasters: Established specialty coffee roaster and cafe operator with direct-trade sourcing and food programs. Comparable as a larger incumbent in the ethically-sourced specialty cafe category.
• Starbucks: Global coffee and food retailer with extensive cafe and bakery offerings. Comparable as a broad incumbent competitor for general coffee, bakery, and catering demand in downtown Phoenix.
• Peet's Coffee: Large national coffee chain with a deep food and bakery program. Comparable as a broad incumbent competing for cafe, bakery, and catering customers in the same category.
• Blue Bottle Coffee: National specialty coffee and cafe brand with strong design and direct-trade positioning. Comparable as a broader incumbent in the cafe-bakery / specialty coffee category where Fair Trade Cafe also competes.

Emerging players

• Provision Coffee: Phoenix-area specialty coffee operator with cafe locations and a roasting program. Comparable as a growing regional specialty coffee concept overlapping with Fair Trade Cafe's craft-coffee positioning.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/FairTradeCafeAZ
• Facebookfacebook.com/azfairtrade
• Instagraminstagram.com/fairtradecafeaz
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/fair-trade-cafe

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Fair Trade Cafe