Magpie Coffee

What Magpie Coffee does

Magpie Café & Coffeehouse is a single-location, family-owned independent café founded in 1996 in downtown Decorah, Iowa, currently operating at 202 West Water Street with 9 employees. The business serves scratch-made coffee and espresso drinks, baked goods, breakfast, and lunch items to local Decorah residents and Luther College students, and is self-described as "Decorah's Original Café & Coffeehouse." Operating hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 7:30 AM to 2:00 PM, with the kitchen closing at 1:30 PM, indicating a deliberately constrained service window.

The core product surface is the in-house menu, supplemented by three auxiliary revenue streams: catering and event services (with a dedicated catering booklet), online ordering via the ToastTab platform for takeout, and gift cards sold through ToastTab with an 18-month inactivity expiration. There is no proprietary technology stack; the digital infrastructure is limited to a website hosted by Nordic Technologies LLC, ToastTab for commerce, and Google Docs/PDF for menu distribution. No mobile app, API, or AI/ML capability is present.

Revenue is generated entirely through direct-to-consumer in-person sales, supplemented by transaction-based online ordering and event catering. The business has no institutional funding, no parent company, and operates as a family-owned entity with ownership held by Kelsey (since 2018, purchased from her mother Kathleen) and her husband Paul. The café has navigated two material shocks — a 2020–2021 pandemic disruption and a fire — and remains in operation. Customer concentration is structurally high, with revenue tied to a single location and a single small-town market that includes one college campus.

Name

Magpie Coffee

Legal name

Magpie Café & Coffeehouse

Website

https://mymagpiecoffee.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1996

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Magpie Café & Coffeehouse is a family-owned, single-location café founded in 1996 in downtown Decorah, Iowa, serving scratch-made coffee, drinks, baked goods, breakfast, and lunch to local residents and Luther College students. Revenue is supplemented by ToastTab online ordering, catering, and gift cards.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Specialty Coffee Shop & Café

NAICS

Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars (722515), Limited-Service Restaurants (722513)

SIC

Retail-Eating & Drinking Places (5810), Retail-Eating Places (5812)

akta.pro primary industry

Independent Neighborhood Cafes (THAFADAC)

akta.pro secondary industry

Specialty Coffee Shops (Single-Origin, Third-Wave) (THAFADAA)

Keywords

• Specialty coffee shop
• Café and coffeehouse
• Scratch-made bakery
• Event catering services
• Breakfast and lunch

Headquarters

HQ city

Decorah

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. Café Food and Beverage Sales: In-person sales of coffee, drinks, breakfast, lunch items, and baked goods directly to walk-in customers at the Decorah location.
2. Online Ordering/Takeout: Online order placement through ToastTab platform for takeout orders, generating transaction-based revenue.
3. Catering and Events: Catering services for events and venues, providing food and beverage for groups.
4. Gift Cards: Gift card sales with expiration after 18 months of inactivity, providing upfront cash flow.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Magpie Café & Coffeehouse runs a single-location café in downtown Decorah, Iowa, serving scratch-made coffee, espresso drinks, baked goods, breakfast, and lunch to walk-in customers. The café supplements in-house dining with online takeout ordering via ToastTab, gift card sales, and catering services for local events and venues. The entire offering is anchored at one physical storefront on West Water Street.

Product overview

Magpie Café & Coffeehouse operates as a single-location café offering in-house dining of coffee, drinks, baked goods, breakfast, and lunch items. The business provides supplementary services including online ordering via Toasttab platform, catering and event venue services, and gift cards. No multi-product platform architecture exists; all offerings are centered around the physical café location at 202 West Water Street, Decorah, Iowa.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• In-House Café Menu (Coffee, Drinks, Baked Goods, Breakfast, and Lunch) Food and beverage menu offered at the 202 West Water Street café, including coffee and espresso drinks, baked goods, breakfast items, and lunch items prepared in-house. Sold directly to walk-in customers during Wednesday–Sunday operating hours (7:30 AM–2:00 PM, kitchen closes 1:30 PM).
• Catering and Event Venue Services Catering menu and event venue services for private gatherings, meetings, and events, providing Magpie's scratch-made food and beverages for groups in the Decorah area.
• Gift Cards Online gift card program available for purchase through the ToastTab platform; gift cards expire after 18 months of inactivity and can be redeemed at the Decorah café.
• Online Ordering via ToastTab Digital online ordering service for takeout orders, enabling customers to place and pay for pickup orders through the ToastTab platform.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Ruby Coffee Roasters: Wisconsin-based specialty roaster with an accompanying neighborhood café serving scratch food; shares the small-town/third-wave positioning and Midwest specialty café format with Magpie.
• Anodyne Coffee Roasters: Minneapolis independent third-wave roaster and café operator serving a Midwestern neighborhood with scratch food and specialty coffee; directly comparable to Magpie's neighborhood café-plus-specialty-coffee model.
• Quasdorf's Delicatessen & Coffeehouse: Long-standing independent coffeehouse and deli in downtown Decorah, Iowa; the closest direct local competitor serving a similar community-gathering use case with coffee and scratch food.
• One Magnificent Morning (OMM) Cafe & Bakery: Boutique independent café and bakery concept; exemplifies the small-format community-bakery-meets-coffee use case that Magpie similarly targets, operating in a comparable independent neighborhood niche.

Broad incumbents

• Caribou Coffee: Upper Midwest specialty coffee chain and broader incumbent in the regional coffee shop category; competes for the same morning-daypart traffic as Magpie in smaller Midwest markets.
• Stone Creek Coffee: Milwaukee-based specialty roaster operating its own retail cafés across the Midwest; comparable in offering roasted specialty coffee alongside a full café menu in a similar regional footprint.
• Dunn Bros Coffee: Minnesota-based franchise specialty coffee chain with small-town locations across the Midwest; competes for similar coffee-and-baked-goods occasions among local residents and college communities.

Emerging players

• Colectivo Coffee: Wisconsin-based specialty coffee roaster and multi-location café operator; Magpie's current coffee supplier and the place where owner Kelsey trained, making it a directly relevant third-wave specialty peer.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/magpie-coffee

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 Magpie Coffee