Where To Find Our Coffee Around Cincinnati/NKY: Café Edition
If you're a regular reader of our blog, you might remember a similarly titled post last summer that highlighted restaurants who brew Carabello Coffee. (New here or need a refresher? Read the first post along with this one!) While local restaurants account for a substantial quantity of the wholesale coffee we roast each week, Cincinnati area and Northern Kentucky cafés actually exceed them in number!
We love that we not only get to help you drink good coffee in our Newport café but in other cafés run by wonderful people around our city. Let's help you get to know them a bit better—and make sure to check them out if you happen to live nearby!
Velocity Bike & Bean
Carabello first started with Velocity back in 2011. They’d just opened and Justin & Emily Carabello had recently purchased their very first commercial roaster and needed a place to put it. They had only 2 months to get it out of where it had been living and find a new home for it—and nothing was turning up. One Sunday when reading the Kentucky Enquirer newspaper, Emily saw that a new coffee shop opened up called Velocity Bike & Bean. She said to Justin, “We should call them up and ask if we can put our roaster in their shop.” After one meeting, to Justin & Emily’s great surprise, owners Mark and Lisa Ball said yes. It was a 10x10 space. So they started using Carabello Coffee at that time—they’ve been using our coffee and selling our bags the longest of anyone! “It’s a really special relationship,” said Justin Carabello.
Velocity is located in Florence, Kentucky, which is about 17 miles southwest of our shop in Newport. They’ve been in the same location for 14 years! However, recently they acquired more space and were able to double their seating. Community is one of Velocity’s biggest strengths—they are a true community hub. This has a lot to do with Mark being a continuous presence in that space. They also have a really strong seasonal drink program with highly creative menus, and they regularly feature coffees from a variety of local and out-of-state roasters.
We began sourcing and roasting a proprietary espresso just for them last summer, so this truly valued relationship continues to grow! If you haven’t been to Velocity, we highly recommend making a visit.
Caffe Vivace
Travel just a bit south of Velocity and you’ll come across Enlightenment Coffee, owned by Mary and Rob Grenke. Enlightenment is located in Walton, Kentucky, right next to the Triple Crown Country Club, and has been open for about 6 years. Their shop is a true passion project that they opened as a way to more deeply engage with and invest in the community in Walton. Robert is an auto mechanic by trade who loves to collect and restore classic cars. Mary is in the world of finance and works for Fidelity. Mary has curated the entire coffee program at Enlightenment and has created a lot of the food items on site. Her cinnamon rolls have a cult following.
Enlightenment has served our coffee since they started! They found us because they were searching for a local option and liked our relational approach to doing business—Mary loves developing that point of connection with suppliers like us.
According to Justin Carabello, “Enlightenment has done an excellent job of maintaining a standard of quality in an area dominated by chains and fast food. They survived a Dunkin being built right next to them in addition to weathering the economic and logistic storm that was Covid.”
If you’re heading down to Louisville or Lexington and need some coffee to fuel your way, Enlightenment would be a great stop on your trip!
Little Spoon Bakery & Café
Little Spoon is located within the shopping and dining hub Newport on the Levee, which sits right on the banks of the Ohio River. We started working with Little Spoon in the summer of 2020 when they operated out of just a small kiosk outside the main building! Since that time they've moved into a much bigger space, as you can see from the photo above. Little Spoon serves our coffee and our café sells their infamous (at least to us) blueberry muffins! It's definitely a match made in...Newport, KY. ;)
Coffee Cup Overflowing
Our relationship with Coffee Cup Overflowing started because their manager at the time was a regular in our shop when he was down in the Newport area. David would come and hang out at the Analog Bar, so we got to know him as a regular and a genuine coffee enthusiast. Coffee Cup Overflowing was really wanting to improve their coffee quality as the roaster they were getting coffee from at the time was roasting a mid-grade coffee with no traceability. Thanks to David (who later became our café’s manager), they started using our coffee in October 2021.
As Justin Carabello explains it, “We did a lot, especially early on, to help them improve their quality. We did an audit to help them improve in equipment updates, water, better drink recipes, and training, etc. We helped them reset their whole menu—in terms of getting proper drink ratios—retrained their staff, and invested a lot in them to help them up their overall quality. They really care a lot there!” Coffee Cup Overflowing is located in Fairfield Township, Ohio. It’s a great place to connect with the local people if you’re ever up that way!
Kala Coffeehouse
Kala Coffeehouse was birthed in 2017 out of a church in Mason, OH called Axis Christian Church. They purchased a pretty big building and decided to make part of it a big crossfit gym and part of it a coffee shop. From the outside it doesn’t scream “there’s a quality coffee shop here,” but inside they’ve done a great job making it a cozy coffee shop that has a good food program.
When Kala reached out to us in 2023, they were doing great but wanted to have more investment and training in their staff. “Part of Kala’s ethos is that they donate their tips to charity, so they wanted more of a connection to a roaster who is in line with the idea of creating impact in the supply chain,” said Justin Carabello. We’re coming up on two good years with them! Check them out next time you’re in Mason!
Roaming Joe
One of our newer wholesale customers is a mobile coffee experience owned by Adam Doty and his wife Shannon. Adam is a military vet and is really going for it with his coffee venture. He got a small horse trailer fitted out and is as grassroots as you can get. He sets up at local events and has been invited to park in neighborhoods. Adam is endeavoring to bring a cafe quality experience out to the people and doing a great job! He found us and got the conversation going, so in April 2025 we dove in and started training with him. He allowed us to teach him more and saw an immediate result, which led to him purchasing our coffee. We’ve been happy to help him out with referrals for events in order to help push things his way! He was recently named Best Coffee by local publication Cincinnati CityBeat, so you could say his setup in combo with some high quality coffee ;) is working!
Georgie's Walk Up
Co-owners Adam Cameron and Channy Chhay started their walk up window in October of 2025. They reached out to us when they suddenly found themselves in need of a new coffee vendor. We were happy to jump in and help their new coffee venture! Georgie’s Walk Up is located in University Heights, which is in Clifton, right by the University of Cincinnati. It’s a great place to stop if you’re a student or work in the medical field! (Or just happen to be passing through Clifton!)
Unataza
Unataza is a Honduran coffee shop in Dayton, Kentucky started by Alejandra Flores. As a native Honduran, Alejandra focuses on all Honduran coffees in her cafe, as well as female producers. We started working with Unataza in November 2025. We source and roast a proprietary espresso just for them, as well as a dark roast. Check it out next time you’re in the Bellevue/Dayton, KY area!
That wraps it up for our current café customers! We have a fair amount of other wholesale customers that don't fit into the restaurant or café category, and we just wanted to make sure to give them a mention: PL Marketing, Scenario Learning, Kreller Group, Federal Supply, Hazelfield Farms, Holland Roofing, Neat Suites, Party Source, Willis Graves Bed & Breakfast, Blue Ash YMCA, and various farmers markets such as Newtown Farm Market.
Basically, Carabello Coffee is in many of the places you are every day! Be on the lookout or just come see us at our Newport café for a guaranteed sighting. ;)