Coffee lovers bring sense of community to Arcedium in St. Charles

ST. CHARLES – Dennis and Celeste Walker always have had a love for coffee. But their love for the beverage went beyond just drinking it after opening the Arcedium Coffeehouse in January 2009.

After Celeste Walker saw her family’s business sold and Dennis Walker thought about taking an early retirement from the construction business when the market was down, the idea of the Arcedium Coffeehouse “took a life of its own,” said Celeste Walker.

“We were originally going to be a coffee roaster and tea house,” Celeste Walker said. “But we decided to put more of an emphasis on the coffee roasting. It’s pretty amazing the way the coffee roasting industry has exploded since we’ve been in business. It was very, very rare when we first started back in 2009.”

The business, located at 60 Indiana St. in St. Charles, has won the Kane County Chronicle’s Best of the Fox Award for Best Coffeehouse for five years running. The coffeehouse is open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Among the coffee sold at the shop – as well as online at www.arcedium.com – is the House Blend and the Yirgacheffe, which is Ethiopian.

The Yirgacheffe is one of a number of fair trade, organic coffees from around the world that is offered at Arcedium. The roast features pronounced lemon and red berry flavors, a tea-like finish and hints of jasmine and bergamot. The House Blend is a special combination of Ethiopian and Indonesian coffees, blended to create a smooth, chocolaty, earthy body, with subtle blueberry notes.

Celeste Walker, 56, said one of the unique parts about coffee roasting is that the flavors are extracted and brought to the forefront. She does more of the behind-the-scenes work at Arcedium, such as interviews and advertising. She also runs her own full-time law practice, so juggling time can be difficult.

Meanwhile, Dennis Walker, 62, who was born and raised in St. Charles, has always had a passion to do something in the food industry. He handles the day-to-day responsibilities at the business.

“Some people refer to us [as] a restaurant, and while we sell food, we’re very passionate as being identified as a coffee roaster,” said Celeste Walker with a bit of a laugh.

The Walkers said they really don’t have a reason for why they specifically decided to become coffee roasters, other than some research that they did prior to opening their business. After being somewhat mentored by Alterra Coffee Roasters in the Milwaukee area, Dennis Walker and Celeste Walker’s father went to roasting school in Seattle with people from around the world to become certified roasters.

Celeste Walker said she has always thought – before meeting her husband and, even now, after 14 years of marriage – that people who have worked in the building industry have a strong passion for their work. During Arcedium’s years of operation, she said her husband’s work ethic carried over.

“He’s displayed the same passion for this since Day 1,” Celeste Walker said. “He’s had the same passion for our coffee, whether it’s coming up with the perfect profiles or combinations of roasts.”

Opening a small business can be a risk. But Arcedium has connected with customers over the years.

The business has a meeting room for community groups, and it also has helped other small businesses.

And after having a strong turnout during an initial open house for the business years ago, Celeste Walker encountered a local cameraman for a TV news station that came into the shop. Being asked, “Is Washington doing anything for small businesses?” for a broadcast seemed to help the coffeehouse.

“We take a lot of pride – and there is a good amount of humility – that comes from this,” Celeste Walker said. “We’ve been able to do this virtually on our own. ... We have always had the feeling in recent years that the sense of community is very much lost, and that was one of our goals with Arcedium – to bring that back. That has probably been the most rewarding thing since we’ve been in business. We feel as though we have become ‘that place’.”