The Buzz on a Major Coffee Enterprise

Local real estate and business developer Joseph Grasso has completed his purchase of the Atlanta-based Saxbys Coffee Worldwide L.L.C. The coffee headquarters is moving to Center City, where a mock up coffee shop will be used to train managers and potential franchise owners. Saxby’s is Philadelphia’s second gourmet-coffee headquarters. Massimo Taurisano and his wife Carrie Lapp bought the Philadelphia Coffee Co. earlier this year, which also distributes Hausbrandt, the high-end Italian coffee. Grasso plans to grow the "anti-Starbucks" Saxbys to 150 stores in the Greater Philadelphia region alone and then 750 stores nationally within seven years.