The 806 Experiment: A Collaborative Business Model For Peddler Coffee and Koliyan

Fresh on the heels of the news that one Philly food collaboration is changing gears, another one is just gearing up. In a little storefront at 806 South 6th Street, where East Passyunk hits Catharine, Peddler Coffee and Koliyan Cambodian Desserts have opened up shop. Though early rumors labeled the space a coffee shop, and though there is frequently cold brew and coffee beans available for sale (through online pre-order), the space is resolutely more collaborative than that.

Part coffee shop, part certified kitchen, and part gathering place, the space, shared by Peddler’s Zachary James Urbanski and Richard Kessler, and Koliyan’s Moulika Anna Hitchens, houses both businesses. Currently, it serves as a depot for Peddler’s two custom-built, hand pump coffee bicycles and slow drippers, as well as the kitchen where Hitchens cooks up the riffs on her grandmother’s Cambodian desserts that we first tried at the Franklin Flea.

The group met and became friends working at Merion’s now-shuttered Town Hall Coffee. Even then they discussed collaborating on a space to house their entrepreneurial aspirations. When, earlier this year, they saw an ad on Craigslist advertising the space at 806 they decided to take the plunge together, signing a lease in April.

Though the space is largely production-focused at the moment they plan, once it gets too chilly for Peddler to be hitting the road every day, to bring the focus back in to the space itself. Classes, pot-lucks, tasting parties… It’ll be interesting to see what this experiment yields.

Peddler Coffee [Official]
Koliyan [Official]